All About Messaging: Marketers Look to Traditional Tech to Break Through the Clutter
When was the last time you sent a text? An hour ago? A minute ago? Okay, when was the last time you texted with a celebrity? If your answer is “never,” then you’re probably in the same boat as most people. But, with a new group of celebs turning to text messaging as a means to communicate with fans, that could very well change. While it might seem a bit “low-tech” and “old” by today’s standards, SMS texting is once again on the rise — and not just among celebrities either. Both businesses and marketers, like Dirty Lemon and Gary Vee, are also making new use of simple, familiar text messaging to reach customers and followers in new ways.
Here’s what they’re up to.
Back It Up — Why SMS?
Simply put, SMS texting is, well, simple. It works. People understand it. They’re comfortable with it. There aren’t a lot of moving parts to SMS either. Let’s put it this way: your grandpa might not be able to use Facebook (or care enough to use it), but the guy darn well knows how to text.
Besides being simple, texting offers the opportunity for a more personal and private connection. While social media excels at connecting people with a wide range of other users, it doesn’t always allow for closer connections. And, as social media platforms become increasingly crowded, people’s social feeds grow more and more saturated with information each day. With so much content to take in, users don’t know what to look at or process. One-on-one SMS texting, however, cuts through the chatter.
Texting by the Numbers
But, don’t just take our word for it. We’ll let the numbers do the talking. Already, 5 billion people around the globe communicate through SMS text messages, which accounts for about 65% of the world’s population. In North America, 292 million people, or about 80% of the continent’s population, utilize texting to stay in touch. With smartphone use predicted to rise to 77% of the world’s population by 2025, research estimates that the number of people who communicate via SMS text will also increase to 6 billion by the same year.
What Does SMS Mean for Marketers?
Here’s the thing about texting that marketers have to pay attention to — with SMS, open rates can be as high as 98%. Email and banner ads have nothing on SMS. On top of that, up to 45% of people respond to text messages they receive from brands they follow.
With that in mind, marketers are already trying to make the most of the opportunity. According to the Fourth Annual State of Marketing research report by Salesforce, B2B marketers increased their use of SMS texting by 197% between 2015 and 2017.
Despite the buzz around using SMS as a marketing tool, 65% of brands and 61% of marketers still lack a formalized strategy for utilizing mass text messaging to reach an increasingly text-happy customer base. As we mentioned before though, certain public figures and brands are on it. Here’s how they’re experimenting with SMS.
Not Just the Guy from That 70s Show
Ashton Kutcher, like many other celebrities, commands a large following on social media. But in a recent tweet to fans, Kutcher declared that he missed having a “real connection w/ real people.” At that point, he tweeted out his phone number and encouraged fans to text him, even though he wouldn’t be able to respond to everyone (which, you have to admit, would be pretty difficult for a guy with 18 million followers on Twitter).
So, what happens when fans text Kutcher’s number? Immediately, they receive a text message that reads, “hey it’s Ashton. this is an autotext to let you know I got your message, everything else will be from me. make sure you click the link and add yourself to my phone so I can respond to you.” On the heels of this message (that would likely earn serious scorn from the grammar police), Ashton included the URL, in.community.com/lotsofrandomnumbers.
Where does the link take you? Follow it and you’ll find yourself looking at the terms of service for a company called Community. Guess who’s a major investor? That’s right — Ashton Kutcher. The company, formerly known as Shimmur, recently received $35 million in investment money. It aims to help celebrities, companies, and brands reach fans and customers through direct SMS messaging. According to Community, the company receives compensation from clients who pay Community to facilitate the messaging — no data-mining involved (as far as anyone knows).
Are people buying into this new “old” form of communication? While Community positions itself as promising a more intimate form of communication, the chances of receiving a text back from a celebrity are pretty slim, to say the least. And, if there’s one thing people don’t like, it’s a one-sided text conversation. We’ve all been there, right?
So, will users stick with texting celebs despite the low odds of hearing back from the individuals they follow? Again, that remains to be seen. Although the odds are slim, some celebs, like Gary Vee and Mark Cuban, occasionally do respond. Here’s what they’re up to with SMS and Community.
How Star Entrepreneurs Use SMS
Celebrity entrepreneur and marketer, Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vee) earned a reputation for many different things: selling wine via YouTube, investing in Twitter and Uber, starting VaynerMedia, authoring several bestselling books, and fanatically loving the New York Jets. He also gained a reputation for his frequent, direct, and heart-filled interactions with fans and for his active presence on social media. Now, he’s using Community and SMS to facilitate those connections even further. And, reportedly, he loves what Community offers.
As with Twitter, a platform Gary Vee used as a way to respond directly to individual followers for years, Community and SMS offer the chance to connect one-on-one. According to Gary Vee, that leads to more authentic conversations as well. The New York Times reports Gary Vee commented on Community’s ability to create authentic connections by saying, “I think some people are more comfortable asking personal questions on text than even on DM.” By Gary Vee’s estimate, 15% of people text him asking, “Is this really you,” while another 30% just send him funny messages.
