Top Reasons To Use SMS Notifications for Your Business

Over the years, Short Message Services (SMS) became the go-to communication method for global businesses and solopreneurs. And with an open rate of 98%, it makes total sense. From sending time-sensitive SMS reminders to using it for text marketing purposes, text messaging comes with an abundance of benefits—one of them being notifications.

What Is an SMS Notification

An SMS notification is a message delivered to people to draw their attention to the information. Your message could be about product updates, promotions, or SMS campaigns, for that matter. This helps businesses improve the quality of their services and deliver news faster and more conveniently.

Another factor that plays a huge role in the popularity of SMS is that it’s a personal channel. Therefore, the more personalized your message is, the higher the conversion rate will be. On top of that, people don’t need a data plan or an internet connection to receive SMS messages.

SMS Statistics

You’ll find an abundance of business text messaging statistics that support the usage of SMS. Did you know that more than 80% of customers prefer to reply to text messages from businesses and engage in conversation? Or that almost 90% of customers prefer using SMS to connect with businesses?

As a matter of fact, 47% of consumers said they wouldn’t prefer engaging with a company that didn’t offer SMS as a communication channel. Moreover, 82% of text messages received from businesses are read within 5 minutes.

Push Notifications Vs. SMS

Opt-in

Since push notifications are associated with smartphone app technology, they’re considered less intrusive. Businesses don’t need opt-in consent to send a push notification because the user has already opted in by downloading the mobile app. As soon as the user downloads the app, they have already opted in to receive notifications.

SMS notifications can be used to communicate with all users—whether or not they’ve downloaded your app. In this case, the user needs to have the option to opt out and stop receiving texts from your business. Recipients must text a specific phrase to a specific phone number to opt in to your SMS notifications. If your business is looking into building a high-value text marketing list, sending SMS notifications can prove to be highly effective.

Audience

Push notifications drive users to a single app. They improve targeted communication about a specific product within the existing customer base. You can send push notifications to mobile and desktop devices. However, if the recipient doesn’t have WiFi or a data plan, they won’t receive your push notifications.

SMS notifications, on the other hand, drive users to any page on a website. You can send them to promote social content, landing pages, new offers, and more. And while push notifications are specifically catered to smartphone users, SMS reaches non-smartphone users as well.

Content

Push notifications alert users of updates, new messages, accounts, issues, likes and comments, and anything specific to the app. They can also include discount offers, greetings, and any other info that can direct the user’s attention to the app.

Meanwhile, SMS notifications can include offers, promotions, discounts, reminders, updates, and notifications. Keep in mind that SMS is a well-established technology, whereas push notifications have only been around for the past five years.

Delivery and Visibility

Push notifications are delivered to the user’s desktop or mobile device—what’s more, the app doesn’t need to be open. If you send too many push notifications, they could get lost and become unrecoverable. Furthermore, if a user views your push notification, they can no longer go back to read that message.

SMS notifications are delivered straight to the user’s inbox, which they can access at any given time. Upon receiving the notification, the SMS message pops up on the mobile phone’s locked screen. If a user swipes from the lock screen, they can read it later from their inbox. This means that SMS notifications ensure nearly 100% readability.

Pricing

Finally, the push notifications vs. SMS debate can be settled with the pricing. The pricing of push notifications largely depends on the provider—it can start at $4 per 1,000 subscribers.

As for SMS, there is no set pricing—it depends on the destination country and the number of recipients. Additionally, you don’t need a prior commitment to send SMS notifications; you pay as you go.