The Shift to SMS: 3 Reasons Why People Have Their Phone Numbers on Instagram
Table of Contents
In addition to guest posting on the UpCity blog, Social Media Relations is featured as one of our Top Instagram Marketing Agencies in Los Angeles. Check out their profile here.
Billions of people are on the lookout for products and services all day, every day, especially due to current events. This has brought a rise in companies utilizing marketing tactics to appear first in front of potential customers.
Previous to now, you may have thought phone numbers are becoming unsuccessful for your company’s outreach. Luckily for businesses, social media users have stepped forward by providing their phone number to apps such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Now that we’ve touched the surface, let’s dive into:
- Why people have their phone numbers on Instagram
- 3 smart things you can do with SMS Marketing as a business
Why People Have Their Phone Numbers on Instagram
1. Accessibility
Let’s first define “accessibility” around this context, which means: “the quality of being able to be reached or entered.” By adding their phone numbers, users sync contacts automatically to their social accounts. This way, looking for friends and family is just a simple click away.
2. Targeted Content
Instagram provides optimized “you may also know” profiles when searching for people.

Although, sometimes these friend suggestions are not individuals but businesses, so, when linking a phone number to your business, Instagram may up your ranking on their in-app SEO rankings, exposing you to additional consumers near your area.
3. Personalization
Users love personalization.
Reading your name will never be as powerful as getting to know relevant profiles, businesses, offers, or events according to your interests. With the gauge of technology that we’re up to, placeholders started to feel “normal” already. Instead, users now expect highly-targeted, easy-to-access content based on their social media track record.
Speaking about phone numbers, it’s time to leverage them for marketing.
3 Smart Things You Can Do with SMS Marketing As A Business
People check their emails several times a day; however, it is still a “business tool” which people find impersonal, this is why companies have started to switch toward SMS marketing.
To help you visualize the abysmal gap between email vs SMS marketing, here’s an interesting graphic:

- SMS
- Statistics have shown that 98% of all text messages are opened and 95% of those that viewed the message is responded to within 3 minutes of being delivered.
- You can start a conversation — As many as 45% of people reply to branded text message blasts received
- Moreover, 75% of customers would like special offers sent to them via text message which makes your Click-Through-Rate for these types of text messages are much higher (9.18%), compared to other marketing channels such as Facebook (0.90%) and Google Adwords (1.91%).
- EMAIL
- An email has an average open rate of 20%.
- Statistics show that email has 3.9 billion active users, and still 60% of email opens come from mobile devices.
- According to SmartInsights, half of the marketers feel their email campaigns are very poor to average.
Now that we’re on the same page about SMS marketing, here are 3 things you can do with SMS marketing as a business:
1. Segment Your Offers and SMS-Based on Location (Great for Retailers and Restaurants)
With phone number area codes, you may send different offers and announcements to your list and it being read within 5 minutes of being received (most of the time). For example, a local restaurant could leverage SMS marketing to announce a special, limited-time offer Additionally, restaurants and other physical businesses could hyperlink their food-ordering site, for easy access to order from their mobile devices
2. Send Thousands of Messages for a Few Dollars (But With Higher Conversion Rates than Email)
As discussed earlier, SMS marketing yields an average of 9% click-through rate. Worried about the costs of sending bulk SMS? You can find low-cost software with a single Google search. Whether you prefer the best price, customer support, accessibility, or testimonials, type it in the search engine and you’ll find the right one.
3. Tap Into Our Most Personal Item
When was the last time you went out without your phone? Probably a long time ago with the feeling you were missing something quite valuable. Grabbing someone else’s phone has become more intimate and invasive than peeping through a woman’s purse. For marketing purposes, that’s great. You see, Whatsapp and SMS are still the most personal communication tools used by people all over the world.
A business sending SMS text messages makes you feel more connected to it than any other social network. Taking advantage of this method can help attract more customers and grow your business. Most importantly, take action now before a new trend arises and SMS falls behind. But it is important to keep ethics in place by ONLY marketing to those who have given consent.
Conclusion
More and more platforms sync with phone numbers every day. Yet, businesses may be losing a fair chance to tap into their customers’ deepest emotional item, their cell phone. Email is good. Social media is great. But Text Messages coming from a place where friends and family chat may wildly accelerate your marketing. Time to tap into the SMS marketing world? It sure is.
About the author

