Email vs. SMS Marketing: Understanding the Potential of Each for Higher Revenue

It’s an outstanding tool to:

• Promote products and services: Emails are used to announce product launches, special offers, and discounts.
• Build relationships: Regular email communication can help nurture customers and re-engage inactive subscribers with offers and deals.
• Drive sales: Targeted email campaigns can guide people through the marketing funnel, increasing revenue.
• Increase brand awareness: Emails can be used to share company updates, industry insights, and thought-leadership pieces to position yourself as an expert.

Brands use this channel to:

• Promote sales and offers: Flash sales, discount codes, and coupons can be directly sent to customers’ mobiles.
• Drive traffic to websites or apps: Text messages can often include links that guide users to specific landing pages or websites.
• Share updates and reminders: Appointment reminders, order statuses, and event reminders can be conveniently sent through SMS.
• Increase customer engagement: Text messages can facilitate two-way communication, helping collect valuable customer feedback immediately.

In comparison to SMS marketing, email marketing offers a wealth of advantages, such as:

1. Cost-effectiveness: Email marketing can be incredibly affordable compared to traditional marketing methods such as print advertising or TV commercials. 
2. Measurable results: Every email campaign metric can be analyzed, providing clarity on what needs improvement.
3. Scalability: Your email list can steadily grow and help you connect with a broader audience, making email marketing a long-term sustainable strategy.
4. Targeted communication: Email marketing allows for hyper-personalized content through a segmentation strategy. This enables you to send ultra-relevant email content to subscribers, increasing engagement.
5. Rich-content capabilities: Emails are not limited to text. You can include GIFs, videos, interactive elements, and surveys to increase user participation.
6. Nurturing leads: Emails help you nurture leads by sharing value-driven information that educates, builds trust, and converts potential customers.
7. Brand awareness: Regular email communication through marketing newsletters or educational messages helps keep your brand on top of customers’ minds.

Although effective, email marketing comes with drawbacks, such as:

1. Lower open rates than SMS: With fierce inbox competition, emails are more likely to get deleted without being opened.
2. Spam filters: Strict spam filters can mistakenly regard your emails as a threat, preventing them from reaching your subscribers.
3. Unsubscribes: People are bound to unsubscribe from emails without valuable and consistent information. Too many spam complaints and unsubscribes can cause sender reputation issues.
4. Time-consumption: Managing email lists, crafting compelling content, and driving engagement can take time and effort. Whereas, creating SMS campaigns could be simpler.
5. Technical issues: Email deliverability (the ability for emails to reach customer inboxes) can be easily impacted by server limitations or outdated email addresses. SMS campaigns are not often held back for deliverability or technical issues.

If you require additional information to decide, use the following segmentation categories below:

• User behavior: Analyze email engagement (Opens, clicks), website activity, and purchase frequencies.
• Lifecycle stage: Sub-categorize customers into new subscribers, leads, customers, repeat customers, or lapsed customers.
• Engagement level: Are they active, inactive, or frequent buyers?
• Geographic location: Where are customers located, including the country, region, city, and timezone.
• Customer persona: Use them based on your fictional customer profiles.

Utilize the following tips to create content that resonates with every subscriber:

1. Focus on providing value: Offer informative, educational, and relevant content satisfying your audiences’ preferences.
2. Personalize your messages: Use subscribers’ names and tailor content based on their segments.
3. Use strong visuals: Include high-quality images or videos to pique curiosity and encourage engagement.
4. Write compelling call-to-actions: Guide subscribers toward the next steps, whether visiting a website, making a purchase, or scheduling a meeting.

Optimizing email delivery involves syncing different elements, for example:

• Creating mobile-friendly designs: Ensure emails display well across devices. This includes optimizing the buttons, CTAs, and hamburger menus, if any.
• Crafting clear subject lines: Create intriguing subject lines to increase engagement. The ideal length is 30-50 characters.
• Use clean and professional design: Maintain consistent brand identity with similar colors, fonts, and email elements.
• Optimize sending times: Identify the best time to send emails based on your audiences’ preferences and purchase history. For example, an abandoned cart email must be sent immediately after users add items to their cart. Meanwhile, a promotional email can wait until later.

Here are common ways to use automation:

• Welcome emails: Automatically send a welcome message to new subscribers to introduce your brand and create rapport.
• Abandoned cart emails: Remind customers about items left in their carts to complete the checkout.
• Transactional emails: Helps you send automated post-purchase updates such as order confirmations, shipping updates, or appointment reminders.
• Birthday or anniversary emails: You can offer personalized recommendations, discounts, or offers to celebrate the occasion.

Common metrics to track are:

1. Open rate,
2. Click-through rate,
3. Unsubscribe,
4. Bounce rate.

Here’s how SMS marketing capitalizes on the need for immediate action:

• Better open rates than emails: With lesser competition, text messages can have better open rates.
• Real-time delivery: Texts are delivered almost instantly, helping users stay updated on the go.
• Short and actionable: The limited character count forces brands to stay relevant and brief.

The drawbacks of using SMS are:

• Limited character count than emails: A single text message can contain up to 160 characters, making it challenging to craft compelling messages.
• Restricted content: SMS marketing heavily relies on text messages, limiting the visual impact and storytelling potential.
• Slightly higher cost than emails: The cost per message can increase based on the carrier.
• Limited tracking and measuring: Although you can track basic metrics such as open and click-through rates, SMS marketing doesn’t offer the same level of flexibility as email marketing. 

Ultimately, choosing a channel comes down to:

• Your target audience: Do they prefer long-form content or concise messages? Are they busy, or do they have the time to read through lengthy emails? Consider their preferences and habits before deciding on a marketing channel.
• Your marketing goals: Are you aiming for brand awareness, fostering loyalty, or driving sales? Your goals will guide you through the appropriate channel.
• The nature of your messages: Are they brief and time-sensitive (SMS) or detailed and informative? (Email). Consider a medium based on your content length and the presence of multimedia elements.