The History of SMS Marketing

How SMS came to be

Just 30 years ago, the world looked completely different. And the first text message was not sent until December 1992. The sender was the British engineer Papworth, who wrote "Merry Christmas" to his friend.

When Papworth sent the message to his friend, he had no idea what role Short Messaging Service (SMS) would play in the society of the future. Neither he nor anyone else could ever predict that SMS would become a tool that most people use every day.

In the beginning, only people who had the same mobile operator could exchange SMS, which of course limited people's communication opportunities. It was not until 1999 that you could start sending SMS to other operators.

At the same time, smaller, more flexible telephones and telephone subscriptions were introduced that more people could afford. As a result, the SMS service grew larger than ever. The development continued at a furious pace. In 2002, more than 250 billion text messages were sent around the world.

In 2007, Apple launched its first smartphone, with groundbreaking features. The iPhone 1 had a virtual keyboard, which became a standard for smartphones thereafter. In the same year, SMS took over the role of telephone calls as a leading communication channel for telephone users.

Growth of e-commerce

Just like the ability to send SMS, E-commerce is something that is obvious to us today. But it wasn't always this way. Just 20 years ago, only 22% of the US population stated that they had ever shopped online. When they did a survey in 2019, 80% stated that they did it regularly.

Before, it was intuitive to visit a physical store when you wanted to buy something. But as e-commerce developed, it became increasingly natural and convenient to make purchases online. Delivery times ranged from weeks to a few days - sometimes just a few hours.

We use our mobile phones often - on average 96 times a day. So it is no shock that our mobiles have become a big part of e-commerce. In fact, many of us use cell phones at every step of the buying process. We find products, compare them with others, compare prices, read other reviews and complete our purchase - all through the device we carry in our pocket.

How is SMS used in marketing today?

In recent years, SMS has become one of the most powerful marketing channels for e-retailers. Just like email marketing, SMS has become a great tool for reaching out to customers with personalized messages. In addition, you can easily see customer engagement by measuring the degree of opening, clicks and conversion.

With a tool like Jojka, you can also segment and automate your mailings, which is advantageous in many ways. Among other things, it allows you to break down your lists into specific target groups in order to then be able to offer them more tailored content. This allows you to create a strong commitment from customers, build customer relationships and increase sales.

For many, SMS marketing is a valuable tool when it's time for campaigns or new launches. If you want to make sure that something really gets engagement, SMS is a popular choice - because it often shows good results.

Nowadays, many people use email marketing. But experience that SMS often converts better than email. But that doesn't mean that you have to use SMS exclusively - of course, it is ideal to run both. That is why Jojka has made it possible to integrate with email services such as. Klaviyo. This makes it much easier to get an interaction between the marketing channels and achieve uniform communication.

If you, as an e-retailer, or if you run another type of company where customer communication is important, want to take yourself to the next level, SMS is a perfect channel to use. It is a simple and effective way to ensure that customers receive the information they want to convey. If you want to take your next step towards more efficient customer communication, you can book a demo with us today.