SMS vs email marketing: Which channel should you choose?

Two channels which marketers often find themselves having to choose between are SMS and email. Both can be highly effective marketing tools depending on what you are trying to achieve, and many organisations use both as part of a multichannel marketing strategy.

But if you have to pick one channel to focus more of your marketing budget and resources on, which should you choose?

In this guide we break down the pros and cons of each channel to help you decide which will be more effective for your business.

Quick overview

• SMS has higher open rates and is more effective for short, time-sensitive, actionable sales messages and alerts.
• Email still works well for longer, more informative content such as newsletters and educational material.
• You can use both channels together to create a joined-up customer experience.

SMS leads the way in engagement – with open rates up to 98%, compared to around 39% for email. SMS is also a powerful way to deliver succinct and actionable marketing messages, alerts and reminders direct to customers’ mobile phones. 

Email, on the other hand, lends itself to longer form communications, with the opportunity for inspiring content and imagery that nurtures prospects through the marketing funnel.

What is SMS marketing? 

SMS, which stands for short messaging service, is more commonly known as a text message. SMS marketing is when businesses send text messages for marketing purposes, whether this is to promote a product or service, send customers a welcome message, or give them access to special offers and deals.

With a 160 character limit, texts are necessarily short with a clear call to action. Using an SMS platform, you’re also able to group or segment your contacts so your communications are highly-targeted. 

To learn more about how it works, read our SMS marketing guide.

SMS marketing: the pros 

• Reach: There are around 7.41 billion mobile phone users worldwide in 2024, which gives you a huge potential audience. Many people today keep their phones within close reach, which increases the likelihood of messages being read quickly.

• Speed: Time-pressed customers don’t always have time to read long emails or blogs. SMS is direct and economical with words so you can get your message across quickly. You can also speed up the process of sending them out with automation.

• High open rate: An extremely high open rate increases the chances of your messages landing, reducing the cost-per-acquisition.

• Targeting: It’s easy to segment customers based on demographics, behaviours or preferences so your messaging is effective.

• Personalisation: Text messages can already feel exclusive because they are sent to a user’s personal device. But you can further personalise texts by including names and offers that are most likely to resonate with them.

• Low cost: SMS is highly-affordable, and the costs come down further when you send more messages.
  

SMS marketing: the cons

• 160 character limit: Sometimes it’s harder to write a short message than a longer one because every word must carry weight. You need to get your point across quickly without being abrupt. Esendex users can choose from a number of templates to make this task easier and even create a bespoke SMS landing page to provide further information. 

• Timing it right: You need to get the timing just right to encourage people to act quickly, while also giving them enough time to do so. 

What is email marketing? 

Marketing emails, like SMS, are also used to welcome customers and offer exclusive subscriber deals. They can be short and snappy – but you can also use them for longer-form content, such as newsletters with a number of articles and photos. The best marketing emails have a strong subject line, interesting content, branding, website links, and imagery. 

Again, like SMS, email contacts are grouped into a central database where it’s easy to manage and segment them. Typically, email is used to nurture leads especially in the B2B world where the buying cycle is longer and customers might need more information and reassurance before making a decision. 

Email marketing: the pros

• Direct: With many people viewing their emails on a mobile, you can reach people wherever they are.

• Segmentation: Your database can be segmented according to demographics, behaviours and preferences.

• Personalisation: A personalised subject line, greeting and bespoke offers can drive engagement and action. 

• Cost effective: Email marketing pricing is competitive, especially compared to print communications.

• Include more detail: With no character limit, you can include more information on a range of subjects. SMS, on the other hand, should only include one message with a single call to action. That said, it’s normally best to keep email communications short otherwise your audience could lose interest. 

Email marketing: the cons

• Spam: Marketing emails can go into a spam or junk folder which prevents your customers from even seeing it. 

• Too much noise: Because it’s so easy to send out emails, yours could be easily lost or ignored even if it’s compelling and relevant. Metrics, such as open and click-through rates, give you valuable insights into which campaigns have performed best so you can optimise them in the future – such as changing the time, day and frequency they are sent, and/or the type of content. 

• Resource-intensive: It takes time to craft good emails. You need to come up with ideas, write the copy and design them. Templates can help to speed up this process, while a content calendar helps you map out ideas in plenty of time. 

Engagement rates

When it comes to comparing the data for engagement rates, SMS comes out on top – that’s because text messages are typically read within a few minutes after being sent. Emails on the other hand are usually read by recipients later after sending, when they make time to go through their inbox.

Here’s a look at how the two compare when it comes to engagement rates:

KPI	SMS	Email
Open rates	98%	39%
Read rates	98%	22%
Response rates	45%	6%
Click-through rates	11%	1.47%
Unsubscribe rates (annual)	<5%	20%

How to choose between Email or SMS marketing

To choose the right channel, you need to weigh up the type of message that you want to communicate, the action that you want the recipient to take and how quickly you want them to see the message.

SMS is more effective for grabbing attention with quick, short, time-sensitive messages, reminders and alerts. Whereas email can be a better option for longer messages, newsletters and educational content, where you have the opportunity to provide more detail.

Ultimately, email and SMS can complement each other and create a joined-up customer experience.