SMS marketing and email marketing are both leading strategies when it comes to brands getting their message across to their audience.
The key differences between these two marketing methods lie in their delivery, content, audience engagement and use cases.
In this blog, you’ll learn the differences between these marketing methods and will be able to decide which method is more effective for your business.
Email Marketing
An email marketing message is delivered via the internet to the recipient’s email inbox and allows for longer-form content, such as multimedia and detailed formatting. This delivery required a valid email address.
Email marketing offers the ability to have greater flexibility for branding and design, and are suitable for newsletters, promotions, product launches and storytelling. Depending on the email platform you use, you have the ability to add in extensive text, HTML formatting, images and videos.
When it comes to engagement rates, email marketing has lower engagement rates compared to SMS marketing, but are still effective with the correct targeting. This is because when the recipient receives an email, they may not open it right away, and is more likely to be used for nurturing leads.
According to Optinmonster, nearly 4.5 billion people use email worldwide in 2025, projecting to reach over 4.8 billion by 2027. 88% of email users will check their email multiple times a day.
SMS Marketing
SMS text messages are delivered directly to a recipient’s mobile phone via an SMS protocol. They are usually limited to a specific amount of characters per message and a valid phone number is required for delivery.
These text messages are often brief and concise due to character limits, and are used for time-sensitive alerts, promotions, and reminders.
The audience engagement rates for SMS marketing boasts high open rates (exceeding 90%), because messages are short and instantly visible to the recipients. They are usually read within minutes, but have limited interactivity beyond clicking links or replying. SMS messages are more effective for direct and immediate communications.
As text messages reach the users phone, they are usually highly personal and are ideal for 1 to 1 communication, such as appointment confirmation and order updates. There is a limit on how much can be customised due to character constraints.
According to Klaviyo, although consumers prefer email to SMS, text messages tend to drive purchases with 74% of European shoppers making a purchase after receiving a text from a brand.
What are the Similarities?
Both methods offer a way for a brand to reach their audience directly, which makes them a reliable and opportunistic method of marketing. They also have the potential to be automated processes and can be used for both marketing and service messages.
Which Method Will Work Better For My business?
If you are struggling on deciding which marketing method is best to use for your business, you should consider these factors:
Pricing and Budget: Are you looking for affordability?
Customer Data: Do you currently collect phone numbers and emails?
Purpose of Your Messages: Are you needing to communicate short messages or do you want to develop nurturing relationships?
Audience Demographic: Are your customers highly mobile focused, or do they prefer detail and formality? Consider how large is your demographic?
Frequency of Message Sends: Are the messages regular, irregular, automated, or in sequences?
Engagement: Do you want messages to be urgent and instantly visible or do you want to build engagement overtime?
Other factors also include personalisation, automation, legal consideration and compliance, integrations, tracking, and much more.
For example if you are looking to provide updates around order delivery and timelines, but don’t collect phone numbers of your customers, it’s probably best to stick with email marketing order receipts and notifications unless you plan on collecting more data in the future.
However, if you are collecting phone numbers but aren’t doing anything with them, it may be worth trying out SMS marketing. If you opt for SMS marketing, these are usually used for urgent and short-term communications such as time-sensitive alerts, delivery updates and appointment reminders.
As a win-win situation, you could potentially use both as a powerful multi-channel strategy. But keep in mind the limitations and what you are communicating across to your audience. Use email for in-depth campaigns and follow-ups, and SMS works better for immediate actions and reminders.
For more information on how you can utilise these marketing methods in your business, reach out to our expert team, we are happy to help. Contact us here.