You have become aware of the online rumours. Email advertising is obsolete. Text messages are here to stay.
You say, “Wait a second. Why is my inbox still flooded with offers if email marketing is no longer effective? Why doesn’t everyone in the world text?
Even while we adore SMS, we’ll be the first to admit that email marketing is still very much in use and remains the preferred method for many businesses.
The “correct” marketing strategy for you and your company will depend on the specific requirements of your company, which is something that a lot of marketing literature won’t tell you. In other words, there isn’t a perfect technique to promote to your audience.
So how do you pick the best two-way communication platform for your company? To assist you in making a decision, we’ll examine both SMS marketing and email marketing in more detail.
Email and SMS Marketing Comparison
Every time you start a new marketing campaign, you should pause and decide what your ultimate objective is.
Are you looking to raise money if you’re a nonprofit? Are you, as a retailer, advertising a Black Friday deal or a new apparel line?
You have a number of factors to take into account when you decide between email to SMS, including:
- How frequently do you intend to message your customers?
- How much each communication contains of yours.
- Whether the timing of your marketing message is critical.
- How frequently do you intend to message your customers?
Whatever you do, the fundamental goal of your marketing strategy should be to rapidly and effectively reach your contacts and motivate them to take action.
When to use Email marketing
Emails are generally excellent when your information is not urgent or important. Why? The average email open rate in 2021 was 18%, by the way.
Emails also take longer to be seen than messages, in addition to having relatively low open rates. The average time for a response to an email is 90 minutes (versus 90 seconds for a text message).
Additionally, email marketing works better when you have a lot to say.
Emails can include the entirety of a newsletter, a State of the Union-style speech from your company, or any specific information that your consumers want. also check here How to Set Up Email Encryption for Increased Security
Contrarily, texts often have a character restriction of 160, or 1600 if you’re using MMS.
Email Marketing’s Advantages
- The quantity of text you may include in emails is not limited. As a result, it’s the ideal channel for disseminating longer-form content like newsletters, company updates, or breaking news for the education industry.
- Emails also let you incorporate images in the message. Using pictures or graphics to connect with clients may be a very effective method since visual stimuli frequently provoke strong reactions from individuals.
- Depending on where they reside, subscribers will receive emails with localised blog material, pricing in their own currency, and at a suitable time for their time zone.
When to use SMS marketing
Text marketing is a topic we discuss frequently here (obviously), but why do we like it so much and what is it useful for?
Firstly, SMS are a certain technique to ensure that your words are understood. SMS open rates continue to hover around 98%, and 60% of users say they respond to texts within 1-2 minutes.
Because of this, SMS is the ideal medium for brief information you want clients to receive right away.
Texts are very helpful in:
- Announcements of sales and promotions
- Reminders for appointments
- Sending questionnaires to contacts
- When you want your contacts to respond quickly, such as clicking on links to join programmes or take advantage of promotions, text messaging is the perfect option.
Additionally, stringent character limitations ensure that your messages are always succinct and direct.
The advantages of SMS marketing
- A clear opt-in is required. Advertisers may thus be sure to connect with a motivated audience that is eager to learn more about the company.
- Text messages have a character limit of 160. Consumers are more likely to open and read communications if they are thought of as being succinct, pleasant, and to the point. Nobody likes having their time wasted, yet sending SMS texts doesn’t take up a lot of time.
- Compared to email marketing, which allows businesses to initiate conversations in a friendly manner that is more likely to be appealing, SMS marketing is less common.
- The sending of a text message is immediately followed by its receipt. Nobody will delay you or your clients.
- Additionally, text messages are opened about 98 percent of the time, which is higher than any other form of communication.
SMS V/S Email
The more times your message is heard by your audience, the more probable it is that they will retain it.
Because of this, you can sing the Stanly Steemer jingle while getting ready.
The number and frequency of the messages you send make a genuine, noticeable distinction between SMS marketing efforts and email marketing campaigns. Check here How to Find the Best Time to Send SMS Marketing Messages to Your Audience?
As previously indicated, there is a significant disparity in the open rates of emails and texts. 74 trillion emails are reportedly sent annually compared to only 8 trillion SMS texts.
This implies that before your email campaigns receive the response you need, you’ll frequently need to send them a few (or a dozen) times.
Compared to email, text messages operate somewhat differently since they are sent to your consumers’ text phones.
Given that individuals only disclose their phone number to reputable companies and close family or friends, SMS becomes a more intimate way of contact.
This only means that you may be a little more choosy about the texts you send and how frequently you send them for your text marketing campaigns.
Everything is based on your brand. While a company might just send out one SMS Gateway each week to inform customers about sales or promotions, a church might decide to send its contacts daily devotionals.
This is not to argue that text message marketing doesn’t work with bigger volume campaigns. Just remember to establish a balance between getting your point through and sending too many messages to your connections.
The Ideal Combination of Email and SMS
We don’t want to disparage email marketing in any way. In fact, we think that if it weren’t for email, text marketing wouldn’t be what it is today.
A marketing strategy does not, however, always succeed. For this reason, we advise combining email and text marketing in moderation.
With SimpleTexting’s integrations, combining email and SMS marketing tools is now simpler than ever if you utilise an email marketing solution like Constant Contact or MailChimp.
More than 1,000 applications, including Shopify, Facebook, Google Forms, and Salesforce, support SimpleTexting integration.
In this manner, you may send a follow-up SMS days later with further details on certain discounts to customers who missed an email announcing the specifics of your summer sale.
The Verdict on Text Marketing vs. Email Marketing
As varied as their owners are their businesses.
While one store could prefer texting for receipts and order alerts, another might choose to use email for its weekly newsletter. The good news is that you aren’t forced to make a decision. Adapt your marketing strategies to your demands by combining them.
