SMS VS Email Marketing: Which Is Right for Your Business?

Email marketing is probably the most convenient marketing technique to connect with a large audience in the USA. That is why it has been sitting on the throne of marketing strategies. However, text message marketing is gaining much traction and can become its successor.

Marketing keeps evolving all the time. The marketing strategies that brought you success in the previous year may not work this year. You should keep modifying your marketing efforts to stay ahead of the curve.

Businesses in the USA are using a combination of SMS and email marketing to engage with their customers. Each of these techniques can help grab a lot of attention and offer significant results.

However, you should compare SMS, and email marketing in light of your business needs to pick the suitable marketing approach.

 

What is Email Marketing?

In email marketing, businesses send commercial emails to a list of addresses. The users in that list are people who allowed them to send emails.

They send emails to prospective and existing consumers, informing them about new services, products, deals, and discounts.

It is a direct way of communication with clients because they opt-in to get promotional material from you. To leverage this approach of connecting with your audience, you can take help from an acclaimed email marketing services provider in the USA.

 

What is SMS Marketing?

On the contrary, SMS marketing lets companies send shorter, similar messages directly to consumers’ phones. Similar to emails, brands use text messages to tell people about campaigns, promotions, product updates, news, etc.

 

SMS and Email Marketing:

While email marketing is still commonly used, it is increasingly experiencing difficulties. One big challenge is that customers view thousands of ads daily.

This bombardment of promotional messages has made customers insensitive to advertisements, making grabbing their attention even more difficult.

Text message advertising is one of the least-saturated platforms for marketing content. In 2022, people are spending approximately 4.8 hours daily on their mobile phones. (Source: App Annie).

It is one-third of the total waking hours of an average person, which is a large number. It gives SMS marketing an advantage.

You might want to ask which marketing approach is better right now. The truth is both have upsides and downsides.

In this article, we will discuss a few most far-reaching pros and cons of the two marketing methods to help you decide between SMS or email marketing services.

 

Pros and Cons of SMS Marketing

To use SMS marketing, you need to take explicit permission from the customers. It means you talk to someone willing to know more about your brand.

You can only write text messages containing 160 characters, and people like short messages. It makes SMS a preferable choice over emails for customers.

People don’t want to waste time reading longer content. They can read text messages within seconds. Moreover, SMS marketing is a relatively new marketing channel that allows brands to have friendly conversations with customers, making the message more appealing.

The receiver gets the SMS instantly without any waiting involved. According to Gartner, people open text messages about 98 percent of the time, which is higher than any other means of communication. Only good email marketing services can effectively help your business use email.

On top of that, you don’t need internet connectivity to send or receive text messages, decreasing one hurdle between your company and its audience.

People consider less than 3 percent of text message scams (Source: Textedly). We all know email usually has a separate spam section. It means your SMS has more chances to reach its target.

Furthermore, people are tired of spam emails and sometimes ignore them without even opening them, considering them another piece of spam. However, people don’t habitually do this when a new message pops up in their message box.

It’s more likely that they will open your SMS anticipating something of value. It’s no surprise that SMS marketing is rapidly becoming many companies’ first choice in the USA as a marketing tool.

 

Pros and Cons of Email Marketing

Hands down, email plays a crucial role in digital marketing. Though SEO and PPC can help you attract more traffic and gather quality leads, they can’t beat email in reaching out to the target customers.

You can’t send long-form content via text messages like business brochures, newsletters, educational material, etc. The email comes to your rescue since there is no word count limit in email.

You can also add pictures in the email, which is the cherry on top of the cake. Human beings pay more attention to images than words. You can say a thousand words through a picture. It means visual content does a better job of grabbing customers’ attention.

Email marketing is also highly effective in B2B marketing. Unsurprisingly, email is the most commonly used communication method for companies around the globe.

Furthermore, email marketing is dynamic and can accomplish various desired outcomes. For example, email marketing services involve promoting new offerings, sending product updates, welcoming new customers, asking for client reviews, and more.

Businesses can automate emails and shoot them toward certain people at certain times. It aids them in increasing client retention rates and brand awareness without consuming too much of their energy.

Email marketing is a cost-effective method. If you don’t need to send time-sensitive or urgent content and are sending it to multiple users, then email is the better choice.

Companies in the USA typically spend 20% of their marketing budget on the email approach, an ideal method to amplify brand awareness at scale.

You can craft an email to tell your target audience about your business. Email is an efficient way to bonding with users, helping increase the email conversion rate.

About 44% of people check their email box at least once as part of their daily habits (Source: Thrive agency). Users usually look for something specific when they view emails, like product details, updates, client support, etc.

 

SMS VS Email Marketing

Info SMS Marketing Email Marketing
Open Rate
98 percent
20 percent
CTR
29 percent
2.5 percent
Engagement
High
High
Cost
5 to 15 cents per SMS
(usually sent to thousands of recipients)
 Monthly costs range from $9 to $1,000 a month
Average Response Rate
90 seconds
90 minutes
Spam Received
Less than three percent
Nearly 85 percent is considered spam
Message length
160 characters
As long as you need
ROI
$5 for every $1 spent
$40 for every $1 spent
Frequency
There are currently fewer companies running SMS marketing campaigns
Email marketing has been around for decades and the market is saturated

In a Nutshell

E-mail marketing isn’t going anywhere. It is still a versatile way of business or product promotion and offers multiple core benefits that other marketing approaches can’t provide right now.

Brands need to strike a balance between the two marketing strategies, which may seem like a tough job, especially if they haven’t gained desired results from either approach.

In our opinion, you should prefer e-mail marketing because, if done right, it can offer long-term results for the growth of your business.

Here, an experienced company that provides quality email marketing services can help you. Digital Gravity Agency is one such company in the USA that has email marketing pros who are helping multiple clients unlock the potential of this superb marketing channel.

E-mail is a great lead generation tool, however, turning those leads into sales is an art. Our team knows how to increase your sales by developing a trusted relationship with your customers.

If you want to reach new markets or just wish to effectively connect with your current target audience, informative email content is crucial.

Our company knows how to use the three ‘R’s in email marketing, which is sending the right message to the right people at the right time. Contact us today to get your email marketing right!

Digital Gravity Agency: Digital Gravity Agency is a full-service digital marketing agency that helps businesses increase online presence through SEO, PPC, social media and website design. Our team of experts develops customized strategies for clients to reach their goals, whether it's to increase website traffic, generate leads or boost sales. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help grow your business.

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