Some people think SMS marketing is dead.
In truth, almost every SMS marketing report shows it’s precisely the opposite of dead. SMS marketing statistics say this route might be more profitable than ever. For example, 64% of consumers think businesses should contact them more often through SMS.
Therefore, don’t sleep on the mobile phone messaging marketing channel. As it will become apparent from this article, text marketing has incredible untapped potential.
In fact, other channels, such as social media, are not overshadowing regular targeted SMS marketing. Those channels are making people check their phones more, increasing the effectiveness of text marketing. If that isn’t enough to sway your opinion on this channel, the following statistics will.
Top SMS Marketing Statistics at a Glance
- 84% of consumers opted in to receive texts from businesses in 2025, showing rapid adoption of SMS as a marketing channel;
- 66% of businesses use SMS marketing, and 67% plan to increase their budgets, signaling strong growth on the business side;
- 79% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when subscribed to SMS updates, highlighting its direct revenue impact;
- 53% of consumers didn’t get a reply after texting a business, showing a major gap in customer experience;
- SMS conversion rate statistics range from 21% to 30%, reaching up to 40% in some industries, far above most channels;
- Flow-based SMS campaigns achieve ~10% CTR on average, with top performers exceeding 16%.
SMS Marketing Statistics
We’ve gathered the most interesting SMS marketing stats in one place for busy marketers like yourself:
SMS Marketing Adoption & Opt-in Statistics
SMS marketing adoption continues to grow rapidly among both consumers and businesses, with more brands integrating it into their core communication strategies. At the same time, users increasingly expect two-way interactions, making conversational messaging a key part of modern SMS marketing.
- 84% of consumers in 2025 opted in to receive texts from businesses, up 35% since 2021 and up from 79% in 2024;
- According to the most recent SMS marketing usage statistics, 66% of businesses now use SMS marketing, with 67% of them hoping to increase their SMS budgets in 2025;
- 71% of consumers want the ability to text a business back, showing that opt-in is increasingly tied to two-way communication, not just one-way promotions.
SMS Marketing Engagement Statistics
Overall, SMS marketing stats point towards the conclusion that consumers want more businesses to contact them through this channel. Supporting SMS customer preference statistics highlight a clear shift toward SMS as a preferred communication channel.
Even after going in-depth into engagement metrics, it’s evident that they are effective. SMS marketing statistics show that 84% are comfortable receiving SMS messages from brands as long as they opt-in to messaging.
Additionally, 38% of users claim that special offers increase the chances of them opting-in for SMS. Sending promotional offers through this channel has the added benefit of requiring little preparation work, as SMS messages are usually short.
For B2C marketing, SMS is one of the most heavily engaged channels without additional effort. Facebook, Instagram, and other famous avenues for marketing often require building, maintaining, and engaging an audience constantly to retain effectiveness.
SMS usage statistics show that this channel is compelling and engaging – 90 to 98% of people say they open every text they receive, which explains the not-so-surprising click-through rate of 10.66%!
SMS Consumer Behavior Statistics
As SMS continues to shape how consumers interact with brands, it’s clear that this channel directly influences both purchasing behavior and trust. At the same time, how quickly and effectively businesses respond plays a major role in the overall customer experience.
- 79% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when they’re subscribed to a brand’s SMS updates;
- 53% of consumers say they didn’t get a reply after texting a business, showing that response quality strongly affects the customer experience;
- 42% of UK consumers purchase within hours of receiving a text;
- 29% of consumers said SMS marketing strengthens their trust in brands.
SMS Marketing Effectiveness Statistics
As people move away from phone calls, SMS takes preference over every other form of communication. Businesses, especially those in B2B services, have a long-standing love for emails.
However, consumers share different feelings and prefer to receive SMS messages. Consumers are more likely to open text messages before any other form of mobile communication, and recent SMS deliverability rate statistics range between 21% and 40%, reinforcing its effectiveness as a reliable channel.
SMS open rate statistics are unlike any other avenue for marketing. No other channel can brag about 98% open and read rates. However, these text marketing facts should put the final nail in the coffin. There’s no way around it – SMS marketing strategy works and is effective.
Of course, you should always treat SMS marketing campaigns as a part of your entire strategy. However, leaving it out because this channel feels “old-school” or “ineffective” is simply factually incorrect.
Consumers are basically asking you to send them advertisements through this channel. Almost 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when they’re subscribed to a brand’s SMS updates.
Discover how simple SMS marketing can be. Sender gives you the tools to reach your audience affordably and effectively.
SMS Marketing by Industry
Regardless of what industry we look at, all of them can significantly benefit from SMS marketing. SMS response rate statistics are very promising; in some industries, they are nearly unbeatable.
For these reasons, these industries are the primary users of marketing text messages:
- Financial Services
- Education
- Healthcare
- Retail & Fashion
SMS Benchmarks to Compare Your Marketing Efforts Against
Want to know how your SMS marketing campaigns are really performing? It’s time to look beyond vanity metrics and compare your SMS marketing ROI statistics against industry benchmarks.
