Regardless of the industry you’re in, you need to match the form of communication to your customers. The most common channels are, of course, email and SMS, but each works well only in certain situations. Do you know what kind of marketing campaign to prepare for your audience? If not, be sure to read this article and see in which situations it’s good to choose SMS marketing, and in which situations sending emails will work better.
Is it still worth creating email messages?
It certainly is! Most of your customers have email inboxes and look into them more often than you think. Email marketing builds a long-term relationship with the user. With the easy-to-use Drag&Drop editor, you’ll create the emails of your dreams in minutes. In iPresso, you can choose from hundreds of different templates to suit any occasion. You’ll also create your own professional templates to make your messages always look aesthetically pleasing and consistent.
However, the effectiveness of using this communication channel depends on many factors, and sometimes sending emails is not a very good idea. Some recipients read emails only after a few or several hours, so for time-limited promotions it is better to choose another communication channel.
In which campaigns emails will work best:
- Advertising personalized offers – you can add dynamically changing content and recommend the purchase of products (or services) appropriately tailored to a specific customer, and personalize the message by putting the customer’s name in the title, for example.
- Providing additional content – are you sending users tips and tricks tailored to their interests? Email marketing will be ideal for sending such content to relevant segments. Take advantage of MA scenarios and automate the sending depending on the specific action. This way, for example, you can send everyone who has registered on the site materials introducing them to a particular topic.
- Send newsletters to interested parties – want to keep your audience updated and encourage them to get more involved? Emails are irreplaceable when you create your own newsletter and send it periodically.
- Informing about special actions – a new sweepstakes has just been launched and you want to promote it? In your e-mails you will include images with prizes, links to the rules and to the sign-up form, as well as inform about the start and end dates.
- Promoting new products and services – sending emails will work well for campaigns advertising the launch. This form of communication with the customer is equally effective for seasonal products, introduced, for example, only for the holiday season.
Will SMS work in every industry?
SMS campaigns have a high read rate of the message and almost immediately after sending, so they are especially useful for real-time marketing. SMS can be personalized and contain links, but due to the limitation of the number of characters, they are usually chosen for short information and often only after clicking on the link does the recipient learn more about the details. SMS messaging has a wide range of applications and can be used both as a single form of communication and as one of many channels used in omnichannel campaigns.
If you want to use SMS marketing, we advise you to check whether all the necessary information will fit in one message. If you want to include a link in an SMS, it’s best to use an online shortener. You don’t want to pay for two or three SMS messages that will be unsightly split due to exceeding the character limit. With iPresso, you can preview how many characters your message has and how many SMS messages it will be sent in, so you have everything under control.
When SMS messages are a good idea:
- Reminders of deadlines – a customer’s subscription is running out? Someone bought insurance, but didn’t renew it for the next year? In such cases, a short SMS can work much better than an email, and thanks to personalization, the recipient is more likely to decide to use your services again.
- Informing about expiring promotions – the last days of sales are left, and you want to notify your customers, so create short personalized SMS messages and be sure that the recipient will read them before the promotion ends.
- React in real time to external factors – with iPresso Satellite you will automatically send messages to all those where, for example, it is currently raining, or offer customers deals that can be purchased at lower prices due to a change in the exchange rate. With email marketing, the recipient could see such a message too late, so SMS or two-way communication via WhatsApp is the best choice here.
- Advertising local promotions – surely you observe industries where every week there are new discounts available only in selected outlets and cities. Without the use of SMS marketing, it would be almost impossible to run this type of campaign, because often the user gets a notification about promotions in just one day and immediately after receiving such a message on his phone, he goes to his favorite store and makes purchases at a reduced price.
Which channel should you choose to communicate with your customers?
You must first consider what your goals are and what the campaign you want to launch should include. If you care about providing a lot of information along with sample products to buy, email marketing can be a hit. You can create several variants of emails and test which one will work best and generate the most interest.
For real-time marketing and sending discount codes valid for only a few days, SMS marketing will be much more effective, due to the high read rate of messages only a few minutes after sending. This form of communication is superior to emails when it comes to speed and the ability to reach the customer at a specific moment. SMS messages are readily used in local marketing, where promotions change many times and are dedicated only to specific outlets. You will put only the most important information in SMS messages, which will be appreciated by customers who prefer specific content.
Maybe a combination of SMS and email marketing is what you’re looking for?
Sometimes it’s not worth choosing and wondering whether SMS or email marketing will work better for a given campaign. SMS sending can perfectly complement an email campaign and reinforce the message. You can send reminder SMS messages only to those who haven’t read the email within a certain period of time. See that a person has abandoned the shopping cart on the site? Send a reminder email after an hour for items waiting to be purchased. A customer hasn’t read such a message all day? Offer a small discount code via SMS and see if such actions prompted him to buy. The combination of SMS and email doesn’t have to be used only for marketing purposes – this way you will also inform the recipient about the tracking of the order. You can send a thank-you for placing an order by email, while information about the shipment of the package is best included in a short SMS.
Summary
Emails are the choice when you need to add various kinds of attachments, graphics, personalized recommendations with photos of products. SMS works well for real-time marketing and informing in a concise way about ending promotions. The choice of campaign depends on several factors, so it is not worth making a hasty decision. SMS campaigns can complement email marketing, so don’t rule out one communication channel when choosing the other.
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