Email Marketing vs. SMS Marketing — Which One is Worth the Investment?

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Choosing the right communication channel for your next marketing campaign can be a tough task.

The question is whether there’s more to this duo than a matter of email marketing vs. SMS marketing — find out with this post as we delve into:

The average metrics for each channel
The advantages and disadvantages of both
Best practices to improve your marketing strategy

And more.

Let’s dive right in!

1. Comparing SMS and email marketing

Connecting with customers through email has long been the preferred method of communication for businesses.

But with the average person checking their phones 160 times a day, SMS marketing also shows great potential for businesses.

Let’s take a closer look at how the average Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for these two channels compare.

1.1. KPIs: Which marketing channel is more effective?

1.1.1. Open rate

Text message marketing has a much higher average open rate of 98%, compared to the average for email, which is 20%.

But this largely depends on the email, for example, the average open rate for cart abandonment emails is 40.14%.

Furthermore, upon delivery of the message, the average response time is 90 seconds with a text message, and 90 minutes for an email.

1.1.2. Deliverability

Having your messages marked as spam or left undelivered is a waste of all of your efforts.

Here’s what you need to know:

Over 333 billion emails are sent daily, of which 45% of them will be considered spam
18.7 billion text messages are sent every day, with a humble 10% which are considered spam
Hard and soft bounces can also impact your email deliverability

Learn more about how to improve your email deliverability here, and to stay out of the spam folder, you’ll want to read this.

1.1.3. Click-through rates

SMS messages are short and sweet — this helps them attain an average click-through rate (CTR) of 19%.

On the contrary, the average CTR for marketing emails across all industries is 10.29%.

You can improve your SMS marketing click-through rate by 36% by simply including a branded link in your text message.

Thankfully, there are also ways that you can improve your email click-through rate.

According to Backlinko, here’s how:

Add videos to your emails — This can increase your click-through rate by up to 300%
Use a CTA button instead of a plain text link — This can increase your click-through rate by 28%
Segment your contacts — Sending personalized campaigns can boost your click-through rate by 100.95%
Make sure your emails are mobile-friendly — 1 of 3 clicks is from a mobile phone

Although email marketing has much lower averages due to the volume of emails that are sent — it’s all about the quality of the content.

1.2. KPI summary in a comparison chart

To help determine which channel is best suited for your marketing needs, it’s also good to know:

The pros and cons of each channel
Which channel works best for different marketing messages

As you’ll soon discover, there’s a reason why email marketing still reigns supreme for marketers around the world, despite requiring a bit more effort.

2. The advantages and disadvantages of email marketing

Email is one of the easiest ways to build and maintain customer trust but despite its power, it does have its own set of drawbacks too:

Pros

Email is the most cost-effective marketing strategy

You can promote multiple products for more sales

It’s highly customizable which makes personalization very easy

Content can be as long and as rich as you need it to be

It’s a trusted channel with a trackable trail of communication

You can monitor the success of your email marketing campaigns

Powerful time-saving automation capabilities

Cons

Lower average click-through and open rates

Cluttered inboxes can mean your email goes unnoticed

Spam filters can affect your email deliverability

Your brand and sender reputation can be easily impacted

Requires a bit more effort

As we mentioned earlier, there’s a reason why email marketing continues to dominate the arena — it’s super cost-effective.

For every dollar that you spend, you can expect a return of up to $45! No other form of marketing possesses such a high return on investment.

Plus, it’s perfect for redirecting new customers to your other pages, for example, your website or a blog post.

With around 4.3 billion email users worldwide, email marketing is something that every business should be utilizing.

2.1. When should you use email marketing?

Compared to SMS marketing, email marketing has little to no limitations.

Whether it’s urgent or non-time-sensitive messages, email can be used for sending:

Transactional emails
Newsletters
In-depth educational content
Product launches
Deals and coupons
Feedback requests
Welcome emails
Lead nurture campaigns
Re-engagement emails
Video emails

And more!

Email is also perfect for telling compelling customer stories or repurposing your content — the opportunities are endless.

3. The advantages and disadvantages of SMS marketing

Text message marketing has a number of stand-out advantages and disadvantages:

Pros

Text messaging is a direct route to communicate with customers

Short messages are effective for grabbing attention

Fewer texts are sent which allows your text message to stand out

High engagement, click-through, open, and response rates

Text messages aren’t likely to be blocked by phone providers

Opt-in requirement means that only engaged customers are on your list

Cons

There’s considerable text and media limitations

It can be difficult to communicate your message in 160 characters

Spam is common so building trust with customers can be difficult

Can be costly depending on the region and carrier charges

The timing and frequency can annoy customers to opt-out

Out of all the advantages of SMS marketing, its ability to grab attention is undeniably beneficial for a business’ brand recognition and engagement rates.

