Kalin Kassabov is a Founder and CEO of ProTexting.com, a fast-growing enterprise-level text message suite of services.
It’s useful to compare and contrast different marketing strategies. Email and mobile marketing are interesting to contrast, as they share some similarities as well as differences. For reasons we’ll discuss, the best solution is to combine these two marketing models so you can get the best of both worlds.
Email: Pros and Cons
Email marketing is almost as old as the internet itself. While still effective, it has some drawbacks you need to consider.
Pros
- Almost everyone uses email. People can receive your message at any time and from many devices.
- An email list is your own property. While your content can be removed by third-party platforms (Facebook, YouTube, etc.), an email list is always yours. You’re not subject to the restrictions of a third-party site (though you have to comply with laws such as against spamming or harassment of course).
- You can use your email list to link to other content -websites, product pages, social media, or anything else. It’s inexpensive.
Cons
- Email is saturated. Open rates have been steadily declining over the years.
- While you can send messages anytime, many people don’t read emails promptly, if ever. For this reason, it’s not ideal for time-sensitive messages.
Mobile Marketing: Pros and Cons
Text messaging or SMS marketing hasn’t been around as long as email, but it’s now an established way to communicate. At the same time, it’s still not nearly as popular for marketing as email.
Pros
- Offers the biggest advantage of email – a proprietary contact list.
- Open rates are significantly higher than for email.
- People take mobile devices everywhere. People open text messages faster than email. It’s a good choice for promoting time sensitive content such as events or flash sales.
- It gives you a competitive advantage as many businesses still aren’t using mobile marketing.
Cons
- Not ideal for longer messages. While you can always link to longer content, text messages are limited to 160 characters.
- There’s a certain learning curve to use mobile marketing effectively. You also need to educate your customers, who may not be accustomed to getting promotional texts.
Reasons to do Both
Mobile marketing has some distinct advantages you can’t afford to ignore. However, the best strategy is to enjoy the best of both worlds. Here are some reasons you should do both email and mobile marketing.
Reach Different Audiences
Most people, to some degree, use both email and smartphones. However, some prefer one over the other. If your audience includes older customers, not all of them may be comfortable with texting. On the other hand, many younger people prefer texting.
Each Has Distinct Purposes
As we noted, with texting you are limited to shorter messages. Email is useful for a newsletter, where you can include a whole article in your message. On the other hand, if you want to reach people fast about a time-sensitive offer, texting is perfect. This includes location-based marketing, where you can send a notification if someone is near your location.
Your Email List Helps Build Your SMS List
In some ways, building an SMS list works similarly to building an email list. For both, you need permission. Many businesses already have an email list. You can use this to encourage subscribers to join your SMS list. It helps if you offer special benefits, such as access to last minute deals.
Using More Channels Means More People See Your Messages
You can use both texting and email to convey information, send recipients to other sites, and remind them about your products. Reaching out in multiple ways gives you a better chance of reaching your audience. A certain amount of redundancy can be beneficial in a distracted world. Someone may have seen your email but not gotten around to clicking on your link. By reminding them via text, you give them another chance to respond.
Tips to Get the Best Results From Email and SMS
- Always include appropriate disclaimers. These are slightly different for email and SMS. For example, you need to remind people that they may be charged fees for text messages.
- Build email and SMS lists with the same form. Give people a choice of how much information they want to provide. You don’t want to lose potential email subscribers who may not want to give you their phone number. Additionally, email subscribers may always choose to submit their mobile numbers in the future.
- Learn the distinct ways you can use mobile marketing. The service you sign up with probably has a wide array of resources, such as apps for coupons, polls, autoresponders, contests, and other features to engage your audience.
- Always test your results. It’s ultimately up to you to identify the best way to reach out to your contacts. Careful tracking lets you find the optimal way to deliver different kinds of messages.
Sync Mobile and Email Marketing to Maximize Your Reach
Both text messaging and email are powerful ways to communicate with your audience. To get the most out of both of them, look for ways they can complement each other and work in unison.