If you’re a government leader and you are still hesitating about using SMS to communicate with your citizens, this post can help you. 

Regardless of other texting apps like Messenger, Whatsapp, Telegram, etc. SMS still plays an important role in engaging the government and its people. 

We have collected the top 20 SMS stats to illustrate the impact of this communication channel.

While Messenger is a widely preferred app for its convenient link to Facebook, SMS still has more than 3 times more users. One is because of the fast delivery and two is because not everyone has Facebook.

Similar to the stats above, SMS still wins Whatsapp. 

That’s more than ten times! This is primarily because Instagram is commonly used for entertainment, not for important communication. 

While Emails are great for driving sales, SMS did a great job in the communication part, especially between government leaders and citizens. 

 Nearly the whole population has access to SMS. So when the government has important news, it can reach nearly everyone. 

Narrowing down the types of phones, the majority of U.S adults can easily get in touch with the government using digital tools.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019, 50% people spend more time on their phones and thus send more text messages. In other words, they are more available for receiving text messages.

This sounds unbelievable. But nearly all of the text messages are delivered and read, according to Gartner

Rather than calling, they prefer texting. Texting will allow you to connect with young voters who will be less likely to use more traditional methods of communication.

Texting apps are still the most popular tools that many phones have. Indeed, they are used frequently by 63% of people. 

COVID-19 occurred in late 2019 but it spread globally during 2020. So in this year, the number of messages sent is nearly 4X times higher compared to 2019.

More and more people/marketers are using SMS. So what’s still stopping you from using this amazing tool to communicate with your citizens? 

That’s means almost your entire community will see your message! It would be incredible if government leaders could take advantage of this tool.

69% of consumers prefer texting to other methods of communication. This can apply to government texting as well. Citizens could have a two-way conversation with their leaders.

Translating this stat to government, people prefer SMS to track real-time information that impacts them such as daily news, or emergency news. 

People still strongly prefer SMS because of its wide usage and simplicity. More than half of the residents use native messenger.

If we don’t include the 8-hour sleeping time, that means every 20 minutes they check their phone for notifications. Citizens can therefore receive the latest news easily.

This means that texts will typically be checked before emails, voicemail, or social media, making this a prime channel for important communication.

This shows a high engagement rate where almost every text message can be delivered and received extremely fast.

In the marketing world, nearly all of the customers want to opt-in to receive text messages. They have a strong preference for SMS. 

According to these stats, SMS is the optimal channel for government representatives to communicate important messages directly to their residents.

The numbers prove it. SMS is way better than other platforms when it comes to engagement. 

If you’re interested, here’s an SMS app that could help you text millions of people within under 5 minutes. 

Have you tried SMS to engage with your citizens?