SMS Marketing vs. Email Marketing: Pros and Cons for Brands

Businesses, nonprofits, associations, and other organizations all know that marketing is a necessity. However, with advances in technology, brands have more options than ever for how to get their message out. 

Of course, not every marketing channel is equally effective, and many brands may feel a need to choose between investing in SMS marketing or email marketing as their primary communication method. 

To help you decide which marketing channel is right for your brand, we’ll explore:

• What is SMS Marketing?
• What is Email Marketing?
• SMS Marketing and Email Marketing Integrated Approach

As we discuss the pros and cons of SMS and email marketing, remember that these channels aren’t mutually exclusive. Instead, frame the question of SMS marketing vs. email marketing as which channel your brand should rely more on, rather than which you should use solely. When SMS and email are used in tandem, your brand has the potential to maximize its marketing results. 

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS stands for “short messaging service,” meaning that SMS marketing includes all text messages your brand sends promoting your products, engaging your audience, and building brand awareness. 

All types of organizations leverage SMS marketing, from nonprofits soliciting donations to businesses promoting limited-time sales. 

SMS Marketing Pros

As 91% of Americans own a smartphone, SMS is a highly effective way to reach your brand’s audience, no matter what your messaging strategy is. Along with its extensive reach, a few key benefits of SMS marketing include:

• High open rates. Given that text messages are short, send an immediate alert, and most individuals keep their phones within arm’s reach, it’s easy to see why text messages have an average open rate of 98%. That’s higher than almost every other marketing channel, including email, which has an open rate of just 21%. This means when you send a text message, you can almost guarantee that your recipients will see its content.
• Instant communication. Thanks to modern cellular technology, text messages are almost always delivered within seconds of being sent. Plus, since most adults keep their cell phones close to their person at all times, they’re likely to read your messages almost immediately.
• Relationship-building potential. When compared to marketing channels like email and traditional mail, SMS feels more personal and friendly. As a result, recipients may be more likely to engage with your content. Plus, if you use an SMS marketing app with segmentation and targeting tools, you can easily personalize messages at scale. Recipients can even text you back, opening the door for impactful two-way conversations that strengthen their connection to your brand.

SMS Marketing Cons

While SMS has the potential to be an incredibly effective marketing channel, there are a few reasons why some brands may pursue other outreach strategies. These drawbacks include:

• Content limitations. Best practice is to limit your SMS messages to 160 characters, meaning you’ll need to keep texts short and to the point. Even when you can use more characters, your recipients still expect text messages to be short. Tools like multimedia messaging services (MMS) enable you to send images, videos, and GIFs via text message, but file size limitations vary, and users should generally stick to one media element per message.

• Legal restrictions. Federal and state laws prohibit businesses from sending unsolicited text messages to promote their products. This means SMS is primarily a channel for consumers you already have a relationship with, as they must opt-in to receive messages from you before you can start texting them.
• Messaging burnout. SMS messages’ instant alerts make them effective at grabbing recipients’ attention. However, too many messages in too short a time period can cause your outreach to irritate rather than engage consumers. 

Fortunately for brands interested in SMS marketing, most cons can be navigated with the right approach. For example, a business that employs MMS tools can create engaging messages and strategically space out its messaging cadence to keep in touch with subscribers without overwhelming them. 

When you know how to avoid common SMS pitfalls, you can take full advantage of this channel’s powerful benefits to maximize your marketing potential. 

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing includes all of the promotional and engagement messages you send supporters via email. When it comes to contacting consumers, email is the default communication method for most brands due to its flexibility, easy automation options, and near ubiquity. 

Email Marketing Pros

Around the world, there are approximately 5.59 billion active email accounts, and in the U.S., 90% of all adults use email in some capacity. With this wide reach, you can access a huge audience, and also experience benefits like:

• Content flexibility. With the right emailing platform and a bit of design and coding knowledge, you can fully customize your emails’ appearance. This allows you to show off your brand, promote unique content, and entice recipients to engage with your emails. Whether you want to share a video, a series of images, or a simple, text-heavy message, you can do so with ease through email. 

• Advanced tracking options. Email marketing platforms have evolved over the years, and most tools now enable you to monitor vital metrics like open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, and conversions. With this data, you can continually adjust your marketing strategy to maximize engagement.
• Low costs. Due to the popularity of email, you have a wide range of messaging platforms to choose from with competitive rates. Additionally, email is particularly cost-effective when it comes to sending messages in bulk, such as automatic payment confirmation messages.

Email Marketing Cons

Even when pivoting to other channels, most brands still use email in some capacity. However, when it comes to marketing, email does have its cons, including: 

• Deliverability issues. When drafting emails, brands need to be cautious about potentially setting off spam filters. Messages promoting sales, limited-time offers, and sweepstakes may all contain language that sets off spam filters. Additionally, many individuals change email addresses, making it difficult to keep in touch without asking consumers to update their contact information or conducting a data append.

• Difficulty standing out. The average working professional receives approximately 121 emails per day. This means your brand’s messages will have trouble standing out in already flooded inboxes. 
• Slow response times. While some people always keep their emails open, most check their inboxes sporadically throughout the day. As a result, you may send an email on Tuesday afternoon and not get responses back until lunchtime the following Wednesday. Plus, many email carriers now automatically separate promotional emails, sending them to a separate inbox without notifying the recipient. Your contacts may not see your email for days or weeks if it gets stuck in this folder.

