Two of the most efficient lead generation techniques in the digital age are email marketing and short messaging service, or SMS, marketing. Which strategy would be better for your company, you ask? Since no two businesses are alike, what works for one might not necessarily apply to another.
You need to take into account aspects like cost, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, degree of engagement, open rate, and return on investment to decide which strategy would support your corporate objectives in less time and less money (ROI).
We shall clarify the SMS marketing vs. email marketing dispute in this blog article. We'll explain each tactic, its workings, advantages, disadvantages, when to apply it, and whether you should use it.
Email marketing: What Is It?
Sending emails to everyone on your email list is known as email marketing. Those that chose to join it are the ones on your list. To inform current and future customers about your new goods, services, deals, and discounts, you would send emails. Consider it a direct method of communication with your clients where you have their consent to send them marketing materials.
Cons And Advantages Of Email Marketing
Every single day, over 125 billion emails are sent. Any business must use email marketing, which works best for conveying more specific information. Its versatility and ROI are also far superior to those of many marketing channels.Actually, you may utilize an email campaign for promotions, subscriptions, and updates on your products.
Pros at email marketing
To use email marketing, consider the following:
It is economical.
Email marketing is a definite winner if you're distributing communications that aren't urgent or time-sensitive to a large audience. Email marketing is a terrific technique to increase brand exposure on a large scale, and marketing managers typically spend 20% of their budget on it.
You may personalize emails.
Emails can be designed to express the character of your brand. This feature enables you to connect with your audience, which helps increase the email marketing conversion rate, any expert from a respectable email marketing business will tell you.
It plays on user intent and behaviors.
An average of 44% of users check their emails at least once every day as a habit. People typically open emails with a certain purpose in mind, such as finding updates, product information, customer assistance, and other things. One of the main factors for the significance of email marketing is this.
It points visitors to your website.
Email marketing is a fantastic strategy to increase website visitors. To boost the number of website visitors looking for your products or services, you can employ targeted email marketing services. Email marketing ROI is increased by using focused traffic.
Cons of Email Marketing
Email marketing is crucial to your overarching marketing objective for a variety of reasons. But there are also downsides:
It can be difficult to capture the attention of the audience at a crowded market.
Each of us receives approximately 121 emails per day on average. It's simple to put everything in the spam folder if you have to go through those emails every day. To increase your open rate, you might engage a specialist in email marketing to create compelling headlines and content. It is possible to stop emails from reaching inboxes.
Present-day email servers include robust filtering. Your email might not be delivered to the recipient's inbox if it appears too spammy. Email marketing professionals can assist you in creating emails that are more likely to be opened by your target audience.
People can easily delete emails or unsubscribe.
Faulty graphics, poorly crafted headlines, unreadable texts and blocked images can make people want to delete your emails or unsubscribe from your list. Working with an email marketing expert can help you avoid this pitfall.
SMS Marketing: What Is It?
SMS marketing is the use of text messaging for brand communication. Similar to email marketing, SMS allows you to communicate with your audience about promotions, campaigns, updates, news, and more.
Before providing any promotional information, SMS and email marketing both ask for permission from your audience. The CAN-SPAM Act and the Consumer Protection Act are the two main pieces of legislation that guard consumers from unwanted SMS (TCPA). These principles and standards are followed by all effective SMS marketing cases.
Email and SMS marketing are both owned channels. This implies that you have full control over who sees your emails or texts. Additionally, it indicates that you have control over the user experience that your clients will have.
The following SMS marketing examples are available to send:
- Promotional SMS: These SMS messages are sent with the goal of raising brand recognition, promoting goods or services, and boosting sales.
- Transactional SMS: These are messages that provide information that your customers require, like updates on deliveries, product details, and order details.
Text messages that simply sync with your potential clients are some other SMS marketing examples. But once more, you are merely staying in touch with your target audience and not really sending out advertising messages.
SMS Marketing's Benefits And Drawbacks
When comparing SMS marketing to email marketing, SMS has the advantage of catching the recipient's attention right away. When you get a text message, your phone notifies you, capturing your immediate and entire attention. This is why the SMS open rate is higher than the email marketing open rate.
There are benefits and drawbacks to SMS marketing related to the sense of urgency the alert created. On the one hand, it might encourage your customers to act right away in response to your promotion. However, if these SMS are delivered at the incorrect moment, users may become annoyed and delete or ignore them.
Let's discuss the particular benefits and drawbacks of SMS marketing.
Pros at SMS Marketing
The following are benefits of SMS marketing:
Your clients don't require internet.
It's noteworthy that 15% of Americans currently have limited or no internet connection. You can only communicate with 52.5 million of these folks through text messaging. So it’s a huge market outside the reach of any email campaign.
It receives more responses.
On average, text messages are read in three minutes. That represents a response rate of up to 209 percent when compared to social media, email, or even phone calls.
There is a lot of engagement.
SMS is a marketing method that, like emails, has greater engagement rates than other lead generation techniques. Additionally, a higher engagement level results in a higher SMS open rate.
Cons of SMS Marketing
The following are some drawbacks of SMS marketing:
Its limited content space is a problem.
There are only 160 characters available to you. Delivering impactful messages in that manner, however, requires a lot of imagination. You may create captivating copy that inspires consumers to act by hiring pros from SMS marketing services.
It costs more.
Running an SMS campaign is more expensive than running an email campaign. However, you can cut costs by collaborating with knowledgeable SMS marketing companies to streamline the procedure.
It can erode client confidence.
Customer trust is diminished when unwanted text messages or SMS with poor structure are sent. They might decide to reject it as well. Customers may become irritated when you send texts late at night or at other unsuitable hours.
What Differs Between Marketing Via SMS And Email?
The ROI of email marketing, which is higher than that of SMS marketing, is one of the first things that marketers take note of. It's a sign that the conversion rate for email marketing is also higher. Email marketing businesses will mention these numbers to you. The case for SMS marketing is strengthened by the lower open rate for email marketing. Additionally, text messages have a significantly higher CTR and greater response rate. The Answer: Omnichannel Advertising
Utilizing a variety of marketing platforms to increase your revenue is known as omnichannel marketing. To get the best results, you should strike a balance between SMS and email marketing because your company has particular needs. You have a better chance of engaging your audience by creating a marketing plan that integrates both in concert.
When is SMS marketing appropriate? It should be used to respond to consumer inquiries, solicit feedback, advertise one of your goods, and encourage program signups. It assists you in staying inside your marketing budget to monitor its use.
You will gain more from employing SMS marketing if your company operates in one of the following industries:
- Recruiting firms
- Nonprofit institutions
- Insurance companies
- Salons
- Gaming
- Medical services
- Finance
- Real estate
- Healthcare
- Travel and tourism
- Retail
- Hotels and restaurants
- Finance
- Real estate
- Education and universities
- Automotive
However, due to its often cheaper cost, email marketing is better suited to advertising several products. You can use it to send out several marketing emails as well as company updates and newsletters. If your business is in the following industries, you’ll get the most out of email marketing campaigns:
- Software development
- Travel
- Government
- Social networks
- Sports
- Restaurants, food, venues
- Religious organizations
- Staffing/recruiting
- Real estate
- Public relations
- Professional services
- Politics
- Photo/video
- Non-profit organizations
- Music
- Medical/healthcare
- Publishing/media
- Manufacturing