STUDY SMS A2P 2022

MARKETING OR NOTIFICATION?

WHEN ARE THE SMS SENT ?

As in 2020, the SMS notification 2021 mailings remain evenly distributed over the week. The only difference in 2021 is that Monday is slightly less popular, while all other days of the week are more popular. The peak of mailings is now on Tuesday, and the number of mailings decreases until Sunday.
On the marketing side, Fridays remain the preferred day for marketers to run their promotional campaigns via SMS. But it's Monday that now takes second place, replacing Tuesday, which is clearly down on previous years. Saturday's share is also increasing year on year.

While the broad 8am to 8pm time slot has continued to assert itself year after year as the slot representing the vast majority of mailings (marketing and notifications combined), 2021 is the year in which this time slot reaches a plateau (91.12% of SMS mailings, compared with 91.15% in 2020).
Generally speaking, 2021 sees the morning becoming increasingly popular with companies (33.69% of mailings).
The 10 to 11 a.m. slot continues to be the preferred time of day (+3.29 points on the previous year), and the 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. slot is also gaining ground (+1.76 points). Only the 9-10 a.m. time slot loses 2.64 points.
Deliveries are down year-on-year after 4 p.m. (-1.84 points), probably due to the slowdown in delivery and Click & Collect services.

TO WHICH OPERATORS?

The breakdown of SMS shipments by operator is extremely stable from year to year, in line with their market shares:
Orange (30%), SFR (25%), Bouygues Télécom (20%) and Free (15%). The only slight change is that NRJ Mobile (5%) gains 1.39 points in 2021.

The ramp-up in notification via SMS announced for 2020 actually took place in 2021. While SMS marketing has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, the digitalization of exchanges has been confirmed, and notification has driven growth in SMS A2P as a whole.

The vaccination campaign is clearly a factor in this sharp increase in traffic. Online medical appointment booking platforms have seen an explosion in traffic, multiplying the number of SMS reminders and appointment confirmations.

The SMS OTP (one-time password) has also played a major role in this growth. Having been impacted by the cessation of its use for banking transactions, it is finding a second wind in the multiplication of accounts requiring strong authentication. Connections to cryptocurrency wallets, remotely accessible corporate platforms (with the development of telecommuting), and accounts hosting sensitive data are all new uses involving a strong need for security, to which SMS provides a response.

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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 1^er 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).

WHAT PERFORMANCE?

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.

DOWNLOAD THE STUDY IN PDF FORMAT (French)

Our free downloadable white paper will help you discover the new mobile messaging channels and the new opportunities they offer for your communication.

PDF AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH, FRENCH AND SPANISH

FREE WHITE PAPER

WHATSAPP BUSINESS, RCS AND OTHERS.
New A2P mobile messaging channels
for your business

SMS has been an established part of the A2P (Application to Person) mobile messaging landscape for 15 to 20 years now. And now, new formats have suddenly appeared on the scene. Between those already established in the panel of communication tools(push notification and WhatsApp Business API) and thosearriving on the market(RCS and Verified SMS).

In a context where the use of instant messaging by individuals is exploding, this new market that is opening up for companies is synonymous with new opportunities to get in touch with their customers. And companies have understood this.

Indeed,aware of the stakes and the potential offered by these new channels, companies' expectations are high. The first French companies are now beginning to use these new channels in their omnichannel strategies and are beginning to see initial feedback.

With this new white paper smsmode^©we have put together a a complete overview of our new channels... so you can choose the best support.

Through the 28 pages of this white paper, discover the functionalities offered by each of these new channels, their features, their compatibilities and their potential.

TREND

3 pillars: multimedia, conversation and security

PRODUCT SHEET

WhatsApp Business

PRODUCT SHEET

RCS - Rich Communications Services

PRODUCT SHEET

Verified SMS

PRODUCT SHEET

Push notification

A2P MOBILE CHANNEL COMPARISON

Summary of available features

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STUDY 2020

How will companies be using SMS in 2020?

