Free white papers
& free studies
Thanks to our white papers and studies, discover expert advice on how to master the sending of SMS and optimize the use of SMS in your communications.
PDF AVAILABLE IN FRENCH
BAROMETER 2021
How will companies be using SMS in 2021?
What are the trends in 2021 concerning the use, sending habits and content of A2P mobile messaging? How will this evolve in comparison to 2020? What impact has the Covid-19 crisis had on mobile marketing?
Sending SMS A2P (Application to Person) is a popular practice for brands. Highly effective, it enables them to establish a direct and immediate link with their contacts.
While new messaging channels (RCS, WhatsApp Business, etc.) are arriving on the A2P mobile messaging market, SMS is maintaining its supremacy as the preferred mobile communication medium for brands to communicate with their customers and contacts, directly on their mobile.
This is the second major survey dedicated to SMS A2P, smsmode© analyzed more than 170 million SMS sent by some 1917 French brands and companies between 1er September 2020 and January 31, 2021.
STUDY SMS A2P 2021
MARKETING OR NOTIFICATION?
More SMS notifications were sent (58.34%) than SMS advertising (41.65%). 2020 is thus the first year in which notification by SMS has become the main use of SMS A2P and has dethroned SMS advertising, the historical use of this communication channel by companies.
Despite the health situation linked to COVID-19, SMS A2P dispatch volumes remained stable (+0.16% on the previous year). It should also be noted that COVID-19 had little impact on notification mailings. On the other hand, marketing mailings were dependent on containment measures (-21% over the period November 1 to 20, 2020 compared with the previous year).
Marketing operations by SMS linked to major promotional highlights(Black Friday 2020 or the 2021 winter sales), both of which have been postponed due to the health situation, have been much less impacted, with a drop in dispatch volume of "only" -7%.
WHEN ARE THE SMS SENT ?
In terms of sending habits, there are no major changes from our previous study in terms of variations in notification traffic over the course of the week: SMS notifications are sent in a decrescendo from Monday to Friday, with more being sent at the start of the week.
On the advertising side, however, in 2020, marketers preferred Tuesdays and Fridays (and to a lesser extent Mondays) to carry out their promotional campaigns via SMS, a real change from last year when Thursday was the preferred day for marketers to carry out their campaigns.
As for the hours of dispatch preferred by companies, SMS operations (marketing & notification combined) are still mainly - and this trend is becoming more pronounced every year - carried out throughout the broad 8am to 8pm time slot (representing 91.15% of SMS dispatches).
2 trends are noteworthy:
- a shift in sending preferences towards the morning, and more specifically between 9am and 12pm (+4.1 points over 1 year), the time slot in which delivery notifications are sent, a booming sector that is making increasing use of the SMS channel,
- an increase in shipments at the end of the day, between 6pm and 8pm (+ 2.3 points on the previous year), reflecting the rise of Click and Collect and the meal delivery services that traditionally use this time to send their notification messages.
TO WHICH OPERATORS?
There was also little change in the breakdown by French mobile network. The ranking of operators receiving SMS A2P campaigns is therefore as follows: Orange (31.38%), SFR (24.87%), Bouygues Télécom (20.37%) and Free (17.89%), in line with their respective market shares.
WHAT CONTENT FOR SMS A2P?
The content of SMS campaigns in 2020 was 160 characters or less - or 1 SMS per message - in the vast majority of cases (73%).
Compared to the previous year, there is a trend towards increasingly shorter messages (+1 point increase for SMS with between 80 and 120 characters), and a rise in long, detailed messages (+2.6 points for messages over 160 characters over 1 year).
At the same time, there has been a decline in the use of personalized callers (down 2.3 points in 1 year). This underlying trend corresponds to the development of ShortCodes (or short numbers) dedicated to a brand. Indeed, to counter the growing use of fraudulent personalized senders, more and more advertisers are resorting to a dedicated short code as protection against smishing (phishing via SMS).
WHAT PERFORMANCE?
In terms of performance indicators, SMS confirms, study after study, that it is a highly effective communication channel. With a deliverability rate of almost 95% and an unsubscribe rate (Opt-out or STOP SMS) of 0.11%, it is a powerful lever for marketing strategies, and thanks to its performance, an indispensable channel for mobile communications.
The year 2021 sees the rise of notification via SMS. Reflecting a latent trend we've been observing for several years, the surge in informative messages can be explained in part by the transformation and digitalization of the economy, of which the Covid-19 crisis will ultimately have been no more than a gas pedal.
The very gradual arrival of new mobile messaging channels (WhatsApp Business or RCS) should not disrupt this growth in the coming months. Reserved for notification - and in addition to conversational commerce messages for RCS - these new channels are building strategies that place highly targeted and interactive One-to-One communications at the centre. All in all, these practices foreshadow the mobile marketing of the future.