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Texting Seen as a Powerful Way to Connect to Millennials

Among the many forms of marketing communications, text messaging is increasingly viewed as an attractive option that will only gain in popularity in the coming years.

Text messages have a higher open rate than email and they aren’t dependent on internet access, but perhaps most importantly, they cater to millennials’ strong preference to communicate via mobile devices.

Earlier this summer, a survey by mobile app developer tappable found that when asked to choose between losing one of their senses or losing their cellphones, at least one quarter of millennials would choose to keep their phones, reports Business of Apps.

Millennials said if they had to choose which sense they would give up, they would prefer to lose their sense of smell. In a separate question, 10% of millennials said they would rather lose a digit than go without their phones. In another survey, which was conducted by Bank of America, 96% of U.S. millennials said their cellphones were more important than toothbrushes and 91% said their phones were as important as deodorant.

The term "texting" is often used interchangeably with "instant messaging," but in many instances, texting refers to short message service, or SMS. The messages are limited to 160 characters and are typically sent via telecom carriers to telephones. Instant messaging is more often associated with web-based services, such as Facebook or in the early days of the internet, AOL.

SMS can be sent directly from an app or from one person to another. App-based messages are frequently called A2P, or app to person, and are often used to provide flight alerts, banking updates or new offers from merchants. A2P messages are also frequently used to confirm appointments or reservations at hotels or restaurants.

Nordic Choice Hotels, which is the Nordic and Baltic region master franchisee of Choice Hotels, is an example of a brand embracing texting to improve its services. It recently selected a tech platform from ALICE to help it streamline its communications with guests across its portfolio of hotels, reports Hospitalitynews.

Among other functions, the technology enables SMS communications for guests to request housekeeping and maintenance services, and to communicate directly with the front desk.

Nordic’s efforts to embrace texting is part of a much wider trend. Indeed, the A2P market is huge, with more than 1.67 trillion messages sent globally last year, according to Mobilesquared. That is expected to increase to 2.80 trillion in 2022.

The growth is being driven, in large part, by the many advantages of text messaging. Marketing firm Betaout maintains that text messages have an open rate of approximately 95% as compared to 27% for email.

Individuals usually keep their mobile phones on hand, so text messages are more likely to be opened. Betaout also maintains that the low cost of implementing text messaging campaigns and the high levels of user engagement associated with the marketing channel equates to an extremely high return on investment of 1600%.

The appeal of SMS and instant messaging has resulted in tech providers and other types of firms developing new technology or other services in support of the marketing channel. In one novel development, Bryce Jurss, who is a recent college graduate, has created Roy Chat, which is an artificial intelligence-powered text platform that allows users to order food, reports STL News.

Unlike other text services, however, it also lets users split the cost of an order through online payment services. The inspiration stems from college students wanting to share pizza or other food and wanting to user electronic payment services to cover the tab. Jurss is currently expanding the system so it can be used for other functions, including investing and corresponding with medical personnel.

SMS, however, faces competition from instant message platforms. Just recently, Facebook started allowing brands to pay for sending marketing message through the social media’s instant messaging platform, WhatsApp, which handles 60 billion messages each day, reports Business Daily.

In the article, Trevor Kimenye, who is the CEO of Ongair, maintains that WhatsApp has many advantages. Ongair provides customer relationship technology for instant messaging platforms.

Unlike SMS, brands can track if users open WhatsApp messages. WhatsApp also supports messages as long as 4,096 characters and it can transmit pictures and attachments. One drawback of WhatsApp, however, is that individuals must have internet access to use the service, unlike SMS messages.

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