Nowadays, marketing is growing and maturing more than ever before - new tech like AI are the main growth-drivers for the industry. The competition on the market has never been greater and it is crucial to stand out by using great marketing strategies and tools if you want to success. Using email marketing and SMS marketing can be very powerful strategy for establishing a direct communication channel with your customers.
Each of them has its flaws and advantages and you have to know when to use witch one in order for your campaign to be successful. In this article we will compare these two and and showcase their features and optimization ideas for different uses.
What is SMS Marketing?
SMS Marketing is a strategy that is used to communicate with customers by using short messages. The communication is direct, personalized and just-in-time.
Some of the main advantages are:
Great Open Rates - We're talking about 90% within the minutes of the sent SMS.
Time-Sensitivity - You can remind your customers about their appointments, promotions or anything else that is time-sensitive and requires their quick action and reaction.
Personalization - SMS marketing can be tailored for each customer - using their details - like demographic info or their preferences, past buying behavior or similar that can be crucial for them to feel appreciated and special and that they feel that this message is made and written just for them.
SMS marketing messages examples:
- "Enjoy! We're giving you 20% off your next purchase! This offer is valid until the EOD."
- "Hi Bran! Your next appointment is confirmed and scheduled for tomorrow 11/23 at 10:00 AM."
In this examples it is visible that SMS marketing is giving extra value to the customer for the reasons mentioned above - they can react promptly, they have a sense of personalization and they get special value by being reminded of their appointments - making sure they won't miss them. And all of those are also very useful to you, right? You can increase your sales and/or your working hours efficiency.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is a form of marketing that can, on the other hand, be more adaptive for more activities. It allows you to use a design, to share more information, and connect on a deeper level with your customers.
Opposed to SMS marketing, email marketing has the following advantages:
Broad Reach - This is one of the most important factors for building customer relationships and also keeping them active.
Cost Effectiveness - This is very "cheap" solution, especially for big companies that have a great database of customers.
Analytics and Insights - Various email tools can also offer great in-depth metrics for the sent emails - CTR, clinks on the links inside of the email, conversion count, engagement and more.
Email marketing messages examples include weekly newsletters, special discounts like for Black Friday or anything else that happened and it is important to the clients. It can also be used to promote some good initiatives - like gathering donations to a good cause or something that company represents and stands for.
SMS vs Email Marketing - Witch One To Choose?
While SMS marketing can be awesome marketing tool for the situations that require quick actions and reactions, email marketing, on the other hand, comes handy when we're talking about flexibility and communication depth.
Let's compare their components:
Cost: SMS marketing has greater costs per message and the email marketing is more suitable for the great reach campaigns
Open-rate: SMS marketing has open rate of stunning 90% within minutes, while email marketing open rate usually range from 20 to 30%.
Content: If we're talking about SMS - it is short and simple, while email messages are way longer and visually appealing.
Reach: For local and specific marketing campaigns SMS usage is recommended, while emails are used for campaigns with global reach.
Analytics: SMS marketing analytics are not nearly as detailed as are mail analytics.
Choosing the Right Tool
There are many tools known for creating SMS and email marketing - such as are Mailchimp, Mailjet and so on. But choosing the right tool can be crucial, especially if you are integrating such activities to your business for a first time. If you are just starting and considering the option, associated costs + functionalities should be you main factor when making that decision.
We wold recommend utilizing Mailrelay plaftorm - this is a all-in-one solution, it is not so expensive and the functionalities and features are just awesome! By utilizing Mailrelay you have your solution for both SMS and email marketing.
Mailrelay Email Marketing:
Free account - you can send out up to 80 000 emails each month up to 20 000 contacts - and that is more than enough for small business or startup.
Drag and Drop Editor - You can create professional , visually appealing emails within minutes and without any technical knowledge or coding skills.
Great Analytics Features - CTR, subscriber count, impressions and clicks are just some of the features included in their analytic tool.
Delivery Rate - Utilizing great new technologies ensures that your email lands in the recipients inbox.
Mailrelay SMS Marketing
Broad Range SMS Campaigns - you can rest assured that all of your promotions, alerts, reminders or any other time-sensitive messages will reach your customers.
Segmentation - You can easily separate your customers in the different groups based on different targeting factors that you use for each campaign.
Personalized Content - Great flexibility when personalizing messages using dynamic placeholders ensuring increased personalization what directly affects relevance and response rate.
Scheduling - Schedule sending messages even considering different time zones.
Why Should You Combine SMS and Email Marketing?
The answer is pretty straightforward - by combinig those two, your busiess can easily connect with customers. Since this is a multi-channel approach you can expect higher engagement rates and maximizing your customers ROI. While each of these two metods has its advantages for specific marketing doings, when used in pair, they can create a awesome communiction strategy.
Example of using these:
Imagine running a special sale. An SMS could alert customers to the sale with a quick, direct message like, “Flash Sale! 40% off for the next 24 h. Click here to shop: [link].” Meanwhile, an email campaign could provide more details, such as product highlights, personalized recommendations, and engaging visuals.
So, what are you waiting? Utilize SMS and email marketing for your business today!
filetype:pdf complete guide to sms marketing in gohighlevel