For example, let’s look at abandoned cart recovery – a SMS campaign performance data goldmine for ecommerce businesses:
- Top-performing SMS programs retain over 90% of subscribers after 30 days, with best-in-class retention reaching 97%–99%.
- Abandoned cart SMS flows generate around $3.07–$3.65 in revenue per recipient, making them one of the highest-performing automated messages;
- Ecommerce SMS programs generate roughly $0.98 (median) to $2.13 (top performers) in revenue per message;
- Flow-based SMS messages achieve click rates around 10% on average, with top performers exceeding 16%;
- Average SMS conversion rates range from 21% to 30%, reaching up to 31%–40% in some industries like technology;
SMS vs. Email Marketing Showdown
Let’s dive into the numbers. SMS marketing lists tend to drive stronger immediate engagement than email lists, and for good reason. SMS continues to outperform email in terms of immediate engagement, with open rates reaching up to 98%, compared to email’s typical 20–30% range.
Click-through rates also show a significant gap, with SMS campaigns averaging around 21–35%* CTR, while email typically sees 1–5% (depending on the industry).
Despite this, email remains a powerful channel, especially for long-form content and nurturing, with many businesses still reporting $36–$42 in ROI for every $1 spent.
Email is preferred for structured updates like order confirmations (54% vs. 24% SMS), shipping notifications (46% vs. 32% SMS), and promotions like coupons (50% vs. 23% SMS) or birthday deals (47% vs. 26% SMS).
However, SMS still plays a key role in timely alerts and quick actions, complementing email for real-time engagement and immediate visibility.
SMS Marketing Market Size & Growth
The mobile technology and commerce world is going through some exciting changes, and it’s all about smartphones and SMS marketing! Between 2017 and 2025, smartphone users globally jumped by roughly 1.5–2 billion, reaching around 5.7–5.8 billion users worldwide.
This rise isn’t just because everyone has a smartphone, however. These devices are becoming a more significant part of our daily lives.
And guess what? This mobile party isn’t stopping anytime soon. By 2026’s global mobile messaging usage statistics, we’re looking at a whopping 7.52 billion mobile users worldwide. There’s much potential for all industries, especially in communication and commerce.
But here’s the real star of the show: SMS marketing. The SMS marketing market in the US is projected to reach around $14–15 billion by 2026, showing continued growth as more businesses adopt direct messaging strategies. Its ability to deliver timely, personalized communication keeps it at the center of modern customer engagement.
Mobile commerce continues to expand. Mobile commerce was projected to account for about 7.4% of total US retail sales in 2024, with mobile already accounting for 44.6% of ecommerce sales last year.
Recent mobile messaging statistics show that globally, nearly 6 billion* people actively use messaging services, highlighting the massive reach and scalability of SMS marketing as a communication channel.
As long as smartphones (or mobile phones in general) are not replaced by something else, SMS and text-based communication will remain king.
People have a preference for keeping mobile devices close to themselves. That unintentionally increases the effectiveness of SMS marketing, as they can nearly always be pinged. As we know from our own experience, we are very likely to check our phones if a notification is received.
Also read:
- 65+ Online Advertising Statistics (Facts and Figures for 2026)
- Automated texting service for your business growth
*Sources:
- https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/how-to-utilize-sms-for-customer-service#why-is-customer-service-important
- https://www.sender.net/blog/sms-open-rates/
- https://www.smscomparison.com/sms-statistics/
- https://www.slicktext.com/blog/2018/11/44-mind-blowing-sms-marketing-and-texting-statistics
- https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1143723/smartphone-users-in-the-world
- https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-sms-marketing-market
- https://www.sender.net/blog/sms-open-rates/
- https://simpletexting.com/blog/2025-texting-and-sms-marketing-statistics/
- https://www.eztexting.com/report/2025-consumer-texting-report
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2025-consumer-texting-behavior-report-consumers-demand-sms-notifications-and-conversations-302346459.html
- https://www.attentive.com/blog/uk-sms-marketing-consumer-report
- https://www.textmagic.com/blog/consumer-sms-survey
- https://www.klaviyo.com/blog/sms-stats
- https://yournotify.com/blog/which-industries-are-using-sms-marketing/
- https://klaviyocms.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025-Benchmark-Report_AMER.pdf
- https://www.omnisend.com/blog/sms-marketing-statistics
- https://www.demandsage.com/smartphone-usage-statistics
- https://www.drips.com/resources/sms-marketing-and-usage-statistics
- https://www.smscountry.com/blog/sms-marketing-statistics
- https://www.infobip.com/blog/sms-marketing-benchmarks
- https://www.mobiniti.com/how-to-use-text-messages-for-more-than-just-sales/
- https://www.demandsage.com/mobile-commerce-statistics