Study: Millennials show strong preference for texting

Whether with friends or a favorite business, Millennials like texting. That's the takeaway from new OpenMarket data which indicates nearly three-quarters (72%) of Millennials text at least 10 times daily, and most 'prefer' text-based communications from businesses.

by Kristina Knight

Researchers found that about one-third (31%) of Millennials text upwards of 50 times per day.

Not only are they texting often, Millennials were found to respond to texts quickly with 83% saying they respond to texts within 90 seconds. The report also indicates that while most Millennials say they want the ability to text with favorite businesses, about 60% are currently getting 5 or fewer business texts each week. This could be an indicator that brands are missing a key engager for this demographic.

"The goal of this survey was to dive deeper into the mobile-millennial mindset and learn not only why this age group prefers text messaging as their main communication tool for business interactions, but at what level they are looking to engage," said Jay Emmet, general manager for OpenMarket. "These results show that the capabilities of SMS are very prevalent with millennials, who desire more opportunities to communicate through texting, including more personal two-way interactions. Businesses need to further harness the popularity of SMS to realize better overall engagement and customer loyalty with the millennial generation."

Other interesting findings include:

• 50% of Millennials say they want fraud alerts by text
• 80% say they prefer texting a brand's 800 number rather than calling it
• 62% would like to receive appointment reminders via text
• About half would like payment and delivery reminders

Tags: millennial marketing, mobile marketing, mobile trends, Open Market, texting trends