Let’s take a closer look at these two marketing tactics to understand how they can work together for you.

SMS and email marketing are two very similar, yet different, types of digital marketing tactics that many companies are using to reach their customers. But have you ever taken the time to really dissect them and understand their similarities and differences?

While email is a staple in most digital marketing strategies, comparing the two tactics may open your eyes to a new way of communicating with your customers. You may find that the marketing strategy you set at the beginning of the year could be improved by understanding how these two tactics differ and can work together.

In this article, we will take a closer look at a few different aspects of email and SMS marketing to compare and contrast the two. Here’s a quick glimpse at what we will cover in this article:

• A quick look at some of the stats behind why you should be using email and SMS messaging
• Compare the opt-in process for both
• What content you should be serving customers on each platform
• Why list segmentation is important for both and how you can perfect your subscriber lists
• A few best practices for each channel

Email Marketing vs. SMS Messaging: The Stats

When comparing SMS messaging to email marketing, the first place to start is with the juicy details — the stats. Email marketing has been around for quite some time now, so chances are good, none of these numbers will surprise you. But when you put them side-by-side it outlines why it’s important to incorporate both into your marketing strategy.

The Email Stats You’ll Want to Know

When it comes to email marketing benchmarks are a great way to understand if your marketing program is working. You’re likely already using email in your everyday marketing, so it’s just a matter of pulling your monthly stats and analyzing them to understand if your program is over, or underperforming.

Here is a list of email benchmarks that will help you gauge how your emails are performing.

• Open rate: 17.92%
• Click-through rate: 2.69%
• Unsubscribe rate: .17%
• Click-to-open rate: 14.10%
• Bounce rate: 1.06%

These benchmarks are an average for all fields, you’ll want to keep in mind that your industry may have a higher or lower benchmark depending on customer engagement. But, these numbers give you a pretty good starting point when it comes to determining a successful campaign.

This chart does a great job of showing the differences that you can see in benchmarks across industries. There are industries that are much higher than the average of all, and others that fall short — it all depends on the customer base.

Outside of benchmarks, there are a few additional numbers that make sense to point out to help compare the two tactics. These are general stats about email marketing that prove that email marketing is in fact, not a dying breed.

• About 53% of emails are opened on mobile devices
• ROI associated with email was 28%, higher than direct mailing
• Email response rates are 6%
• It takes the average person 90 minutes to respond to an email

Email marketing brings in the highest ROI when compared with other digital marketing tactics. Looking at this graph, not only does email bring in more, it will provide you with nearly double the ROI of any of the other options.

These stats let you know that email is still important to your overall marketing strategy. It isn’t something you can simply ignore. But how do these stats compare to those of SMS messaging programs? Let’s take a look at some benchmarks and interesting stats for SMS messaging.

SMS Messaging Stats That Will Blow You Away

SMS messaging may not be something your business has invested in yet. But once you take a look at some of the stats that other companies have seen, you may be ready to jump on the bandwagon. First, let’s take a look at some SMS benchmarks that you would expect to see for your messaging programs.

• SMS offers a 98% open rate
• Click-through rate of 19%
• Texts are generally read within 5 seconds
• 45% response rate

If a 98% open rate doesn’t make you want to get your business some enterprise SMS marketing software and start texting your customers, we don’t know what will. When thinking about the text messaging market, consider the fact that most people always have their mobile device on-hand — meaning you’ll be able to reach them anywhere, anytime. Now, most people do have email on their mobile devices today, but it’s much more likely your email will end up in the trash before the SMS message you sent will.

If you’re looking for a marketing tactic that will reach your customers, actually be read, and even possibly have a response, SMS messaging is the way to go. Get the word out and start reaching your customers where they want to hear from you.

Here are a few more texting stats for you consider around the idea of SMS marketing.

• Text messages have a 209% higher response rate than other communication such as email, social media, or phone calls
• 90% of SMS texts are read within 3 minutes
• 75% of people want to receive offers through text messaging
• Coupons delivered by SMS messages are redeemed 10 times more than any other coupon

When it comes to the most likely to be read, SMS messages win by a landslide. This stat is the main reason that SMS should be apart of your digital marketing strategy. You have a much higher chance of reaching your customers if they are opted-in to both forms of communication.

Knowing What Content To Share Is Important

As you would image, the content you choose to share on these platforms will vary. While you may be promoting the same sales or promotions, the way you go about them will need to be tweaked for each channel.

Email Content Best Practices

Email content can be longer and much more informative. When sending emails, you have more real estate than you do with SMS messages. Use this to your advantage. You can bring both together by sending both types of communication to the customer to provide them with the quick, hard-hitting details and then follow-up with a detailed email.

When developing email content, it’s important to keep personalization and list segmentation in mind. Sending targeted emails to the wrong customers, or sending general emails to all of your customers is not a best practice and won’t increase your email stats. Make sure to spend time understanding your customers and provide them with the content they want.

As always, make sure that your email subject line is catchy and attention-grabbing. It’s the first thing a subscriber sees and it’s often the decision between an open and or an unsubscribe.

This email from J. Crew is a great example of how emails can include more details to help entice shoppers. Not only does the email offer a discount, but also provides highly-rated products that might appeal to the customer.

SMS Content Best Practices

SMS messages are designed to provide customers with quick and short messages. Whatever you want to tell your customers must be done in the 160 character limit. So this communication is generally short and leads customers to a landing page with more details or to a sale page.

Some examples of commonly used SMS messages include:

• Confirmation details
• Sale promotions
• Shipping information
• Security confirmation or breaches

SMS also offers a unique way to communicate in real-time with your customers. Because people can respond directly to a text message, it opens a new way to talk with your customers and get their feedback right away. Take advantage of this resource and make sure to respond in a timely manner.

SMS messages have to be quick and concise. It’s important to get the message across in as few words as possible, making it a little harder to craft the content. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll be happy you put in the effort.

Improve Your Digital Marketing By Combining Forces

So after comparing these two digital marketing tactics, it’s easy to see that to have a stellar digital marketing presence, it’s actually best to use both. Building a digital marketing strategy that reaches customers through both email and SMS messaging will increase your chances of breaking through the noise.

Why choose between email and texting? You can develop a marketing strategy that uses both to reach customers and increase your conversions.

The stakes are high out there, now’s the time to beef up your marketing program and really blow the competition out of the water. Why not consider an email and SMS marketing strategy that utilizes the best of both worlds? You’ll be giving customers what they want, and seeing the results and ROI you’ve been looking for.