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.
What is Email Marketing?
In this strategy emails are sent out to everyone in your email list. This will help current and potential customers become aware of your services, products or offers through direct communication.
The few things to consider here are:
Pros of email marketing:
- Cost Effective – Sending messages in bulk that aren’t urgent or time sensitive makes email marketing a clear winner. It’s a great way to improve brand awareness.
- Personalized – Emails can reflect the personality of your brand allowing you to connect with your audience helping boost the email marketing conversion rate.
- Versatility – Emails can be used for various purposes, to provide product information in detail, making announcements, sending reminders or welcoming new customers to the brand.
- Appeals to user habits – 40-50% of people check their emails on a daily basis. Customers’ intent is clear, either to look for product information, customer service or updates.
- Directs customers to your website – Emails are a great way to drive customers to the website. Targeted email marketing services increase the number of site visitors looking for products or services.
Cons of email marketing:
- Market saturation can make it difficult to grab the attention of the audience- Each user receives 100’s of emails daily. Chances of your email landing in the spam folder have a higher chance of going unnoticed. On the other hand, hiring an email marketing expert to craft subject lines and content to improve the open rate can turn things around.
- Emails may not end up in the inboxes- Email servers do not filter emails if they look too spammy and can be prevented from reaching the users inbox.
- Customers can delete or unsubscribe to emails- Poorly crafted headlines, poor graphics that don’t grab the users attention can make people delete your emails or unsubscribe to them.
What is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing is a way for brands to communicate using text messages. SMS marketing is used to tell your audience about promotions, campaign updates through SMS. In SMS marketing you have complete control over who receives the text message.
SMS Marketing pros
- No Internet connection required – There are million people in the world who have no access to the internet, text messages still have a huge market to reach out to apart from an email campaign.
- Higher response rate – On an average text messages have a higher chances of being read within the first 3 minutes compared to a social media post or email campaign.
- Higher engagement levels – Other than any other lead generation strategies SMS marketing channel has a higher engagement rate.
SMS Marketing cons
- Limited content space – An SMS can use up only 160 characters on an average. A lot of creativity is required to deliver and craft a compelling message that moves people to take action with a limit in characters to work with.
- High cost – Running an SMS campaign can be higher than that of an email campaign. However costs can be cut by using seasoned SMS marketing company such as Kilowott, to optimize the process.
- Hindering customer trust – Unsolicited text messages with poor structure can reduce customer trust. Sending texts at inappropriate times can also annoy the customer.
Which is the better option? SMS Marketing vs Email Marketing
One of the first things marketers must note is the ROI in email marketing is known to be higher than that of SMS but the open rate is much less, proving the case for SMS marketing.
Text messages give a higher CTR and a better response rate. Every business has unique needs and it is highly recommended to maintain a balance between SMS and email marketing to achieve better results.
SMs marketing can be used to ask customers for reviews, promote an one product or to get signups for various programs and events.
For retail, finance, real estate, eCommerce, travel tourism businesses SMS marketing can be used.
On the other hand email marketing can be used to promote multiple products due to its relatively lower cost. It can be used for company updates, newsletters and marketing emails.
For business in the IT, software development, Restaurants and food, Manufacturing, travel industries email marketing is more suited.
Need help with your sms or email marketing strategy to garner leads? Let’s talk