Alonso Lozano
Alonso Lozano is an 18-year-old Mexican copywriter & closer that helps businesses and influencers get their message out clearly and simply to connect, get heard, and sell more. He has helped international brands double their online revenue with email marketing, helped startups set up their first-ever website copy, closed dozens of deals for a two comma club influencer, and he currently leads Social Media Relation’s business development team. “A man in a body’s child”, his friends would say. A sports, music, and self-development lover with a mission to impact 1,000,000 lives.
Table of Contents
In addition to guest posting on the UpCity blog, Social Media Relations is featured as one of our Top Instagram Marketing Agencies in Los Angeles. Check out their profile here.
Billions of people are on the lookout for products and services all day, every day, especially due to current events. This has brought a rise in companies utilizing marketing tactics to appear first in front of potential customers.
Previous to now, you may have thought phone numbers are becoming unsuccessful for your company’s outreach. Luckily for businesses, social media users have stepped forward by providing their phone number to apps such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Now that we’ve touched the surface, let’s dive into:
- Why people have their phone numbers on Instagram
- 3 smart things you can do with SMS Marketing as a business
Why People Have Their Phone Numbers on Instagram
1. Accessibility
Let’s first define “accessibility” around this context, which means: “the quality of being able to be reached or entered.” By adding their phone numbers, users sync contacts automatically to their social accounts. This way, looking for friends and family is just a simple click away.
2. Targeted Content
Instagram provides optimized “you may also know” profiles when searching for people.

Although, sometimes these friend suggestions are not individuals but businesses, so, when linking a phone number to your business, Instagram may up your ranking on their in-app SEO rankings, exposing you to additional consumers near your area.
3. Personalization
Users love personalization.
Reading your name will never be as powerful as getting to know relevant profiles, businesses, offers, or events according to your interests. With the gauge of technology that we’re up to, placeholders started to feel “normal” already. Instead, users now expect highly-targeted, easy-to-access content based on their social media track record.
Speaking about phone numbers, it’s time to leverage them for marketing.
3 Smart Things You Can Do with SMS Marketing As A Business
People check their emails several times a day; however, it is still a “business tool” which people find impersonal, this is why companies have started to switch toward SMS marketing.
To help you visualize the abysmal gap between email vs SMS marketing, here’s an interesting graphic:

- SMS
- Statistics have shown that 98% of all text messages are opened and 95% of those that viewed the message is responded to within 3 minutes of being delivered.
- You can start a conversation — As many as 45% of people reply to branded text message blasts received
- Moreover, 75% of customers would like special offers sent to them via text message which makes your Click-Through-Rate for these types of text messages are much higher (9.18%), compared to other marketing channels such as Facebook (0.90%) and Google Adwords (1.91%).
- EMAIL
- An email has an average open rate of 20%.
- Statistics show that email has 3.9 billion active users, and still 60% of email opens come from mobile devices.
- According to SmartInsights, half of the marketers feel their email campaigns are very poor to average.
Now that we’re on the same page about SMS marketing, here are 3 things you can do with SMS marketing as a business:
1. Segment Your Offers and SMS-Based on Location (Great for Retailers and Restaurants)
With phone number area codes, you may send different offers and announcements to your list and it being read within 5 minutes of being received (most of the time). For example, a local restaurant could leverage SMS marketing to announce a special, limited-time offer Additionally, restaurants and other physical businesses could hyperlink their food-ordering site, for easy access to order from their mobile devices
2. Send Thousands of Messages for a Few Dollars (But With Higher Conversion Rates than Email)
As discussed earlier, SMS marketing yields an average of 9% click-through rate. Worried about the costs of sending bulk SMS? You can find low-cost software with a single Google search. Whether you prefer the best price, customer support, accessibility, or testimonials, type it in the search engine and you’ll find the right one.
3. Tap Into Our Most Personal Item
When was the last time you went out without your phone? Probably a long time ago with the feeling you were missing something quite valuable. Grabbing someone else’s phone has become more intimate and invasive than peeping through a woman’s purse. For marketing purposes, that’s great. You see, Whatsapp and SMS are still the most personal communication tools used by people all over the world.
A business sending SMS text messages makes you feel more connected to it than any other social network. Taking advantage of this method can help attract more customers and grow your business. Most importantly, take action now before a new trend arises and SMS falls behind. But it is important to keep ethics in place by ONLY marketing to those who have given consent.
Conclusion
More and more platforms sync with phone numbers every day. Yet, businesses may be losing a fair chance to tap into their customers’ deepest emotional item, their cell phone. Email is good. Social media is great. But Text Messages coming from a place where friends and family chat may wildly accelerate your marketing. Time to tap into the SMS marketing world? It sure is.
About the author

Alonso Lozano
Alonso Lozano is an 18-year-old Mexican copywriter & closer that helps businesses and influencers get their message out clearly and simply to connect, get heard, and sell more. He has helped international brands double their online revenue with email marketing, helped startups set up their first-ever website copy, closed dozens of deals for a two comma club influencer, and he currently leads Social Media Relation’s business development team. “A man in a body’s child”, his friends would say. A sports, music, and self-development lover with a mission to impact 1,000,000 lives.