In today’s digital age, it’s no surprise that businesses are turning to technology to communicate with their customers. However, when trying to decide which communication channel is best to utilize, many businesses are uncertain of the differences between email and SMS marketing. Email marketing and SMS marketing are two popular channels that have their own unique advantages and drawbacks. In this blog post, we’ll compare and contrast email marketing versus SMS marketing to help you decide which one is best for your business. We’ll discuss the cost, targeting capabilities, engagement potential, and more to ensure you have a clear understanding of their differences and can make the most informed decision for your business.
SMS vs. Email Marketing | Digital Marketing Duels
What is SMS marketing?
Short message service marketing, also known as SMS marketing, is a form of advertising that texts consumers. To promote more sales, these automated text messages inform recipients of new products and promotional offers. Short messages and URLs that prompt users to act quickly are frequently used in SMS marketing.
What is email marketing?
Customers who choose to receive these promotional emails are sent emails as part of the advertising strategy known as email marketing. The goal of a company’s strategy may be to attract new clients or customers in order to increase brand loyalty. Email marketing has a variety of objectives, but common ones include promoting products, sharing company news, and giving out discount codes.
Differences between email marketing and SMS marketing
The following are some of the main distinctions between SMS marketing and email marketing:
Customer signups
It’s crucial to comprehend some legalities when choosing which clients to send marketing messages to. Businesses are required by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to obtain customers’ permission before sending promotional texts. Even if the person gave the company their phone number for another reason, this requirement still applies. Most SMS list-building campaigns involve promoting a text message opt-in number and code that consumers can easily remember and use to receive promotional messages.
Businesses can send emails to customers even if they haven’t explicitly subscribed to their mailing lists, making email marketing seem a little more flexible. Even though sending these unsolicited emails is legal, it’s still crucial to follow CAN-SPAM rules, such as using precise subject lines and including a physical postal address. It’s also important to remember that a lot of email marketing tools only let you send messages to people who have subscribed to your mailing list. By gathering email addresses from your existing records and creating a website landing page to request emails, you can grow your email list.
Purpose
Both forms of advertising serve the same functions of connecting with consumers and encouraging enduring loyalty. For sending longer messages that recipients can save for later use, many businesses rely on email marketing. For instance, a business might provide tips for making a customer’s shopping experience better or send a download PDF as a gift. Sending quick, pertinent messages about limited-time discount codes via SMS is more practical. Customers frequently have to act quickly because text messages tend to be urgent.
Message composition
Most SMS messages have a maximum of 160 characters. Due to this restriction, marketers must convey their message succinctly while still including all necessary information. As a result, promotional texts can make use of abbreviations and more informal language than what readers typically use in text messages. While promotional texts typically only contain words, they may also include URLs that allow users to view new products or redeem discounts.
The message structure is a little bit more flexible in email marketing. Although they are strategic about text length, marketers can include paragraphs of information that will hold customers’ attention. Emails are compatible with design elements, links, pictures, and videos, enabling marketers to use this channel to create interesting and educational messages.
Software
Various software exists for email marketing and SMS marketing. You can use the software to create your messages and set sending times. This software also sends customer responses to individuals within your organization, automates responses, and keeps track of crucial metrics like open rates.
The cost of the software depends on various factors. For instance, more expensive email marketing campaigns typically have larger subscriber lists than smaller subscriber lists. The number of texts you send, the length of each method, and the location of your customers are frequently taken into account in pricing models for SMS software. Note that a customer may need to pay to receive texts depending on their carrier and phone plan. Obtaining a customer’s consent before sending promotional texts is crucial due to this potential cost.
Open rate
The frequency with which an audience opens an email can vary depending on the audience’s demographics and the subject line or message preview’s content. Due to the fact that text messages are delivered directly to customers’ phones, some businesses discover that SMS marketing increases open rates. The long-form nature of these messages may cause delayed open rates even though customers can also receive email notifications on their phones.
Customer engagement
Email and SMS marketing are popular forms of one-way communication for businesses. You can modify how you employ these techniques if you wanted to increase customer engagement. For instance, you can designate replies to go to various people in your organization rather than sending emails from a “no-reply” email address. If you use SMS marketing, you can automate answers to basic questions and remove text such as “Do Not Reply” from text messages using your SMS marketing software.
Ideal target audiences
The target market of a business may have an impact on the advertising strategy it chooses. Generally speaking, younger demographics prefer texting as their primary form of communication. If customers are older and have regular access to the internet, email may be more effective. Nevertheless, it’s critical for a business to consider the preferences of its customers. For instance, a company may find that, despite targeting primarily college students, its school emails have relatively high open rates.
FAQ
Is SMS better than email marketing?
In terms of open rate, SMS marketing easily outperforms email marketing. While email only receives an average open rate of 20%, SMS campaigns can reach 98%. Consequently, text message response rates are much higher than email response rates.
How effective is email and SMS marketing?
SMS is a quick and convenient way to connect with a brand and receive real-time information about the products and offers, and 66% of the audience prefers it over email and calls. Given that SMS has an average 98% open rate and 36% CTR, text messaging can help the brand sell more products if used properly.
Is SMS marketing digital marketing?
Any multi-channel digital marketing strategy can benefit greatly from the use of SMS messaging. More than ever, it’s crucial to present the right users with the right product at the right time.
Do customers like SMS marketing?
The majority of consumers (42. 4% of people want four to six messages a month from companies. Further statistics on SMS marketing show that nearly 40% of consumers prefer to hear from brands two to three times per week, while nearly 19% are content with receiving promotional SMS just once per day.
