SMS & Email

For a long time, SMS marketing and email marketing have been treated as competitors. Often, marketers are reluctant to commit to both and it's not uncommon for us to hear a response that includes "sorry, we use email instead". The fact is, however, that it's impossible to choose between both when they offer entirely different benefits and can be used together extremely effectively.

For example, texting is all about being concise. You have 160-characters to get your message across. That message will then be directly placed in your customers' inbox and is almost guaranteed to be opened. On the flip side, email marketing allows you to get creative visually and place multiple call to actions in front of your customer. Yet, a good campaign email requires elegance and a compelling subject line for your customers to even consider opening it.

So, with both options offering entirely different benefits, it's surprising that marketers don't jump at the opportunity to use them synonymously. When done correctly, combining the two can lead to increased brand recognition and more website traffic and conversions. Here are four reasons why you should be using both SMS and email in your marketing strategy.

1 - Unique benefits

Both marketing channels have entirely different benefits. Even if you treat them as stand-alone channels, they have a lot to offer. Let's start with SMS marketing. Since you have a 160-character limit, texting is great for short and sweet messages. You can use SMS for things like booking confirmations, delivery updates, appointment reminders and flash sales. Your customers will be able to read the message within a few seconds and then take appropriate action if required.

Whereas, using email marketing allows you to build a relationship with your customers by showcasing the visual aspects of your brand. Using email makes great sense for product launches, site-wide sales offers, event invitations and newsletter updates because they require more content. If you get it right, then an engaging email campaign means that your customers will spend several minutes interacting with your brand. can use it to promote the benefits of subscribing to your SMS marketing list. Including segments in your emails such as "stay tuned for our next SMS offers" and "subscribe to our SMS club to receive our best weekly offers" will encourage people to sign up.

SMS and email work best though, when they are used together. If you have an important email that requires attention, then you can take advantage of the high open rates of SMS and send a text to the recipient requesting they check their inbox. For example, you could send the following messages "There's a special offer waiting in your email inbox, check it out before it expires" or "Your annual subscription is set to continue next month, please find the new T&C's in your email inbox". Simultaneously, if you have a large email subscriber list then you can use it to promote the benefits of subscribing to your SMS marketing list. Including segments in your emails such as "stay tuned for our next SMS offers" and "subscribe to our SMS club to receive our best weekly offers" will encourage people to sign up.

2 - Brand synergy

Combining both SMS marketing and email will allow you to build brand synergy, which offers multiple benefits. Firstly, providing your customers with multiple ways to contact you will lead to a better experience. If your customers are regularly provided with enticing offers, then their loyalty will increase. Additionally, increased brand synergy can improve cost-effectiveness. If you offer multiple channels for your customers to stay informed, then they will only select the ones that they prefer. This can prevent some customers from signing up for your email list, for example, and then never opening one of your campaigns. Instead, they can stick to receiving texts. Finally, using the same tone across multiple channels helps to solidify your brand and maintain consistency.

3 - Increased reach

The benefit of sending both texts and emails is that it will increase your reach, as you won't be able to communicate with all of your customers by only using one. Some of your customers may have replaced their telephone number, but still have access to email. Others may have forgotten the password to their email address or moved on to a new one. It's also probable that some of your customers will have 1000+ emails in their inbox with no intention of ever sorting through them. On top of that, personal consumer preferences will mean that some people may only want to receive correspondence using one specific channel. Therefore, by utilising both, you are significantly increasing the likelihood that your updates are seen by your customers.

4 - Open rates

The average person checks their phone approximately 80 times per day. Hence, it shouldn't be surprising that SMS has incredible open rates, with 98% of all text messages opened. Additionally, a study by Mobilesquared found that 90% of text messages are opened within the first three minutes. This ensures that you can get important messages delivered to the majority of your SMS list within a very short amount of time.

What you may be surprised to hear, is that email marketing open rates have seen a resurgence among young people (aged 18-34). An email consumer survey by Adobe also found that 66% of these young people had zero unread messages in their inbox, highlighting the continued value that email presents. Therefore, meaning that you can email can also be very effective when targeting Millennials and Gen Z. Although, if you have an older customer base then you may want to stick to texting as emails can quite often get lost in their inbox.