Email marketing has been a favorite in the industry for years. It helps reach a large group of people at once. Text or SMS marketing is fast catching up for being simple, cost-effective, and reliable.
Now, the question is should you go for email marketing or text marketing? Which one will give better results for your business? How do you choose the right marketing strategy to improve sales and returns?
Let’s read in detail about both types of marketing and determine which works the best.
Text Marketing
In today's world, our mobile phones are almost extensions of ourselves. Statistics show that an average American checks their phone at least 300 times a day. Just imagine how easy it would be to reach them through text messages.
While it is true that people check emails on their phones, the response rate for a text message is double that of an email.
How it Works
Text marketing or SMS marketing is a permission-based strategy where the customers or the prospective lead opt-in to get text messages from your business. You create promotional and informational text messages to share the latest updates with your target audiences.
Business text messaging requires a software solution to send messages to customers in bulk. Scheduling, customization, automating responses, landline texting, etc., are possible by integrating business texting messaging software with the CRM systems or the customer database.
Advantages
· Immediate: The text message is instantly sent to the customers. Studies confirm that majority of the text messages are opened within three minutes of receiving them.
· Wider Reach: People don’t need an internet connection or a smartphone to receive a text message. This increases the reach.
· Better Visibility: A text message is easily readable. It contains limited characters and can be viewed on any mobile phone.
· Crisp and to the Point: It takes less than a minute to read a text message. There’s no worry about boring the audience.
· Casual and Friendly: People prefer text messages as the tone can be kept casual and light.
Disadvantages
· Text Length Limitations: A text message cannot be too long or contain paragraphs of information. It needs to fit the character limit.
· MMS Limitations: Though you can send gifs and videos as MMS messages , the receiver might be charged to view the messages.
· Trust Issues: Sending a text message to a person who hasn’t opted for the service might create a trust issue as they are likely to consider it spam or fake.
Email Marketing
Email marketing has in an evergreen digital marketing strategy for decades. Your messages go straight to the customer’s inbox and stay there until they read them. People can read and respond to emails at their convenience. You can send an email of any length and include multimedia, links, and CTA buttons.
How it Works
Research says that around 50% of email newsletters convert to sales. Emails help build a relationship with customers, share information about the business, and convert their interest to sales. Email marketing is a long-term strategy.
Email marketing success, however, depends on how well you optimize the emails for target audiences. Similar to business texting software, email marketing also requires software/ app to schedule, optimize, personalize, and send emails in bulk.
Advantages
· B2B Campaigns: Email marketing is suitable for B2C and B2B marketing. A business will prefer another business to contact through email instead of text.
· Detailed and Informative: Emails can be highly informative in required. An email doesn’t have to fit any character limit.
· Multimedia: You can include images, videos, audio tracks, and more in the email to attract customers.
· Newsletters & PRs: Send newsletters, press releases, product information, etc., through emails. Newsletters can bring more leads.
· Multiple Links: Do you want to add links to more than one product/ service? You can do it in an email.
Disadvantages
· Spam Filters: There’s a risk of the email being sent directly to the spam folder. In such cases, the receiver will not know about your email.
· Appearance Errors: If you don’t optimize the email or run A/B tests periodically, the email might look odd on different devices and annoy the user.
· Lesser CTR: The click-through rate for emails is lesser than that of text messages or online ads.
Text vs. Email Marketing: Which Gives Better Results?
So, which marketing strategy do you think gives better results?
The answer depends on your business and the target audience. We say, choose both. Email marketing and text marketing have their advantages and disadvantages. Combine both strategies to get the best results for your business.
TXTImpact is a leading business text messaging platform in the US market. We work with firms across multiple industries and cater to various requirements. Why stick to one when you can maximize your returns with text and email marketing?
