The battle between Email Marketing and SMS Marketing has been around for a while and nothing better than a SMS vs Email Infographic in order to compare both traffic sources.
We would like to add some extra dimensions to your consideration:
- While looking at the infographic, you will see that the opening rates are a lot higher on SMS Marketing. As we have mentioned in other blog posts, in Direct Marketing you can either be very welcome or very intrusive. The truth is, if you receive a message on your Smartphone, you will most likely open it. But what does it really mean? You are not giving a fair choice to your audience and, if your message lacks relevancy, there is a great chance you will be bothering instead of communicating. Email Marketing is more democratic, as the subscriber may receive your message, but choose not to read it, meaning that those who do, present a greater conversion potential.
- Purchase decisions are mainly based on flow. Your mission is to keep tearing down all barriers – physical and psychological – that your audience may have regarding your products. Email Marketing takes the lead on this one. Once subscribers click on an Email, they will promptly be re-directed to a conversion point, where you can get their contact, analyze their flow within your website, etc. They almost instantly become a lead. In SMS Marketing, if you receive a message while you are out on the street, you will have log on to the internet through your device, in order to access a conversion point. Basically, you have created a barrier.
- SMS Marketing has a great potential to communicate specific contents. Let us say you own a shoe store and you wish to communicate a special promotion week for customers only. SMS Marketing offers exclusiveness and a direct contact with your customer. However, notice that this means you must have had previous contact with the customer, and you are only nurturing this lead to come back.
Bottom Line, both channels are complementary, but using SMS Marketing as an Acquisition Channel may present a great danger to your brand awareness. Cross-feed your leads, by communicating with them regularly through email and, in specific timings, through SMS.