We have good news! You can finally start texting your customers (with their permission of course) without feeling like a spammer.

It’s true!

We recently did a study to learn how people really feel about receiving text messages from businesses and the results shocked us.

Let’s break down each part of the survey and get some insight before you start your next SMS marketing campaign.

FOR THE TL;DR Here’s you go….but you’re missing out on the goods below 😉

We kept things simple at first, by asking if the person even accepts text messages. The thing that surprised us is that at least 1% were unsure.

Here we wanted to know if people even liked getting text messages in general. Nothing necessarily surprising here since it would depend on the message, who sent it, and how much they annoy text you

Now things are starting to get interesting.

We asked people in the survey who do they receive text messages from most…and 52.51% said they receive text messages from friends the most.

This could be an interesting way to use texting as a part of your referral program. Maybe you can get customers to send a discount to their friend after a purchase?

You could even prompt them to invite friends to download your mobile app, sign up for your website, or attend a webinar.

There’s a lot of creative stuff you could do here.

This one surprised me. When asked if they’ve ever received a text message from a business, most people (74.90%) said Yes! That means there are some smart businesses out there texting their customers right now.

But it’s even more interesting when you see the next question.

People in the survey were asked if they would like to receive text messages from a business and there were a lot of mixed emotions here.

• 34.75% surveyed said MAYBE
• 32.82% said NO
• 30.12% said YES

This just means you have to follow the golden rule of text message marketing…ask your users and customers FIRST before you send a text.

Ok so we know that some people actually want your text messages, but how often should you send them? In the survey we asked how often would you like a business to text you weekly and over 67% said at least 1-5 times per week!!! 

And 20.85% of those people said they’d like a text message from a business as often as they are helpful.

Really?! How many times are you texting your customers? Here are some ideas to help you start sending helpful texts to users and customers.

We all know that customer service is key. But should you start offering customer service by text?

According to our survey, try it! When asked would you like customer support by text, 39.77% said Yes and 27.80% said Maybe.

The trick here is to ask first and A/B test. If your customers expect text messages from you and ask you for them, it shouldn’t be a problem.

You could easily set up a text message to go out to people who visit your FAQ page and reach out BEFORE they ask you for help. You could even schedule a personal follow up with prospective customers when they run into an issue on your website (here’s how to do it).

Your job is to offer the option and see how many of your customers want it.

Moving on.

We asked each person if they had a problem on a website, would they like someone to send a text message help and only about 20% gave a definite NO.

Over 51% of those surveyed said they’d like to get help when they run into problems with a text message.

28.19% said they’d like a text each time they run into a problem (you could set up a transactional text message for these people).

23.17% said they’d want a text message just the first time they run into a problem on a website (you could set up a behavioral text message for these people).

But what do your mobile app users think? Do they want to get text messages when they run into trouble in your mobile app?

According to the survey, mobile app users want a text message when they run into trouble in your app MORE than your website users! Over 52% said YES to text messages when they have trouble with your mobile app. 32.42% just want you to text once. And 17.76% don’t mind if you text every time they have an issue.

This makes sense. They’re already on their phone, they might as well text you to get help with a bug they found or ask questions about how to use your mobile app.

Ok, so what have we learned here.

That customers actually don’t mind text messages from you. In fact, some want them quite often.

And the good news is, it’s easy to send targeted, personalized text messages to engage your customers and users automatically with a trigger-based SMS marketing tool like Autosend.

Want some ideas on what to text your customers? Here’s 8 interesting examples.

Want more?

• Download the Business Texting Customer Survey PDF

or watch this video

Notes about our The 2014 Businesses Texting Customer Survey:

We asked 291 American Internet users from 16-45+ years of age eleven questions about text message habits and their opinions on text messages from businesses. The 2014 Businesses Texting Customer Survey was completed from May 28, 2014 – June 28, 2014.

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