What The SMS Gateway Did for the Mobile
Looking for some ammunition to convince your boss that getting in touch with customers and clients via the SMS gateway is the right move? Well, here you go…
A Bit of SMS History
On July 23rd 2010, SMS will reach adulthood when it celebrates its 18th birthday. Yes, a full 18 years since the very first SMS message was transmitted by engineer Neil Papworth. It read “MERRY CHRISTMAS” and was delivered to his colleagues at Vodafone.
Still, it was only about 7 years after that that SMS really took off – the SMS gateway and other related technologies had yet to evolve sufficiently to allow for cross-network messaging.
But they did, and SMS evolved to be an important method of P2P (Person-to-Person) and A2P (Application-to-Person). But just how important has SMS become?
SMS Statistics
Of all SMS messages sent, 94% are read. Of that 94%, 75% of SMS messages are read immediately. Naturally this doesn’t mean anything until you take into account that there are, at the time of this writing, more than 4.6 billion mobile subscriptions on this planet – a number expected to rise to 5 billion by the end of the year.
But, to be fair, it does not quite reflect on the number of mobile devices and, subsequently, SMS messages sent through the SMS gateway (one mobile device can have more than one subscription; a mobile device needn’t be a handset).
There are in fact approximately 3.9 billion mobile devices in use on earth – probably a little bit more at the time of this writing. As the number of mobile subscriptions increase, so will the number of mobile devices.
The Importance of an SMS Gateway
The function of an SMS gateway is to translate messages from one protocol format into another. This becomes applicable when messages are sent form one network, or SMSC, that uses its own proprietary protocol to another network, or SMSC, that also uses its own proprietary protocol.
Therefore, once network interoperability was accomplished (with the aid of the SMS gateway), SMS messaging took off and grew to such an extent that 2009 Q4 statistics now indicate a daily 256 million SMS message volume in the UK alone. This amounts to 1,792,000,000 SMS messages a week and around 77 billion messages a month, up 31% from 2008 figures. Mobile penetration rates for the UK (as well as the EU) have already surpassed the 100% mark some time ago.
In the United States of America the same figure was at more than 4 billion in 2009 and, as expected, is rising even as you read this.
Not Willing To go the SMS Route?
In a number of instances companies are unwilling to adopt communication via the SMS gateway as a B2C communication vehicles, with one of the primary reasons that they might be invading their customers’ privacy and, subsequently, scare them off.
A study by 1020 Placecast however revealed that 26% of mobile owning adults are willing to receive “location-based mobile advertising specials”, with the only condition being that they (the receiver of such advertising materials) have the option to opt both in and out at their own convenience. Granted, the above reflect U.S. trends but does have some indication of an increasing global trend in the acceptance of mobile marketing.
How does this relate to you and the SMS gateway?
Use The SMS Gateway to Your Advantage
To put it in simple terms, forcing SMS down your customers’ collective throat will probably scare them off. However even here in the United Kingdom regulations exist that prohibit such actions by companies and organisations.
In the same breath it has to be said that one half of a successful SMS campaign, is a clever opt-in strategy – getting current and prospective customers the option to opt-in on your SMS campaigns, thereby enabling you to get in touch with them through the SMS gateway. Remember, if they opt-in, then they are most probably interested in what you have to offer, giving you the benefit of targeted messaging.
For more information on how you can get your business SMS-connected, read more on the SMS gateway page.
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Tags: A2P Messaging, P2P Messaging, sms gateway, sms gateways, SMS statistics, SMSC proprietary protocol
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[...] On July 23rd 2010, SMS will celebrate its 18th birthday. [...]