Which Marketing Tool is Better: SMS or Emails?
Which marketing tool is better: SMS or emails? Is it one or the other, or a combination of both? The answer is dependent on the scenarios and touchpoints unique to your customers and business. Since each channel has its own strengths and weaknesses, consider the pros and cons of both in order to determine the best approach for your marketing strategy.
SMS Marketing
Text message marketing offers various benefits because of its ability to grab customers quickly. Its advantages include the following:
- Offers a direct, immediate channel to your customers with a 98% open rate
- Speed and instant delivery of messages with 90% of customers checking their texts within 3 minutes
- High engagement rates with more than 50% of customers taking action in response to a promotional SMS marketing messages
- An internet connection is not required, making SMS messages easily available to mobile users anywhere and anytime
- Bulk SMS options with a platform like Main Street Contact allows for easy access to unlimited customers at minimum cost
The disadvantages of text messaging include the following:
- SMS is not appropriate for longer texts or messages with attachments
- Marketing costs associated with text messaging must be monitored and managed to optimize ROI (return on investment)
Email Marketing
With projections of 4.4 billion email users by 2023, email is a key business tool offering security, convenience, versatility and the ability to send detailed information. Email marketing advantages include the following:
- Email is customisable and media-friendly, making it possible to promote brand identity and personalise messages with headlines, links, and graphics
- Email marketing easily directs clients to your website
- Email platforms offer security and ease in information transfer
- Email marketing campaigns can be cost-effective depending on the customisation and coding required
The disadvantages of email marketing include the following:
- With 306.4 billion emails reported to be sent in 2020, email marketing messages risk being left unread or ending up in junk folders
- Response rates for email marketing are slow as most people check emails only 1 to 3 times a day outside of working hours
SMS and emails both offer various benefits as marketing tools. Examine the nature of your business and customer needs to deploy a marketing strategy which works best to your advantage. A requirement for a direct approach with a need to deliver time-sensitive information will clearly point you towards SMS marketing. If you need to send longer, more complex messages to promote your brand identity, you may want to pursue email marketing. In most cases, a multi-channel marketing strategy using both types of tools to complement each other will leverage the strengths of either medium and help to maximise your return on investment.