SMS Marketing vs. Email Marketing | What’s Better?

At first glance, SMS marketing and email marketing are actually pretty similar concepts. Both of them are ways to obtain customers’ contact information and both are ways to market to your customer directly. They’re also great ways to build a database of clients and potential clients. Once you’ve made contact with the customer and have gotten a response through either a text message or email, you are already in the lead nurturing process, which means you are that much closer to making the sale and bringing you and your company money. However, the basic concepts of both mediums, building a client list and then marketing directly to them, is about all that SMS marketing and email marketing have in common.

To look at the differences, you have to start with the numbers; and the numbers are absolutely staggering. Firstly, 90% of all emails are spam; the percentage of text messages that are spam? A paltry 1%. So it is no surprise that 98% of text messages are opened compared to email, which only has a 22% open rate. Knowing this, now you know customers and potential clients are clearly more likely to open up a text message you send them than an email. In fact, it’s almost guaranteed. So what about mobile use? Only 34% of people use their phones to email, while 72% of people use text messaging on their phones. You’re also one of few if you text them, with the average person receiving only 178 text messages a month compared to the 1,216 emails the average person receives. Obviously, most of those messages are spam. Did we also mention that 95% of text messages are opened within 15 minutes? Forget about people opening your email in 15 minutes, 20% of emails aren’t even opened ever. Think about what you do personally, are you more likely to read a text message that’s sent to you, or an email?

So, after looking at the numbers, it should be obvious that text message marketing is a much better route to go than email marketing. Using a mobile SMS campaign makes it easy for customers to sign up at any time. Mobile calls-to-action (CTAs) are easily integrated into print, radio, television, store signs, and online networks such as Twitter and Facebook. All they need to do is text your keyword to the shortcode. However, if you were to use email marketing, your customers would have to go to your company’s website and enter their contact information. This can be especially inconvenient for mobile users if your site isn’t mobile friendly yet.

Using SMS marketing, you can literally increase your sales the same day you sent out your messages. Because people respond so quickly to text messaging, it is possible for you to get sales through your doorwithin an hour after sending the messages. And if they’re not coming through your door, you can easily market to them through their phones now that you have their information. Either way, contact has been established. Remember, email marketing does work with mobile phones, but very, very few people read emails on their phones. A majority of people will just go to a computer to read an email; and if they do that they have to print off any offer you may have sent them. With SMS messaging, they can simply show you the text you sent them to receive the offer. It’s much quicker, much easier, and is much more likely to give you the return on investment you and your company desires.

So what are you waiting for? A laundry list of companies have already realized the information you’ve learned here, so NOW is the time to start planning and enacting an SMS mobile campaign for your company. DON’T WAIT, or you will be left behind!