{"id":887,"date":"2022-07-21T08:57:28","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T08:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/?p=887"},"modified":"2024-03-27T10:13:22","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T10:13:22","slug":"email-vs-sms-open-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/email-vs-sms-open-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s the average open rate for SMS compared to email?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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What’s the average open rate for SMS compared to email?<\/h1>\n\n

Email and SMS open rates are often quoted, compared and contrasted.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

As email open and response rates have declined in recent years and our spam folders bulge, companies have been increasingly turning to SMS as a way of selling directly to their customers.<\/p>\n\n

The last few years has seen a huge increase in the number of businesses using SMS and the trend looks set to continue.<\/p>\n\n

Nick Lane from Mobile squared identifies huge growth potential for\u00a0A2P SMS<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

\n

There are 304.7 million registered businesses in the world, just 5% use SMS.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Nick Lane – Mobilesquared<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Definition of key terms used with email and SMS marketing measurement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Read, open, delivery and response rates are all somewhat murky terms that and difficult to define, let alone measure with any accuracy.<\/p>\n\n

There are often different ways of interpreting, measuring and reporting. Results often seem wildly optimistic and completely out of step with what most companies experience in their own campaigns.<\/p>\n\n

Here are main metrics that people use to discuss SMS and\u00a0email marketing campaigns<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

Delivery rate<\/strong>
This is the number or proportion of messages that actually get delivered to the SMS message or email inbox.<\/p>\n\n

Open rate \/ \u00a0read rate<\/strong>
For SMS there\u2019s no way of measuring \u00a0whether a user has actually opened or read a text, it\u2019s assumed that if a text has been delivered, then it\u2019s probably been read.<\/p>\n\n

Average SMS read rates have been estimated by consumer surveys, some of which are now over 10 years old.<\/p>\n\n

Email open rates can be captured more accurately but there are still a number of factors that often exaggerate\u00a0the actual figure.<\/p>\n\n

For example if an image loads, that is often counted as a \u2018read\u2019 whereas the message could have easily been deleted immediately. \u00a0A more accurate description might be \u2018email loads\u2019.<\/p>\n\n

Multiple opens of an email by the same person are often counted as separate opens or reads. Unique views is a more accurate measure that discounts someone opening an email more than once.<\/p>\n\n

Click through or response rate<\/strong>
With reporting SMS metrics, click through and response rate are often used interchangeably but they\u2019re clearly not the same thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

If a text doesn\u2019t contain a URL that the customer can click, then there can\u2019t be any click through rate. The text might be asking people to reply to the text or perhaps even call a number given in the text itself.<\/p>\n\n

With email the \u2018call to action\u2019\u00a0is almost always to click through to a web URL, so in this context, click through rate makes more sense.<\/p>\n\n

Click through rate does not however mean that these people then went on to make a purchase.<\/p>\n

The overall open rate for SMS campaign can be improved by using an HLR lookup service. This allows you to validate your mobile numbers<\/a><\/strong> before sending your messages<\/p>\n\n

Open rates for SMS Vs Email<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

SMS open rate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

With no actual open rate data available for\u00a0SMS marketing<\/strong><\/a>, the fall back position has always been to rely on survey data.<\/p>\n\n

Most people quote the results of a survey conducted by UK research company Mobile squared in 2010.
The much quoted statistics are:<\/p>\n\n

\n

90% of all incoming SMS are read within 3 minutes<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

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over 99% of all text messages are read by the recipient<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Total kudos to Mobilesquared for owning the most quoted mobile marketing statistic ever.<\/p>\n\n

Despite being well over 10 years old, the stat feels like it is probably still accurate.\u00a0SMS remains the most attention grabbing messaging channel<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

I can\u2019t remember the last time I ignored a text.<\/p>\n\n

Here is a selection of SMS open and read rates from various sources.<\/p>\n\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Source<\/strong><\/td>\nSMS open rate<\/strong><\/td>\nSMS click through \/ Response rate<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Twilio<\/td>\n82%<\/td>\n36%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Red eye<\/td>\n99%<\/td>\n36%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Text Anywhere<\/td>\n98%<\/td>\n6.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
XL Today<\/td>\n98%<\/td>\n45%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Labs Mobile<\/td>\n\u00a0<\/td>\n19%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tech Jury<\/td>\n98%<\/td>\n\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Simple Texting<\/td>\n98%<\/td>\n45%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tatango<\/td>\n99%<\/td>\n19%-46%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n\n

Email open rate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Email open rates can be measured far more accurately than SMS but there are several ways that email open rates can be calculated.<\/p>\n\n

Depending on who you use as your resource, there are also a\u00a0range of reported average open rates for email.<\/p>\n\n

The range for average email open rates is between 17% and 30%.<\/p>\n\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Source<\/td>\nEmail open rate<\/td>\nEmail click through rate<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mailchimp<\/td>\n22.70%<\/td>\n2.91%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Campaign Monitor<\/td>\n21.50%<\/td>\n2.30%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hubspot<\/td>\n20.90%<\/td>\n7.80%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Get Response<\/td>\n17.00%<\/td>\n10.29<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Constant Contact<\/td>\n29.55%<\/td>\n1.27%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n\n

\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n

SMS and email are used to achieve different objectives<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

There\u2019s an increasing consumer expectation that they should be communicated with using the channel that they prefer, whether that be SMS, email,\u00a0OTT apps\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>or livechat.<\/p>\n\n

Email and SMS are not competing options where you decide which one to use. The solution is always to use a blend of email and SMS.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

If you give customers the choice then you\u2019re giving yourself the best chance of maximizing the response rate for both.<\/p>\n\n

If you\u2019d like to explore our\u00a0SMS API\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>and potentially reduce your costs, feel free to\u00a0set up a test account.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

We\u2019ll add 50 free credits for testing and will be standing by to offer as much support as you need.<\/p>\n\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

What is A2P SMS?<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>SMS for businesses is called all sort of things, here’s a guide.<\/p>\n\n

What is transactional SMS?<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Is this the same as A2P SMS or something different?<\/p>\n\n

Why is business SMS still so popular?<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Just 160 plain text characters and it’s still the most popular business messaging option. How could that possibly be?<\/p>\n

What’s the best time to send an SMS campaign?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s the average open rate for SMS compared to email? Email and SMS open rates are often quoted, compared and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}