If you are working in the communication industry, the debate over the best way to connect with prospects and clients continues. On one side is the age-old champion — email. Known for its formal and structured approach, emailing is used by 90% of Americans in today’s workforce.
On the other hand, is quick and personal text messaging, a rising star in the business arena. With its concise nature and 98% open rate, companies today are switching over to texting for time sensitive messages.
Both SMS and email have their strengths, but which one do you think reigns supreme for seamless communication? In this article, you will learn more about this text vs. email digital duel. Let’s start!
Text? Email? The Battle of the digital titans!
If you’re working in digital marketing, you’ve definitely used an email message to reach your target audience. Emails have been a staple in business communication for decades. They are ideal for detailed and formal communications that might need thorough reading.
For example, if you’re sending out proposals to potential clients, emailing is a great tool for this task. It allows you to attach important documents, and include detailed information about your services. This will ensure that your proposal looks professional. Emails are also great for recording conversations and keeping stakeholders informed.
Text messages, on the other hand, are the sprinters in the communication race. If you’re a healthcare
provider managing a busy clinic, SMS is great for quick updates and appointment reminders
It is also effective for confirmations and urgent notifications. Texts’ informality makes them great for forming relationships with your recipient.
Businesses today, including yours, are combining SMS and emails to build brand awareness. Because each channel has its own benefits that you can easily utilize.
So what wins your inbox?
In business, the difference between text vs. email marketing gets more nuanced. Here’s a table to help you see it better:
| Texting | ||
| Best for | 1. Perfect for time-sensitive updates that need immediate attention. 2. Quick and effective for appointment reminders. 3. Great for flash sales and special offers. 4. Easy to ask for reviews and opinions. 5. Text messages can enhance your customer service with a timely response. | 1. Ideal for newsletters and detailed reports. 2. Best for personalized messages with official documents. 3. Suitable for well-designed promotions with rich content. 4. Emails are effective for global communications. 5. The best to keep clients up to date via email campaigns. |
| Pros | 1. Messages are received immediately 2. Texts are read immediately with their high open rates 3. Quick responses from recipients 4. Feels more personal and direct | 1. It can include a lot of information, images, and links. 2. More formal, and suitable for official communication. 3. Easy to set up automated campaigns. 4. Detailed analytics on open rates, click-through rates, and other metrics |
| Cons | 1. It has a character limit and only allows for short messages. 2. Can be more expensive per message. | 1. Lower open rates and often filtered into spam or ignored. 2. Recipients might take longer to reply. |
Texting vs. Email, where the numbers don’t lie
Statistics can provide a clear picture of how effective each channel can be in different scenarios. Here’s a texting vs. email case study from a marketing campaign for a fitness studio.
Gold’s Gym decided to run a marketing campaign to bring back former customers. They used both email and text messaging to reach their clients. The results were telling.
- Emails: Detailed email marketing campaigns managed to generate 115 conversions.
- Text messages: One business franchise only sent out a brief text marketing messages to 323 clients. 64 of 323 members return after receiving the messages instantly.
The findings suggest that text message marketing gets results quickly. However, email can capture attention and provide detailed information clients can refer to. Email or text, at the end of the campaign, they managed to have 500 plus new and returning customers using both.
Texting: Communication made “easy peasy lemon squeezy”
In texting vs. email marketing showdown, you should know that connecting via SMS messages is great for sales and prospecting because it connects you to clients. It has a high open rate because most people own mobile devices today.
This ensures your SMS marketing campaigns are noticed immediately. You can also easily start a two-way conversation using text messaging, which is especially helpful if you have time-sensitive information.
The instance and tone intimacy can increase your lead-to-customer conversion. Also, the human touch of text messages can strengthen your client relationships as you can easily talk about your personal and professional lives.
Getting started is easier than saying “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”
You see, only a 10-digit local phone number is needed to start calling clients. You can easily get a phone number and start talking right away with services like JustCall. Without much of a learning curve, businesses can easily start pushing marketing efforts through short messages.
One example is a small dental office that can quickly set up a texting service to help patients remember their meetings. This can cut down on no-show rates significantly. Texting is easy enough that even companies that aren’t tech-savvy can use it.
Need Personalization? Yep, That’s Possible Too!
The average click-through rate (CTR) for text messages with a URL is 36%, according to recent statistics. This personalization can reflect your brand’s personality. When it comes to texting vs. email, text messages can be personalized with:
- Templates: These are pre-written messages that you can customize for different recipients. Having a message template ensures that you are consistent with communication.
- Tags: A tag allows you to insert specific details about the recipient into your message, making it more personal. For example, you can use tags to send personalized offers if you’re a retail store owner.
- Media: These are the images, videos, or GIFs that you can include in text messages to make them more engaging. This is perfect if you’re running a travel agency where you have lots of beautiful places to show.
- Links: Putting links in text messages directs your recipients to a specific webpage, it’s especially helpful if you have an online shop. This makes it easy for them to take action.
It makes each message feel unique and tailored to the recipient. Because most text messages are personalized, 83% of millennials open texts within 90 seconds, according to data.
This case study from Domino’s Pizza is a great example of a personalized SMS marketing campaign. Domino’s Pizza recognized the shift towards mobile phone ordering, especially among millennials and Gen Z.
They aimed to simplify the process with the “Easy Order” system. Customers could place orders by sending a pizza emoji via SMS message after setting up preferences on Domino’s website.
This creative method took advantage of the prevalence of SMS. Additionally, it made good use of the widespread use of emojis to increase sales and interaction.
The marketing messages campaign made Domino’s stand out as a company that cares about its customers. It proved that adapting to new ways of communicating makes both the customer experience and the business successful.
