Email vs. Text Message Marketing: Which is More Effective

October 18, 2018 Posted by Pocketstop in Text Message Marketing - M360 Social Share

When it comes to deciding which marketing strategy works best for an organization, a lot of marketers become weary about aspects such as budget and whether or whether novelty is something that could work in their benefit. Therefore, oftentimes, they end up either implementing the same old strategy, or utilizing one that worked in the past for their competitors. The problem with these actions is that aside from not custom-tailoring the marketing strategy to fit the needs of their organization, they are also not utilizing technology in their favor. Two of the most powerful strategies, email marketing and text message marketing have experienced significant changes, thus making them somewhat of a novelty in the industry. Whether we are talking about the novelty of email losing its appeal or the novelty of text messaging regaining its rightful place, these are aspects with which companies struggle when it comes to implementing their strategies.

Facts and Essential Marketing Information

The best strategy for determining which marketing channel and solutions best work for you is to gather and analyze not only industry facts and essential marketing information, but also the way those facts impact your business, and the way they mold themselves on your goals and objectives. Is email still the best choice regardless of the fact that its popularity has decreased? Is text message a better channel for broadcasting your message? Facts tell us that currently, text messages have an open rate significantly higher than that of emails.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Email Marketing

Email marketing has been around longer than text message marketing, and up until recently was also the most common mean of business communication. With the rise of mobile devices and smartphones, people and businesses are communicating less and less via email. But before getting to disadvantages, let’s look at some of the advantages of using email marketing:

• You can use a wide range of temples and flexible designs
• You can personalize and segment your marketing list
• You can evaluate and compare your results against others in your industry
• It’s environmental friendly
• You can save time through automation

Disadvantages of email marketing:

• More and more commercial emails are seen as SPAM and end up being deleted without even being opened
• You can end up with a lot of undelivered emails
• Trade-off between functionality and design
• Email marketing requires complex resources and skills
• Subscriber engagement decay
• Email providers now offer options for hiding marketing communications

As technology expands and marketing industry progresses, the disadvantages of email marketing outgrow the advantages, especially if you are not utilizing your email marketing strategy alongside other more modern and simpler means of communicating with your customers. Also, you should keep in mind that due to all the developments in the industry, most email advantages are also available in the case of text message marketing.

Reasons for Choosing Text Message Marketing

With a plenitude of tools and solutions available for text message marketing, this strategy has become the go-to when it comes to effectiveness, simplicity, and immediacy. Nowadays, text marketing can be custom-tailored and integrated to fit all businesses throughout all industries, big or small. Whether you are promoting a new product or working towards brand loyalty, a text sent to the right audience at the right time can bring you the results you need with less resources.

Advantages of Text Message Marketing:

• Text messaging provides an immediate mean of communication
• Offers mobile-friendliness
• Is simple yet trackable
• Can be linked with and promoted throughout a multitude of platforms and channels
• It has a high open rate and a high CTR rate
• It is cost-effective

When it comes to the disadvantages of text message marketing, the main things you need to consider are also things you can fix by implementing an in-depth strategy. Some of the disadvantages are:

• It can be considered SPAM if the messages are not drafted and sent based on a proper plan
• It is regulated and might result in fines if you do not follow those regulations
• It’s easy for people to block unknown numbers
• Customers have to opt-in

These can all be addressed by drafting and implementing strategies to make sure that your text messages are both in accordance with regulations, but also tailored so that they present interest for your customers, which is still easier and more cost-effective to perform than an email marketing strategy.

The Best of Both Worlds

As text message marketing has turned out to be more effective than email marketing, the obvious solution would be to disregard email marketing and make the most of text message marketing. Yet, since a lot of businesses have invested a great deal into their email marketing strategies but also might still want to keep that channel of communication open, is there a way to make the two work together? The answer is yes. Here’s how:

• Keep email marketing for sending general content that requires more information than a text permits
• Use text message marketing for engaging with customers and for getting a more active response from them; also for when you have time-sensitive messages to broadcast
• Remind customers to check their inboxes for special offers through a text message
• Test the efficiency of your email messages by telling customers about offers which they can engage with via a text message loyalty program
• Send text messages to the customers who have not opened their emails therefore maximizing the number of people who you interact with

With more and more people using their smartphones for everything, it is clear that the future of email marketing is mobile. Therefore, if you decide to keep email as an integrant part of your marketing strategy, you need to update your plans so that they convey mobile-friendliness. When you are updating your email marketing strategy, implementing new plans to make email and text message marketing work together will maximize the changes of obtaining the desired outcomes. Cross-platform integration is the key behind a successful business looking to achieve high customer engagement rates, whether we are talking about integrating email, text, or social media. Different customers have different needs and preferences, providing a solution for all, while keeping a united front and drafting a comprehensive message is an excellent business decision.

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