SMS Marketing is dying a slow death in india ????
In the early 2000s, SMS marketing started in India. At that time a marketing SMS used to cost 1 paisa. But then like any marketing channel that starts working, everyone wanted to get on it & SMS communications started growing from bank notifications to real estate spam.
To curtail the growth of spam, TRAI increased the prices of an SMS ~10x in the early 2010s. When that didn’t work TRAI again hiked prices in May 2018. But that didn’t stop marketers from bombarding customers with SMS either, so finally in 2020 TRAI introduced DLT, a blockchain technology to prevent misuse of SMS. On top of that, TRAI just increased SMS costs by 2.5paisa too, which will further increase the cost of an SMS by 25% to 30%.
"TRAI wants to reduce SMS marketing because customers don’t want to receive SMS. Just think about it, don’t you get irritated when your phone buzzes in the middle of your workday with a marketing SMS."
But it’s not just TRAI that’s moving in that direction. It’s the apps on your phone too. Just like Google introduced the promotions tab that reduced email open rates, SMS apps on our phones today are hiding SMS in a secondary tab. On top of that, the SMS apps are making it easier than ever before to report spam for an SMS.
As the algorithms on these SMS apps get stronger, ultimately we’ll stop getting notified for promotional SMS completely. We might hate this trend, because we’ve been so reliant on SMS for so many years for our CRM marketing, but I’ve noticed over the years that once a big trend starts it can’t be stopped. The government authorities & lots of large companies are spending lots of money to kill SMS spam & over time they will succeed.
“The underlying trend is simple. Everyone from TRAI to the apps on your phone want to make SMS spam disappear”
We might hate this trend, because we’ve been so reliant on SMS for so many years for our CRM marketing, but I’ve noticed over the years that once a big trend starts it can’t be stopped. The government authorities & lots of large companies are spending lots of money to kill SMS spam & over time they will succeed.
The benefits of SMS won't exist anymore.
?????♂? Heavy Scrutiny on SMS Content: With the new TRAI regulations in effect, it will become harder for brands to send promotional messages as brands will be needed to get every SMS sent verified with TRAI authorities.
?? Template Based Messaging & Segregation: Every brand will be allowed to send only 4 types of SMS’s. Of which, customers can then control the type of messages they want to receive.
?? Blocking of Promotional Messages: New TRAI regulations and widespread usage of smartphones that move promotional messages away from the customer’s view will make it harder for you to reach customers. As most of the messages you send will come up as SPAM, just like in Truecaller app.
?? Delivery Rates & Sales will Go Down: Owing to the new regulations, most of the brand SMS’s will be delivered to the promotions tab, just like in Gmail. Resulting in a steep decline of the SMS campaign delivery rate making it harder for brands to generate sales.
?? 20% - 30% increase in SMS Marketing Budgets costing: SMS costs have increased by 2.5 paisa/per SMS, which is going to increase your SMS marketing budget substantially and reduce your marketing ROI.
SMS will never be the same again. So what's next?
Focus on channels like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Hotstar, etc. that are growing. All of these platforms have custom audience solutions which can help you maximize revenue from your CRM customers.
Get 3 more insights on what can you do next here.
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A B2B marketer, Brand builder and Communication Expert with a passion for reskilling and growth
4 年Pranav Ahuja There's a difference between transactional and promotional messaging. Promotional messaging always required approval from the sending engine. While you are allowed to send transactional messages to your subscribers and customers without approvals.