Email vs. SMS Marketing, Which One Is Better?

Email vs. SMS Marketing, Which One Is Better?

In this article you will gain a better understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of email marketing compared to SMS marketing. Both methods can be advantageous to your business marketing, but you should know when and how to use each method.

The problem many businesses face is how and when to use email marketing vs. SMS marketing.

Tracking your return on marketing investment can show you which method brings in more revenue. When you know which method brings in more revenue, this gives you data to support the best marketing method for your target audience.

A common myth is that email and SMS marketing are very costly and difficult to maintain.

Traditional ways of advertising include radio, billboard and printed mailings. You may already be using traditional forms of marketing with a monthly marketing budget. Why not take part of your current budget and shift some of it to SMS and/or email marketing to see which gives a better return on investment?

Here are the pros and cons of email marketing vs. SMS marketing

• What is the cost difference?
Both methods take time and effort, and potentially have a similar startup cost. But looking at the delivery cost, email can have little to no delivery cost depending on the size of your marketing list of email subscribers. SMS marketing will cost per text message. Initially email marketing can be more cost effective than SMS marketing.
• What kind of marketing strategy can I use?
Let's start with email marketing again. An email marketing strategy can be personal with a flexible design. It is less intrusive, shareable and definitely measurable. On the other hand, SMS marketing has a smaller message, therefore less flexible. Often times SMS marketing is seen as intrusive, but that is easily remedied with a simple required opt-in/opt-out message. Also SMS marketing can be just as personal as email marketing, shareable and measurable. The winner here is not clearly defined. Both email marketing and SMS marketing can be a part of a marketing plan. For example, your target market can determine which one works the best. If your target market is millennials, sending SMS will most likely be more useful than email marketing.
• What is the open rate?
Marketing strategy now leads us to one of the most important goals of marketing, which method leads to more visibility of your marketing message? We have a clear winner between email marketing and SMS marketing. According to industry standards, a good open rate for email marketing is 25%. This means for every 100 emails, 25 are opened. SMS marketing has an open rate of 98% with 90% of them being opened within 3 seconds! If you receive any SMS from businesses you know, this statistic should not be very surprising. Mobile smartphones are very personal and widely used on a daily basis.
• How intrusive is my message?
Email marketing is known as being less intrusive than advertising such as a telemarketer or tv commercial. The recipient opens the email at a suitable time and place. SMS marketing can be seen as intrusive if the recipient does not want your message. But with current regulations, the recipients can opt-in and opt-out of your messages at any time. Neither method wins at being intrusive. Message recipients have the control on when and where to receive emails and SMS.
• How can I track the results?
Tracking results of an email campaign can be very easy with a marketing automation platform such as Mailchimp. Setting up the automation is time consuming and is most often left to the professionals. A customized email marketing campaign once in place, can give you immediate tracking of results such as opt-in rates and purchases. SMS marketing can be easily tracked and results can be compared against the investment to decide which campaigns work best for your target market.

Helpful Do's and Don'ts for deciding on email marketing vs. SMS marketing.

When deciding on email marketing vs. SMS marketing make sure to compare both options for your business. Find an agency that understands your business and your target audience so that a knowledgeable expert can help you with email marketing, SMS marketing or both.
Don't dismiss either option before doing your research. You may find that your business and your target audience respond better to several marketing strategies. Don't give up before testing one or both of these methods.

Next Steps

Take a few minutes and browse through some Advantages and Disadvantages of Email Marketing. Also look at Advantages and Disadvantages of SMS Marketing. If you haven't used either one, I suggest you research both.
If all of this seems out of reach or you don't think you will have time to implement these marketing strategies, find an agency for hire with experience. Contact us here at captivatingtheweb.com.