Email vs SMS marketing – which is the better choice?

As a marketer, it’s your job to analyse all marketing channels and find out what works best for your business in terms of results and ROI. While channels like content marketing, SEO, social media, and performance marketing take the top places, there are also channels like email and SMS marketing that can provide great results too and that’s what we’ll cover and compare in this blog.

Email marketing

Email marketing means sending emails to potential and current customers. It’s a digital strategy to promote products or services, build relationships, keep customers updated, and boost loyalty. This method includes newsletters, promotional offers, announcements, and customised messages based on the recipient’s likes and actions. It’s an efficient way to reach many people and track results with analytics for better future campaigns.

Pros:

1. Cost-effective: Email marketing generally costs less than traditional advertising.
2. Targeted audiences: You can segment your email list to target specific groups, increasing relevance and engagement.
3. Measurable results: Provides clear metrics like open and click-through rates to track and adjust strategies.
4. High ROI: Often provides a high return on investment when done well.
5. Automation: Easily automate campaigns to reach people at the best times without manual work.
6. Personalisation: Allows for personalised content to boost engagement and loyalty.
7. Wider reach: Connects you to a global audience, reaching customers worldwide.

Cons:

1. Spam issues: Poorly targeted campaigns might be marked as spam, affecting deliverability.
2. Regulatory compliance: Must follow laws like GDPR and CAN-SPAM, which can be complex and vary by region.
3. Overcrowded inboxes: Consumers get many emails daily, making it hard to stand out.
4. Deliverability issues: Emails might not always reach the inbox due to spam filters and other challenges.

SMS marketing

SMS marketing is a type of direct marketing where businesses send promotional messages, alerts, or updates to customers through text messages on their phones. Text messages have high open rates, making SMS marketing an effective way to reach customers. Businesses often use SMS marketing to send special offers, reminders, appointment confirmations, and updates about new products or services. This approach helps businesses communicate quickly with their customers, often resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates.

Pros:

1. High open rates: More than 90% of SMS messages are opened, much more than emails.
2. Immediate delivery: Text messages are sent right away, perfect for urgent offers.
3. Wide reach: Almost everyone has a mobile phone, so you can contact a large and varied audience.
4. Personalisation: You can make SMS personal by using the recipient’s name and customising messages based on their past actions or likes.
5. No internet needed: People don’t need internet access to get text messages.

Cons:

1. Limited message length: SMS is limited to 160 characters, restricting how much you can say.
2. Regulatory constraints: You must follow rules like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to avoid legal trouble.
3. Potential for spam: If not done right, SMS marketing can seem like spam, causing high unsubscribe rates.
4. Costs: Though usually cost-effective, expenses can rise quickly when sending lots of messages, especially with extra services.
5. Negative perception: Some might find unsolicited texts intrusive, harming the brand’s image.
6. Technical restrictions: SMS can’t handle multimedia or complex formats like email can, which might reduce engagement.

Email vs SMS marketing

While both email and SMS marketing are great marketing channels but have some key differences.

	Email Marketing	SMS Marketing
Content Length	Can include lengthy and detailed content	Limited to short, concise messages
Media Support	Supports rich media like images, videos, and links	Primarily text, can include links but limited media
Personalisation	Highly customisable	Limited personalisation options
Reach	Requires internet access and email account	Requires mobile network access and a phone number
Delivery Speed	Generally slower, depending on internet connection	Almost instantaneous delivery
Open Rate	Lower open rates compared to SMS	Higher open rates
Cost	Generally lower cost per recipient	Can be more expensive per message
Engagement Tracking	Detailed analytics available	Limited analytics capability
Frequency	Can send multiple emails over time	Generally less frequent to avoid intrusiveness

As you can see in the above table, email marketing has a few more benefits than SMS marketing, which makes it a better choice for most businesses. One thing to note here is that if you need to reach exclusively mobile users, then SMS marketing is the way to go.

Also, keep in mind that while both can reach your users on time, email marketing has the added benefit of supporting images and GIFs, which makes the messaging much more effective.

Conclusion

As made clear by this blog, email marketing is a better choice for most marketing teams, even though it has a lower open rate than SMS. However, it compensates for this by having a higher ROI. SMS marketing is a better choice only when you want to exclusively target mobile devices.

Now that the advantages of email marketing are clear, it’s time to choose the right email marketing tool. Although there are hundreds of options available, many have issues like low deliverability or high pricing. EmailOctopus is the solution, as it offers all the necessary features to start your email marketing for free.