Despite these cons, there are still times when using email is essential. For example, there may be certain types of messages that are difficult to send via SMS, making email your preferred channel. Or, you may have already invested a significant amount of time into identifying times and dates when engagement rates are the highest. 

Of course, the noted drawbacks will still apply, which is why the best approach for many brands is to use a combination of outreach platforms. 

SMS Marketing and Email Marketing Integrated Approach

In reality, there really is no SMS marketing vs. email marketing battle. Even if your brand has minimal resources to spend on outreach, it’s still possible to create an integrated SMS and email marketing strategy. 

An integrated approach means using both SMS and email to contact your audience and maximize engagement. Neither needs to be a siloed communication channel, and by taking a multichannel approach, you can access benefits like:

• Boosted audience outreach. A consumer might miss an email in their inbox, but then notice an SMS message. Or, they may receive a text while they’re busy running errands, but then see an email about the same topic in their inbox when they get home. Essentially, by contacting your audience on multiple channels, you increase the chances that they see and engage with your content.

• Increased brand recognition. If you recognize a logo, brand name, or product image from one communication channel, then see that same content somewhere else, you’re more likely to notice it. By leveraging both SMS and email, you increase consumer interest in your content and build up their brand awareness, making them more likely to continue engaging with your messages in the future. 
• Omnichannel marketing strategy. An omnichannel strategy involves not just sending the same message on multiple channels, but ensuring each subsequent message builds off the one before it. For example, you might send a promotional SMS message for a new product, and then follow up with a thank-you email when a consumer makes a purchase. This approach personalizes the customer journey and maintains consumer attention by constantly finding new ways to contact them.

While an integrated approach might seem complex, all you need is the right tools to balance multiple channels with ease. Thanks to features like bulk texting and email automation, you can scale your integrated approach as your new marketing strategy helps your organization grow. 

How to Take an Integrated Approach to SMS and Email Marketing

To ensure your SMS and email marketing strategies are worth the time and money you invest in them, take a deliberate, structured approach to integrating these marketing channels. 

Follow these steps to boost consumer conversions, make your messages feel organic, and ensure you capture valuable engagement data: 

1. Leverage SMS and email marketing platforms. SMS and email marketing solutions not only allow you to operate at scale but also include a range of valuable tools, such as segmentation capabilities, messaging templates, and automations. Choose software that integrates with your CRM so you can populate your messages with personalized data and track consumer responses. If you use a platform like Salesforce, look for email and SMS apps built to work with your software so you can store all your data in one centralized system. 
2. Encourage subscriptions. To expand your audience and take advantage of your integrated approach, encourage those subscribed to only your emails to also opt in to your SMS messages, and vice versa. Doing so will expand your mailing lists and ensure that if you lose contact with a constituent on one platform, you’ll still have their contact information for the other. 
3. Adapt content for both channels. If you plan to take a multichannel marketing approach, which involves sending the same message on multiple communication channels, ensure you tailor your content to each platform. This might involve distilling your email’s written content to just 160 characters for SMS or considering what visuals you could add to emails to make them more engaging. 
4. Message supporters strategically. If email and SMS are your primary two communication channels, determine if you’ll take an email or SMS-first approach. In an SMS-first approach, you would initially send a text to promote your brand, then follow it up with a more detailed email. In contrast, an email-first approach front-loads consumers with information, and the follow-up text serves as a reminder to engage. Both approaches can be effective depending on your audience and goals.
5. Follow metrics. Email and SMS both perform certain functions better than the other. Track relevant performance metrics, such as delivery rates, open rates, click-through rates, response rates, and more. Experiment with marketing strategies, such as A/B testing, to collect targeted data and make incremental improvements to your integrated communication approach.

If your business, nonprofit, or other organization is looking for an affordable, user-friendly SMS platform, we have to recommend Mogli. For brands using Salesforce, Mogli is the most reliable, intuitive SMS platform that enables you to:

• Send bulk and one-to-one messages
• Create and send SMS, MMS, and WhatsApp messages directly from Salesforce
• Shorten, track, and maintain brand links
• Schedule messages
• Get AI-powered conversation summaries and overviews
• Leverage customizable triggers to create automated messages
• Easily add text messages to any Salesforce marketing journey

As you explore your email and SMS marketing strategies, rest assured that Mogli is your go-to platform for all of your mobile messaging needs. 

Starting Your Integrated SMS and Email Marketing Strategy 

Both SMS marketing and email marketing can help your brand reach your audience, build connections, and secure conversions. By leveraging both of these valuable platforms together, you can create an organic outreach strategy that meets recipients where they are. 

To get started, explore these resources for implementing your new SMS marketing plan:

• SMS Opt-In & Out Guide: Navigating U.S. Texting Laws. Ensure your SMS strategy follows all relevant laws and regulations. Discover tips for creating an engaging opt-in marketing strategy. 
• Streamline Texting with Mogli’s Salesforce Automation. Salesforce automation makes SMS marketing a breeze. Explore how Mogli’s Salesforce app can simplify your text outreach strategy. 
• Send Intelligent SMS Surveys and Text Feedback Forms. Improve your SMS marketing by surveying the people who receive your texts. Learn how to create convenient SMS surveys and feedback forms.

Christina Marmor, Vice President of Marketing

Christina is a tenacious marketing leader who combines grace, grit, and creative joy to drive innovation, evolve mindsets, and accelerate transformation. She is obsessed with personalizing experiences to drive connection and engagement. Christina is a life-long figure skater. When not championing Mogli, you’ll most likely find her on a lacrosse field cheering on her son or at the ice rink supporting her daughter’s figure skating journey.