The length of SMS messages is also somewhat a benefit considering that the average person has an attention span of just 8 seconds.

This limitation might, however, make it difficult to portray your brand’s personality the way that you can with email.

3.1. When should you use SMS marketing?

Text marketing lets you inform customers of important, time-sensitive information that requires immediate attention.

The following messages are best sent in an SMS message:

Surveys
Timely deals or discounts
Urgent updates or alerts
Appointment reminders
Quick advertisements
Purchase confirmations
Messages that require a response
Support responses or feedback requests

SMS marketing works best in some instances, but it’s not suitable for all of your marketing campaigns:

Source: SimpleTexting.com

4. Best practices for your marketing strategy

4.1. How to improve your email marketing

Here are 7 ways that you can improve your next email marketing campaign:

1. Optimize your marketing emails for mobile devices — 41.9% of emails are opened on a mobile device

2. Segment your audience to personalize your email campaigns — This can increase your revenue by up to 760%!

3. Ensure compliance with email marketing laws — Only email those who opted-in, and provide an unsubscribe link

4. Use clear subject lines — They should reflect the content within, and you should avoid using spammy words

5. Automate your efforts — 320% more revenue is driven just from automating your email campaigns

6. Clean your email list regularly — This will help to minimize your bounce rates and improve your deliverability rate

7. Test, test, test — You should test your send times, frequency, subject lines, and CTAs

Click here to read our comprehensive guide on email design to ensure that your next campaign is optimized to its full potential.

4.2. How to improve your text messages

The average KPIs for SMS marketing are quite rosy, but that’s not to say that you shouldn’t further optimize your marketing efforts.

Here are 7 text message marketing best practices:

1. Stay compliant — Only send marketing text messages to those that have explicitly opted-in to receive them

2. Keep the copy laser-focused with a clear CTA — Remember, you only have 160 characters at your disposal, make every word count

3. Research your audience — Find what send times and frequencies work best for your subscribers

4. Segment your audience and address them by name — This allows you to send more personalized messages and offers

5. Never use abbreviations or slang — This can come across as unprofessional

6. Don’t recycle content — You should be offering an incentive to encourage sign-ups from potential customers in exchange for exclusive content

7. Offer a way to opt-out with every SMS marketing campaign — By law, this can be as simple as “text STOP to unsubscribe”

You should also consider using exclusive coupons to boost your sales — in 2021, 67 million Americans redeemed coupons via their mobile phones.

Whether you’re sending an SMS or an email campaign, the best thing that you can do is to make sure that you provide value in every communication.

5. SMS marketing vs. email marketing: Is there a clear winner?

It’s safe to say that it’s a tie — SMS marketing works, and so does email marketing.

At the end of the day, it’s all about your target audience — analyze your customer’s demographics to discover what strategy they might prefer.

For example, in the US:

85% of adults check their emails daily, and 81% check their SMS messages daily
On average, 18- to 24-year-olds check their mobile phones 86 times a day whereas the average is 47 for adults over the age of 24
Nearly 90% of Americans aged over 15 are using email

Implementing a combination of both channels can greatly improve the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy.

For example, you can increase your open rates by as much as 30% by simply sending a text message asking if your customer has read your email.

Let’s take a look at some other ways that you could combine text message marketing with your email marketing.

5.1. Find the perfect balance for your marketing campaigns

As we’ve discovered, an omnichannel approach can be powerful in keeping customers informed, but how else would you implement both?

Here are some examples:

Use text messaging to encourage customers to opt-in to your email list for exclusive offers or for your weekly newsletters (or vice versa)
Send transactional emails (such as shipping confirmations), and send tracking updates to your customers’ cell phones
Send an email to confirm an appointment and send a follow-up reminder SMS

6. Take your email marketing to new heights with systeme.io

systeme.io logo

We’ll save you the trouble of finding the best email service provider — systeme.io is all you need to connect with your customers.

Systeme.io empowers users to easily control their entire business from one platform — to cover your email marketing needs, our platform lets you:

Send newsletters and email campaigns with our text-based and visual email editors
Use powerful automation rules and workflows that trigger the next pre-defined step in your customer’s journey based on their actions
Monitor your marketing with in-depth metrics
Tag and segment your list to send personalized, relevant emails to your customers

With us, you’ll never have to worry about mobile compatibility!

Our email editor will automatically make your emails compatible with mobile devices.

Plus, we integrate with: