Companies have relied on email marketing as their go-to strategy for decades. SMS marketing is gradually becoming more and more popular, though, as mobile phones and text messaging become more and more ubiquitous. Here is the skinny on email marketing vs. SMS marketing.
Phones account for 54.8% of all web traffic worldwide. Approaches using email and SMS each have specific advantages for connecting with your audience. However, determining which strategy is best for you can be quite difficult.
You must therefore choose which kind of marketing is more effective for you. Here, we’ll contrast SMS marketing with email marketing. Of course, we’ll examine several aspects that could influence your choice.
Comparisons of the main factors between SMS and email marketing
You need to take a few important aspects into account when selecting a marketing plan. Specifically, they are Open Rate, Deliverability, Click-Through Rates, Cost, and Customization.
Given the current state of affairs, consumers are more distracted than ever. An individual’s attention span is typically eight seconds, according to a Microsoft study from years ago. Furthermore, new research indicates that it is gradually narrowing and even falling by 88% annually.
In essence, you have a limited amount of time to capture your audience’s attention before they look elsewhere. As a result, this has come to be considered as one of the main reasons why SMS Marketing now has a noticeable open rate advantage over Email Marketing.
Email to SMS marketing engages with your audience and customers because it takes a more direct and concise approach. As a result of the fact that so many people are glued to their phones, SMS have a greater chance of getting read. Additionally, SMS or texts immediately alert consumers.
SMS marketing has a higher than 98% open rate as a result. Emails, on the other hand, only have a 20% opening rate.
An approach that is more direct is SMS marketing. Statistics also show that SMS is more efficient. As a result, the simplicity of a marketing effort is frequently key to its success.
Email marketing vs. SMS marketing
SMS marketing has been shown to be superior.
Since your audience can choose to participate or not in SMS marketing, it stands to reason that only your loyal consumers would choose to use it.
Email marketing, however, has a more expansive list and a wider set of reach. Your emails run the danger of being classified as spam, though. This procedure doesn’t apply to SMS, or doesn’t apply to the same degree, for text messages.
Unlike email notifications, which take a while to arrive on a user’s phone, text notifications are received virtually instantly. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that SMS marketing also results in a quicker response rate. Compared to emails, which may take up to 90 minutes, their average response time to texts is just 90 seconds.
In general, text message marketing enhances the likelihood that your message will reach your target demographic. However, there are still things you can do to make sure your email bounce rates go down. These consist of keeping your list up to date, sending relevant emails, establishing credibility by confirming your domain, etc.
Deliverability tests between SMS marketing and email marketing show that SMS is superior.
CTRs, or click-through rates
High CTR potential exists for both SMS marketing and email marketing. However, the quality of your Calls-To-Action (CTA) copywriting will determine if the deal closes or not. Your material becomes more appealing with a strong call to action. This encourages your reader to click through and explore what you have to offer. You must present an irresistible offer to your target in each of these marketing strategies.
However, given the character limit for text message marketing, you can encounter a small difficulty. The majority of the time, there is a 160-character limit, so you need to be inventive! After all, your goal is to persuade your audience to take advantage of your offer.
Customers can take advantage of your offers quickly and easily with a branded link, which can increase conversion rates.
Nevertheless, with a 4% CTR rate, texts are shorter and simpler to read than emails. The click-through rate for SMS marketing is higher than that of any other communication channel by 9.18%.
SMS marketing has been shown to be superior to email marketing (CTR).
Cost
This is one of the elements that could significantly influence your choice, particularly if you’re just starting off. Therefore, the price of SMS marketing varies depending on a number of variables. These often consist of:
the amount of text messages sent, the length of the texts themselves,
the country or region you’re from or where your audiences are.
SMS marketing may therefore be more expensive than email marketing.
Since non-time-sensitive communications may be distributed to a large audience, email marketing is the most economical method. The cost of email personalization, however, is highly individualised to the business itself and depends on what they feel required.
Email marketing has been shown to be more cost-effective or cheaper when compared to SMS marketing (CTR).
Customization
It goes without saying that email marketing offers a great deal more customization than SMS text messages. As a result, you must make sure that your messages are succinct, concise, and to the point due to the 160-character limit. You must therefore keep it succinct but powerful. However, emails allow you greater flexibility and independence.
Sending forms, photos, videos, hyperlinks, and attachments via email is possible. The colours, design, and logo also effectively accentuate the tone and voice of your brand.
Email marketing has been shown to be more adaptable than SMS marketing in terms of customization.