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Merry X-SMS – over 9 billion text messages served

by Phil Barrett

The CWTA just released their third quarter report on the Canadian mobile industry. Highlights include:

  1. September 2007, person-to-person text messages totalled 946.7 million (approximately 31.5 million per day), up from 795.3 million in June 2007.
  2. The total number of person-to-person text messages sent during the first three quarters of 2007 totalled 6.8 billion, surpassing the total of all text messages sent in 2006 which was 4.3 billion messages. Canada is on track to deliver over 9 billion text messages in 2007.
  3. There are now over 19 million mobile subscribers in Canada or about 60% adoption overall. Adoption is around 70% in major urban areas and around 80% in major cities.
  4. There were over 500,000 new subscribers in the third quarter.
  5. 80% of mobile customers are on postpaid plans – so 20% are on prepaid plans.
  6. There have been 18 applications processed for mobile micro-payments (mCommerce) in Canada in 2007.

What does this mean for marketers in Canada? It’s time to divert marketing budget to mobile. If you are looking for support with customer acquisition campaigns – SMS is still the way to go… or at least where you should begin your efforts.

Mobile web (including advertising) is growing and it’s now possible to buy inventory off-deck. Off-deck means developing something that isn’t carrier specific or that does not rely on the carrier for delivery. This means you can now promote your product or service beyond the confines of the “on-deck” carrier web experience.

For marketers looking for customer retention or growth tactics to compliment existing initiatives - SMS is still a great place to start by offering alerts, timely news, or information that is specific and personal to your customer. Stay away from many to 1 messages. Mobile is a very personal channel that rewards 1:1 communication. 

Marketers who have had success using Mobile have seen 94% open rates or better on SMS and 15% response rates to a call to action.   I don’t know about you, but that’s information I’ll be sharing with all our clients as we roll into the new year.

  • AB
    Thanks for this, Phil. Happy holidays.

    I was aware of the staggering volumes - but not the response metrics. While I am not so surprised at the open rate (I think there's still a bit of novelty of a permission business SMS - though not for long, methinks), the response (and cost per response) is excellent.

    I am finding many 1:1 clients are still trying to get their online/email house in order and so I can only remind them that if they do not begin factoring this channel in their plans now (where appropriate), they will yet again be playing catch up. I am hopeful that this data will help dimensionalize the opportunity cost of watching from the side lines - and therefore my "threats" will seem left empty.
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