Retailers’ Text Message Campaigns Seeing Highest Click Rates on Fridays

May 25, 2016

This article is included in these additional categories:

B2B | Digital | Email | Mobile Phone | Retail & E-Commerce

Experian-Retailer-Text-Message-Click-Rates-by-Day-of-Week-May2016An analysis of more than 85 million SMS and MMS messages sent by retailers during a 5-month period from November 2015 through March 2016 has found that the average unique click rate was 10.5%, ranging from a low of 9.4% in December to a high of 12.1% in February. The data, which comes from Experian Marketing Services [download page], also shows that Fridays had the highest click rate on these messages, despite having the highest volume. The analysts note that this trend was consistent even when removing Black Friday messages from the sample.

Overall, the opt-in rate for mobile messages averaged 4.3% during the 5-month period, with the opt-out rate averaging 1.3%. This compares to a much lower average opt-out rate for emails (0.1%), which Experian Marketing Services says is “a function of the much larger volumes in email, as well as the offer-based nature of mobile messages. As people opt in and opt out of specific mobile offers, the average opt-out rate rises.”

Returning to message engagement rates, the study identified 5 keywords that show a lift over messages that excluded them:

  • Birthday: 43.5% lift in unique click rate;
  • Win: 28.4% lift;
  • $ offer: 19.1% lift;
  • Coupon: 13.4% lift; and
  • Free shipping: 8.8% lift.

Interestingly, terms such as “free shipping,” “coupon,” and “birthday” also showed lifts in unique click rates on email. However, terms that convey a sense of urgency and that typically perform well in email campaigns – such as “final,” “last,” or “today only” – didn’t show the same lift in mobile messaging.

Turning to email, the report indicates that brands once again upped their sending volume, with the 25.9% year-over-year marking the 13th consecutive quarter of double-digit increases. Of the 6 major industries tracked, 4 upped their sends by at least 20%, with publishers (18.7%) not far behind. The only vertical to show just a modest increase was business products and services, with a 2.4% increase in volume.

The overall increase in volume may have had an effect on engagement rates, with unique open rates falling by 3.1% and unique click rates by 8.9%. Still, 30% of brands tracked saw significant year-over-year increases in click rates, transaction rates, and revenue per email.

About the Data: Experian Marketing Services’ quarterly benchmarks are based on the analysis of major email marketing trends and key performance indicators across six major verticals: business products and services, consumer products and services, media and entertainment, multi-channel retailers, publishers and travel. Data analyzed in these benchmark reports are from client brands within the United States and Canada that have opted to participate in the study. All metrics, including the historical benchmarks, reflect average performance at 7 days after the emails were sent.

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