Our SMS A2P 2020 study uncovers, identifies and provides insight into 2020 trends in A2P mobile messaging usage, sending habits, content and other significant issues.

The SMS A2P (also known as SMS professional) remains an essential and unavoidable mobile interaction channel between companies and their customers.
On the eve of its 30th birthday, SMS remains an essential mobile communication channel. While the number of SMS P2P (2-person) exchanges is declining, SMS A2P continues to grow... and therefore to be a powerful medium in the mobile communications landscape.

To establish this study, smsmode^© has collected a vast array of data. More than 83 million SMS sent by some 1299 brands and companies from October 15, 2019 to January 14, 2020, were analyzed.

STUDY SMS A2P 2020

MARKETING OR NOTIFICATION?

With almost 65,000 SMS sent per month per advertiser, the use of SMS A2P is a well-established practice among marketing professionals.
Almost as many SMS notifications (48.73%) as SMS advertisements (51.27%) were sent by companies. A more recent use in SMS communications, notification by SMS is therefore set to dethrone SMS advertising and become the main use of SMS A2P.

However, these two uses of SMS deserve to be differentiated as they are so far apart. As one-to-one informative communication, notification volumes via SMS vary little over the weeks. On the other hand, and unsurprisingly, advertising via SMS is strongly influenced by periods of commercial activity (sales, Black Friday, the pre-Christmas period, etc.), when advertising pressure is 3 times higher than during a period of no significant commercial activity.

WHEN ARE THE SMS SENT ?

In terms of sending habits, the beginning of the week (Monday and Tuesday) is more conducive to sending notifications via SMS. Nevertheless, we can see that notification traffic remains fairly steady until Friday, and quite high at weekends (particularly on Sundays, when Monday's appointment reminders are sent).

On the advertising side, however, marketers clearly prefer Thursday to run their promotional campaigns via SMS (+52.20% more traffic observed on the marketing channel than on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or even Friday).

Now to the question of sending times. The times of day chosen by companies to carry out their SMS operations - marketing & notification combined - are quite extensive, covering the wide 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. time slot: 93.76% of SMS are sent during this period.

There is a slight preference for the late morning and early afternoon - 51.91% of SMS are sent during this period - with a small peak in the early afternoon(between 1pm and 3pm) and sustained activity in the late morning between 10am and 1pm.

TO WHICH OPERATORS?

The breakdown of SMS A2P campaigns by mobile network operator in mainland France is consistent with their respective market shares .

The Top 4 operators are therefore composed of : Orange (32.91%), SFR (26.32%), Bouygues Télécom (19.37%) and Free (18.12%).

WHAT CONTENT FOR SMS A2P?

Our analysis shows that the technical constraints and possibilities of SMS - as well as their optimizations - are fairly well used by communications professionals.
Sender ID personalization is well known and used by professionals. More than 9 out of 10 SMS messages are sent using this feature.

WHAT PERFORMANCE?

DOWNLOAD THE STUDY IN PDF FORMAT

Download our free white paper and discover the 9 ways in which SMS can be integrated into your communications.

PDF AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH, FRENCH AND SPANISH

FREE WHITE PAPER

9 marketing action sheets
for SMS information

The mobile channel has the clear advantage of being able to disseminate relevant information in an individualised, personalised and personal manner, all in real time... which certainly positions the mobile as the number one channel for customer relations! Customer follow-up, security, distribution of alerts or information, etc.; there are as many possible uses of relational communication as there are needs in terms of direct marketing.

But when should SMS be used?
What tools and functionalities are available? And what are the key points and precautions to be taken in your communication plan?

With this white paper containing 9 simple, clear and easy-to-apply action sheets, we wanted to offer you a complete and exhaustive overview of the potential of SMS used for informational purposes. The ideas and advice we share are the fruit of tried and tested experience, and can be easily and effectively integrated into your efforts toimprove customer relations.

With 9 action sheets on SMS , each containing numerous practical tips and tricks, explore all the possibilities offered by SMS for sending information and notifications to cell phones.