Small business communications and payments platform Podium has released a report revealing consumer desire for conversational messaging with companies rather than automated messages.
The 2021 Local Business Messaging Trends report explored what messaging and consumer preferences looked like for local brands and businesses in particular.
Among the key findings were that 74% of consumers reported that they would be more likely to text with a local business if they knew a real person was going to receive and respond to their message. Similarly, 50% were more likely to respond from a text from a business if the individual behind said texts introduced themselves.
The Personalisation Advantage
Podium emphasised that personalised SMS messages were a way for smaller businesses to stand up to online ecommerce giants, in light of the consumer preferences discovered.
Other findings included the fact that:
- Consumers were 21% more likely to opt into local businesses’ SMS marketing lists than major chain or big-box businesses and 45% more likely to opt into local businesses’ SMS marketing messages than online or ecommerce businesses
- At 64%, coupons, discounts and promo codes were number one type of promotional message consumers wanted to receive from local businesses, followed by loyalty offers and benefits at 52%, back-in-stock notifications at 35%, and invitations to upcoming events at 28%
- Having opted into a promotional text message list, 16% of respondents would like to receive messages at least once per day, while 62% would like to receive them at least once per week
- However, 75% said they would unsubscribe from a company’s promotional messages if they received too many
The survey was conducted online by Momentive on behalf of Podium in May of 2021, and took in 1,004 respondents from across the United States and Australia.
