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Top 7 SMS KPI's You Should Be Tracking
Top 7 SMS KPI's You Should Be Tracking

Delivering positive ROI with SMS

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Written by Nick Tabar
Updated over a week ago

"What gets measured gets managed" - Peter Drucker

So your business is using SMS to connect with customers, great! How do you know whether your text messages are driving ROI for your business?

Given the explosive growth of SMS as an immediate channel to connect with customers, measuring your impact with SMS is more important now than ever before. We've compiled a list of 7 key metrics you should use to connect your text messages to meaningful revenue.

πŸ’‘ Pro tip: Define the business outcome you'd like to influence with SMS.
For example, if the goal is to close deals faster, let's connect the dots between the number of texts sent to a customer and compare that to the average duration for the deal to close.


  1. Subscriber List Growth πŸš€
    Do we have a larger audience than when we started?
    Are we driving inbound traffic to our website and additional channels to convert more customers?
    ​
    This KPI serves to validate if your multi-channel marketing strategy is working to drive inbound leads.
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    ​How to calculate: ([(Number of contacts opted-in) minus (Number of contacts opted-out)] Γ· Total number of contacts]) * 100

  2. Delivery Rate βœ”οΈ
    Are your messages being received by your customers?
    ​Salesmsg's Analytics tab makes answering the question of deliverability simpler than ever. The goal here is simple, as close to a 100% delivery rate as possible.


    If we have a high rate of undelivered messages, we can help with data cleanup through number validation, SMS compliance (10DLC), and adhering to best practices for mass messaging.
    ​
    ​How to calculate: (Total Outbound Messages Γ· Undelivered) * 100
    ​

  3. Reply Rate πŸ“£
    Are your customers engaging with you via text?
    We know customers will read our texts with up to a 90% open rate in the first 3 minutes but if there's no reply or action taken, was the text worth it?
    ​
    What is a good reply rate for SMS? The answer is, 'it depends' on a variety of factors including your customer's lifecycle stage, your primary audience, your messaging frequency, content. If you have specific questions about how to boost your reply rate, reach out to our Success team. We're here to help.
    ​
    ​How to calculate: (Total Inbound Messages Γ· Total Outbound Messages) * 100
    ​

  4. Opt-Out Rate πŸ™ˆ
    Are we losing opportunities to connect with customers? Closely monitoring your SMS opt-out rate will provide a data point for how valuable your text messages are to your customers. In Salesmsg, Contacts are automatically opted-out by replying STOP/CANCEL/UNSUBSCRIBE
    ​
    ​How to calculate: (Total Contacts Opted-Out Γ· Total Outbound Messages) * 100
    ​

  5. Clickthrough Rate πŸ’»
    Similarly to email and social marketing, the goal of engaging with customers via SMS is to influence behavior but do you know how many of those customers are opening the links and pages we're sharing?
    ​
    In Salesmsg, we have a built-in link shortener tool to provide data on exactly how many of your contacts are taking action on your texts. Salesmsg will automatically track your clickthrough rate by using our link shortener in your Broadcasts.
    ​

    Screenshot on 2023-01-04 at 15-30-33.png


    ​How to calculate: (Number of Clicks Γ· Total Number of Contacts Sent Message) * 100
    ​

  6. Conversion Rate πŸ“ˆ
    Clickthrough rates are great to evaluate whether contacts are engaging with your text message content, however, engagement does not guarantee ROI. By measuring how many customers get to the 'finish line', we can link a text message to ROI for your business. Conversion Tracking gives you the ability to easily create and track Conversions and Revenue to measure how your Broadcasts are driving your conversion rates.
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    ​

    Screenshot on 2023-01-04 at 15-40-54.png


    ​
    ​How to calculate: (Number of times the conversion pixel event triggers Γ· Total Number of Contacts Sent Message) * 100
    ​

  7. Average Time to First Response πŸ•
    The average time it takes the members of your team to respond to the first incoming messages
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    Text messaging is the ideal channel for immediate communication with an average open rate in the first few minutes but you only have a few minutes to capitalize on your customer's interest. Measuring how efficiently your business replies to your inbound conversations will have a dramatic impact on your long-term customer engagement.
    ​
    πŸ’‘ Salesmsg will automatically calculate this for all inboxes but you can also filter by member, inbox, and time range. Simply pop over to your Salesmsg's Analytics Performance tab


    ​How to calculate: (Total Time to First Reply Γ· Total Number of Conversations)
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