Denver, Colorado, April 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TextUs, the leading business SMS platform for revenue teams, today released the 2026 SMS Engagement + Benchmark Report, a comprehensive analysis of how sales, recruiting, marketing, and customer success teams are using SMS to drive measurable business outcomes. Drawing on responses from 763 professionals across major industries, the report establishes the first detailed set of SMS performance benchmarks by industry, job function, and funnel stage — and exposes a significant utilization gap that is costing teams revenue.
The average 1:1 SMS response rate across all industries surveyed is 34.7% — compared to an 8.5% average response rate for outreach email. Top-quartile SMS programs are seeing response rates above 56%.
“The data in this report tells a clear story: SMS isn’t just performing better than email — it’s performing better at every stage of the funnel, and the teams that have figured that out are compounding that advantage every day,” said Martin Payne, CEO of TextUs. “Our goal with this research is to give every revenue team a baseline they can actually use — not just to validate SMS, but to show exactly where the biggest opportunities are hiding.”
Key Findings
SMS outperforms email by a 4:1 margin on response rates. The 34.7% average 1:1 SMS response rate across all industries dwarfs the 8.5% average for outreach email. Nearly one in four respondents (24%) report 1:1 SMS response rates above 56%, and another 25% see rates between 26% and 45%.
Speed is a competitive differentiator. More than 9% of SMS replies arrive within five minutes, and 25% within 30 minutes. Research consistently shows that the probability of qualifying a lead drops dramatically after the first five minutes of inbound interest — a window where SMS operates and email does not.
The highest-performing funnel stages have the lowest adoption. Only 17.3% of SMS users deploy it at deal close — the lowest adoption of any funnel stage — despite the stage showing a 39.6% response rate and the highest email outperformance in the entire dataset (82.2%). Similarly, just 18.8% use SMS for renewals, even though 58.2% of those who do say it directly increases revenue there.
One integration nearly triples performance. Teams with their SMS platform connected to a CRM see response rates nearly triple compared to teams using SMS in isolation. Conversation depth jumps from 8.9% to 45.4%, and speed to reply improves from 10.1% to over 33%.
AI is creating a measurable performance gap. 39.5% of SMS users are already pairing AI with their texting. Among that group, 84% say SMS outperforms email on response rates — compared to 57.5% of teams not using AI alongside SMS, a 26-point gap created entirely by how the tool is being used, not the channel itself.
Frequency is killing campaigns. 57.7% of respondents say they unsubscribe from business texts because brands text too much. High-performing teams are differentiated not by send volume, but by relevance and restraint.
RCS adoption is accelerating — and performance data backs it. 22.8% of SMS users have already implemented RCS, with another 25.7% planning to. RCS users see a 42% reply-within-30-minutes rate compared to 27.9% for non-RCS users, and 81.5% say SMS outperforms email — versus 63.9% among non-RCS users.
Industry Benchmarks
The report includes average 1:1 SMS response rates segmented by industry, with Hospitality/Real Estate (37.2%), Recruiting/Staffing (37.0%), and Software/Technology (34.5%) among the top performers. Financial Services/Lending (34.4%) and Customer Service/Support (34.5%) closely track the overall benchmark. The report also breaks down performance by job function, with Human Resources (37.7%) and Revenue Operations (37.6%) leading by role.
About the Report
The 2026 SMS Engagement + Benchmark Report is based on primary survey research conducted in March 2026. The survey was accessed by 871 respondents; 763 qualified for inclusion, of whom 521 identified as current SMS users. Industries represented include software and technology (34.9%), financial services and lending (21.2%), sales and marketing (19.5%), recruiting and staffing (5.7%), customer service and support (5.5%), and others. The report is available for free download at textus.com.
- 2026 SMS Engagement + Benchmark Report