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  "description": "The 98% SMS open rate statistic isn’t provable. This post shows nonprofit marketers why opens are a vanity metric, what changed in modern texting, and why click-through rate is the metric that actually drives results",
  "path": "/90-sms-open-rates-are-a-myth/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-11T02:22:21.000Z",
  "site": "https://blog.rallycorp.com",
  "tags": [
    "aggressively screen unwanted SMS traffic",
    "nonprofit SMS marketing",
    "your fundraising strategy",
    "https://www.rallycorp.com/demo"
  ],
  "textContent": "For years, the SMS marketing industry and text messaging vendors have repeated the same line:\n\n**“Text messages have a 98% open rate.”**\n\nYou’ve heard it in sales pitches, blog posts, webinars, and slide decks.\n\nHere’s the truth:\n\n**That number is bologna.**\n\nNot because SMS marketing doesn’t work. It does. SMS is one of the most powerful tools nonprofit marketers have.\n\nBut because **that statistic has never been provable** — and the industry keeps repeating it anyway.\n\nWhen marketers trust numbers that can’t be proven, they end up making decisions on guesswork.\n\nAnd that's sad.\n\nLet’s break it down.\n\n* * *\n\n## You Can’t Actually Measure an SMS Open Rate\n\nEmail has tracking pixels. SMS does not.\n\nThere is no built-in way for carriers or phones to report:\n\n  * whether a text message was opened\n  * when it was opened\n  * how long it was viewed\n\n\n\nThose signals simply don’t exist in standard SMS messaging.\n\nThe famous **“98% SMS open rate”** was never a hard metric. It was a behavioral guess that got marketed like a scientific fact.\n\nAnd there’s another issue.\n\nEven if you _could_ detect opens, they wouldn’t tell you much.\n\nPeople open messages all the time just to:\n\n  * swipe a notification away\n  * clear their inbox\n  * reply STOP\n  * mark something as spam\n\n\n\nThat isn’t engagement.\n\n**An open is a mechanical action. A click is an intentional decision.**\n\nIf marketers care about results, we should measure intentional decisions.\n\n* * *\n\n## Why the Original 98% SMS Statistic Is Outdated\n\nEven if the old assumption was once directionally true, modern mobile technology has changed how people receive and view text messages.\n\nI’ll concede this: when the stat first started circulating in the early 2000s, texting was new, and SMS behaved more like an instant alert than a crowded marketing inbox.\n\nBut the ecosystem that created the 98% stat no longer exists.\n\nThat's for sure.\n\n### Smartphones Now Filter Notifications\n\nModern smartphones are designed to protect user attention.\n\nFeatures like Focus Modes, notification summaries, silent delivery, and app permissions mean many SMS messages are:\n\n  * delivered quietly\n  * batched with other alerts\n  * buried in notification stacks\n  * pushed to the dreaded \"unknown sender\" inbox\n\n\n\nA delivered message is no longer guaranteed to grab attention.\n\n**Delivery is not the same as visibility.**\n\n* * *\n\n### Carrier Spam Filtering Reduces Message Visibility\n\nCarriers and operating systems now aggressively screen unwanted SMS traffic.\n\nThis includes:\n\n  * reputation scoring\n  * unknown sender filtering\n  * automated spam detection\n\n\n\nSome commercial messages never reach a user’s primary inbox. Others arrive with warning signals that reduce trust and engagement.\n\nThese systems didn’t exist when the 98% open rate claim became popular.\n\nBut they do now.\n\n* * *\n\n### Messaging Behavior Has Fragmented Beyond SMS\n\nPersonal conversations have largely moved into app-based messaging platforms.\n\nThat changed what people want out of SMS.\n\nText messages no longer get automatic attention just because they arrive.\n\nAttention is earned through relevance and timing. Through known senders and trusted brands.\n\nThe behavior that supported the original statistic evolved.\n\nAnd the industry kept repeating it anyway.\n\n* * *\n\n## SMS Marketing Success Isn’t About Opens — It’s About Clicks\n\nEven if you could prove the 98% number (which you can't), it still wouldn’t answer the question nonprofit marketers actually care about:\n\n**Did the message drive action?**\n\nNonprofit SMS campaigns exist to generate:\n\n  * donations\n  * registrations\n  * volunteer sign-ups\n  * event participation\n\n\n\nAn open rate does not tell you whether any of that happened.\n\nA **click-through rate (CTR)** does.\n\nClick tracking shows you:\n\n  * who acted\n  * which messages worked\n  * how your audience responds\n\n\n\nThat is real performance feedback.\n\nVanity metrics feel good.\n\nOutcome metrics make you better.\n\n* * *\n\n## We Guarantee a 15% Click-Through Rate on SMS Campaigns\n\nIf click-through rate is what matters, platforms should stand behind measurable performance.\n\nWe do\n\n**If your SMS campaign doesn’t achieve at least a 15% click-through rate, we’ll give you 10,000 free text messages and a strategy session to help you improve it.**\n\nNot as a gimmick\n\nAs a statement of confidence\n\nStrong nonprofit SMS marketing should drive measurable engagement. If it isn’t, something can be improved:\n\n  * message clarity\n  * timing\n  * audience segmentation\n  * offer strength\n  * call to action\n\n\n\nWe’ll help you diagnose what’s wrong and fix it.\n\nBecause stats don’t raise money.\n\nResults do\n\n* * *\n\n## Stop Chasing SMS Marketing Myths\n\nThe nonprofit sector doesn’t have time for recycled statistics that sound impressive but don’t change outcomes.\n\nSMS marketing is a powerful channel. That’s exactly why it deserves honest measurement.\n\nIf a metric can’t be proven and doesn’t help you make better decisions, it isn’t analytics.\n\nIt’s folklore.\n\nAnd nonprofit marketers deserve numbers that move their mission forward.\n\n## **Don't Take Our Word For It**\n\nIf SMS is going to be part of your fundraising strategy, it should deliver results you can prove.\n\nThat’s why we stand behind performance.\n\n**If your campaign doesn’t achieve at least a 15% click-through rate, we’ll give you 10,000 free text messages and a strategy session to help you improve it.**\n\nNo folklore. No vanity metrics. Just measurable engagement.\n\nIf you want to see how this works in practice, **book a demo, and we’ll walk you through it.**\n\n👉 https://www.rallycorp.com/demo",
  "title": "98% SMS Open Rates Are a Myth",
  "updatedAt": "2026-02-11T02:36:06.316Z"
}