Send text message broadcasts like a boss
When you need to reach many people at once, text message broadcasts are the way to go. This is particularly useful for sending out mass messages, notifications, and promotional campaigns. It is also effective for sending important updates.
So, if you’re running a local gym, you can announce a new class schedule via a text broadcast. Members receive the update instantly and can plan their workouts accordingly. Text messages are immediate and get read and acted on immediately, increasing engagement.
One great case study of this is from Ford Motor Company. Ford Motor Company used an exclusive SMS marketing strategy to try to get potential buyers interested and boost sales.
They sent invites to a special sales event with discounted rates to interested people. People who came were also given the chance to win prizes by showing their SMS invites. Ford’s SMS campaign achieved a notable 15% conversion rate, highlighting its text message marketing success.
Text messages get delivered instantly, especially if you’re carrier-verified
Carrier verification assures fast message delivery. In a text message vs. email battle, this process is advantageous. It also lowers the chance that your texts will end up in the spam box.
For time-sensitive messages, this level of reliability is very important. For example, a business can send a carrier-verified text message to customers in real-time to let them know about a flash sale. This increases the effect of the sale.
Text messages have high open rates and engagement rates
One of the three people who get SMS notifications checks them within a minute, according to a study. This makes text messaging a great way to get people’s attention and get them to act on your business’s offer. This demonstrates how useful this tool is for marketing and customer engagement.
If you are a restaurant owner, you can send out daily specials or discount offers via text. Immediate responses and greater foot traffic are typical outcomes of this strategy.
You can schedule and automate text messages
You can save time by scheduling and organizing text messages. In addition, this makes sure that your communication efforts are consistent. You can use automated texts to inform people of appointments, follow up, and run drip campaigns.
For example, if you work in a vet clinic, you can set up automated text reminders for your client’s pets’ future appointments. This makes sure that your patients show up on time and makes the administrative staff’s job easier.
Text messages make it easy to collect feedback and ask for reviews
In texting vs. email, collecting feedback and reviews via text is straightforward and effective via SMS. Based on recent findings, In general, 9.18% more people click through SMS messages than on any other digital channel.
Customers are more likely to respond to a quick text message than a lengthy email survey. This makes it an excellent method for gathering insights and improving your services.
For example, a hotel could send a text to guests after their stay asking for a quick review. This also helps you gain valuable feedback that you can use for future guest experiences.
Email: The legend of business communication
Email has long been a cornerstone of business communication. Over the past year, 78% of marketers have seen email interaction rise, according to a recent survey. Its versatility and reliability make it indispensable for various professional interactions.
Today, email platforms can integrate with a variety of other tools and systems. This includes customer relationship management (CRM) software, e-commerce platforms, and analytics tools.
Shared email inbox = Response time faster than flash
A shared email inbox improves response times and avoids missing client inquiries. This is especially helpful if you’re a mid-sized business with many consumer inquiries. The customer service team can avoid overwork by using a shared email mailbox.
Your team members can see resolved and unresolved questions with shared visibility. Faster responses improve customer happiness, lowering negative reviews and increasing repeat business.
Automated outbound emails for winning customer trust
Building and maintaining your customer trust is possible through automated emails. Automation ensures that communication is timely and consistent.
For example, automated welcome emails can be sent to new subscribers. Giving them a nice welcome to your business will set the tone for future interactions. Besides welcome emails, you can automate other emails such as these to build client trust:
Order confirmations
Immediate order confirmation emails reassure customers that their purchase was successful. They also provide details about their order.
Shipping notifications
Automated shipping updates keep customers informed about the status of their orders. This helps reduce anxiety and builds trust.
Spruce it up with visuals and personality
Emails allow you to be creative and make for rich content. This makes them a perfect medium to convey your brand’s personality. They can include visuals, links, and detailed information to engage recipients effectively.
A well-designed email is more likely to get people’s attention than plain text. Also, data shows that personalized emails made clients more interested in 50% of businesses.
You want to avoid spam filters so make sure that the content of your email has the right balance of image, text, and keywords. Spam filters are a big challenge in email marketing that can prevent your message from reaching your audience.
If you own a bakery, visually stunning email newsletters can help attract clients. These newsletters could feature high-quality images of decadent pastries and cakes. Your business reputation would benefit from delighted consumers discussing their favorite treats.
You can also add special offers and promotions on seasonal delights. This technique showcases the bakery’s products and services effectively.
Tracking emails is easier than finding Waldo
The email tracking tools are an advantage in this texting vs. email battle. It gives you very useful information about how people respond to your emails. The open rate, the click-through rate, and the contact rate of your email can all be tracked with these tools.
With this, you make your plan ahead and get better results. This method is based on data and improves email messages to work better.
If your company has a marketing team, they can look at what kinds of content get the most clicks. They will be able to add more of that information to their emails in the future.
Emails can reach anyone around the world
Emails can reach anyone with an internet connection. They are great for international business communications because of this. With this global reach, you can stay in touch with your partners and clients wherever they are.
It’s also important to make sure that your messages look good on phones. The reason for this is that 41% of email views come from phones, according to a recent study.
If you run a global logistics company, it involves handling shipments across continents. You can send more details about shipping times through email. This includes tracking links and customs paperwork.
This lets your clients know what’s going on, no matter what time zone they are in. It’s like having a helper that ensures everything runs smoothly for you, from New York to Tokyo.
Emails are flexible with different languages. Also, time zone-friendly scheduling makes your every message relevant and timely. Timely messages are crucial for diverse markets in different time zones.
The secret sauce? Listen to your individual needs
In the texting vs. email showdown, consider the nature of your message and your audience. Don’t forget about your goals when selecting the appropriate channel for your business.
Both SMS marketing and email marketing have their unique advantages. By combining these channels you can create a successful communication strategy. With an effective approach using text and email, you can meet all your business demands effectively.