Even then, Vaynerchuk believes that most of the messages lead to “some really meaningful conversations.” Although he still actively uses social media, Gary Vee will, as of late, punctuate his social posts with his Community number and invite fans to text him. At least for now, the star entrepreneur hasn’t abandoned social media in favor of SMS. He simply uses social as a way to leverage texting as another form of communication.
As far as celebrity entrepreneurs go, Gary Vee isn’t the only one utilizing SMS and Community to stay in touch with fans. Mark Cuban, the celebrity investor from Shark Tank and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, also recently gave out his digits and encouraged fans to text him. Does he actually respond to the texts? Like Gary Vee, he gets back to a select/lucky few. Cuban told The Dallas Times in a recent interview that he tries to respond to 20 or 30 messages a day.
How long can Cuban, Vaynerchuk, Kutcher or other celebs keep up with texting fans? That remains to be seen. But they’re not the only entrepreneurs using SMS to connect with followers. The entrepreneurs at Dirty Lemon are also using SMS to good effect, this time to connect with customers in a different way.
Dirty Lemon 🍋, SMS, & the Future of Retail
According to SlickText, 40% of North American marketers consider a customer’s ability to pay for products with their phones as one of the most disruptive behaviors to yet emerge in the era of mobile tech. Dirty Lemon, the upscale health drink company out of Brooklyn, New York, represents one of the companies at the forefront of this industry-disrupting behavior.
Rather than using SMS to simply advertise new flavors, Dirty Lemon utilizes text messaging as its primary method of fulfilling customers’ orders. In order to purchase a six-pack of beverages (priced at $65 a case), customers simply text Dirty Lemon’s number (found online) with what they’d like to order. As the company’s co-founder, Zak Normandin, stated in a recent interview with Forbes,
We built out a tech platform that allows customers to ask questions anytime and place orders for any of our beverages. It removes all the friction points that you typically encounter when ordering a product online, and solves the problem of empty-carts.
According to Forbes and Dirty Lemon, the company answers up to 50,000 text messages a month and has already processed millions of dollars in customer transactions through text messaging. Normandin, along with Dirty Lemon’s other co-founder, Sommer Carroll, partially attributes Dirty Lemon’s growth to its use of text messaging. SMS simplifies the buying process for customers by allowing them to easily converse with and order from the company. The ease of that connection lowers the barriers to purchase for consumers. At the same time, constant text conversations, as Normandin and Carroll explain, create closer connections between Dirty Lemon and its customer base.
Even at its physical store location in NYC, Dirty Lemon remains true to its digitally-native direct-to-consumer roots and its commitment to creating a smooth customer experience. The store, which some have likened to a “walk-in vending machine,” relies solely on text messaging as the final point-of-sale where customers can fulfill their orders.
After selecting a drink from one of the many in-store coolers, customers use their phone to scan a QR code on the bottle. The QR code auto-generates a text message containing the product’s information, which the customer then sends to Dirty Lemon before exiting the store — no cashier required. Upon receiving the text, Dirty Lemon automatically bills the customer’s credit card. Without getting too fancy or reinventing the wheel, Dirty Lemon utilizes familiar tech to make the shopping experience easier for the customer. Using tech in a way that enhances and smoothes the UX — that’s true innovation.
The Takeaway: How Can You Utilize SMS to Reach Customers?
- Just try it out — we can help. We love helping brands, big and small, make the first moves into texting. Shoot us a note if you’d like to chat.
- Think outside the box. What other ways could you use SMS beyond just pushing a product? Could you use it to fulfill an order, start a conversation, make someone laugh?
Want to learn more? Feel free to reach out at any time. We would love to chat!
The above piece was written by the Latitude Supercharge Research Team, which includes Connor Beck and Carter Jensen
Supporting Resources —
- Forget DMs. Celebrities Want You to Text Them.
- SMS Marketing Is Making a Comeback
- Text-To-Buy: Wellness Beverage Company Dirty Lemon Pioneers A New Retail Model
- The Phone Number Ashton Kutcher Tweeted Comes From a Startup
- 44 Mind-Blowing SMS Marketing and Texting Statistics
- Why Some Celebs Are Giving Out Their “Phone Numbers” to Fans
- Mark Cuban gave out his phone number saying anyone can text him. There’s a catch
- Dirty Lemon Case Study — Consumer Experience [CX] Evolution — Latitude
Resources and original reporting of the above points covered by the following publications —
The New York Times, The Dallas Times, CMS WiRE, Forbes, Latitude Consumer Experience Evolution 2019 Retail Innovation Report, SlickText, WIRED, LA Magazine
At Latitude, we love taking incredible brands of all sizes and elevating them through tech-fueled experiences that add true value. From pop-up retail to permanent build-outs, our team brings brand stories and modern-day commerce together to truly stand out. Want to learn more? See our case studies. Give us a shout.
