When we talk about business marketing, we have a wide ground to cover. There’s a lot of business marketing strategies that keep businesses thriving, and one of them is mobile marketing. The two giants in mobile marketing are SMS marketing and email marketing, which are often pitted against each other.

Generally, both are known to deliver leads, and sales and businesses are generating profit from these two marketing strategies. But for a startup business, which of these two channels should you choose, and what makes them an advantage?

Let us discover both channels and decide which one suits your business the best.

Email marketing key variables that give it an advantage

Email messages are known to be lengthy but entertaining and can draw customer’s attention through pictures, videos, and other animations. But aside from these fancy email content, what are the other things a business can benefit from?

Here are the top two key variables:

• Compelling Call To Action (CTA)

  A common term when it comes to mobile marketing, the CTA, or Call to Action, is a phrase designed to encourage customers to perform a specific action. CTAs are composed of simple phrases, but it does have a great impact on your business campaign.

  Although both are mobile marketing, email marketing has a great advantage compared to SMS marketing. One of the best things email marketing can offer is you can quickly draft a compelling call to action because you are not limited to 160 maximum characters, unlike SMS marketing.

  With fewer limitations, email marketing allows you to craft a more catchy and appealing CTA. Email campaigns that work on a different platform cover more room to influence your readers to act on a specific action.

  Also, CTA is crucial as it is your method of conversion. When your customers click on your CTA, there’s a possibility of turning it into a sale. It is worth noting that how well you draft your call to action will determine your click-through rate.

• Cost

  There’s a fine line between the money spent on these two entirely different channels. The cost of SMS sending varies by country, length of the message, and the number of messages to be sent.

  However, you can highly maximize your spending on SMS marketing by engaging in a third-party and expect that the sms marketing pricing will highly depend on the number of messages you send every month.

  On the other hand, email marketing is relatively low, too, especially in the early stage. But as you grow your list, segment your emails, and use sophisticated programs, there will be a price demand.

  It is important to note that your email list should be well-tailored to include only engaged and potential customers during its first stage. Widen the scope and customize the list as you go along and have enough finances to fund your email marketing.

( Also Read: Email Marketing Tips and Tricks for Beginners )

Factors that give SMS marketing an edge

Short messaging service or also known as SMS or the most common term “text messaging.” When mobile phones were invented, text messaging rose to the top as the primary form of communication.

Now, it has been utilized in business marketing, and unsurprisingly, it is delivering results. But what gives SMS marketing an edge when it comes to business marketing?

• Readability / Open Rate

  In marketing, the first thing you want to accomplish is to be visible, to be in the present, and to be noticed. These are the factors that generate a sale, and this is accomplished through SMS marketing.

  Did you know that text messages have 98% open rates? This simply means your messages are received, opened, and read by your target audience. Compared to email marketing, which has a 20% open rate on average and 45% of it goes directly to the spam folder,  which is pretty bad for business.

  In layman’s term, your company’s promotion, product launches, and updates have reached your client’s attention. Hence, it has served its purpose.

• Deliverability

  When you want to be visible, your message should be delivered and read, but that won’t happen if most of your messages are filtered out and goes directly to a spam folder. Unfortunately, this happens with email marketing.

  Therefore, this is an SMS marketing significant advantage. Your message is delivered and sent through with a high probability of being read.

  Statistics show that every individual owns a personal email account and a mobile phone. However, email messages received a daily rise of up to 120 per day, whereas millennials received an average of 67 text messages per day. This means your business promotion delivered through SMS has a higher chance of being read.

Pro-tip: Constant sending of SMS promotional can annoy a potential customer. Make sure that whatever you send through SMS marketing is valuable to your target audience. Think of it this way, every time your phone beeps a message you want it to be either helpful information or a personalized offer, rather than a system generated and purely generic message.

Their Effectiveness as a Mobile Marketing Channel

If it comes to a point where effectiveness is the main discussion, both of these channels are effective mobile marketing strategies.

For enterprise businesses, email marketing is a tried and tested marketing channel since it can reach a wider audience and send mass emails at once. However, it’s undeniable that the rapid growth of mobile phone usage becomes a factor for businesses to utilize SMS marketing as well.

Both channels are indeed effective ways to communicate and reach your target audience. But it is important to know that there are certain messages that best fit each channel. Determining your way of communication can help you sort which mobile marketing works effectively for your business.

Takeaway

When the question is, which is better mobile marketing, the answer would be it depends. You can either choose one or utilize the two at the same time. However, the two require financing, so let your profit be one of your deciding factors as to what channel you will use. Both have their own advantages where your business can significantly benefit.

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Dylan Stone is a 25-year-old freelance writer specializing in business and finance. Hardworking and optimistic, he wishes to share his knowledge with the world by contributing his writing to different websites and magazines. When he’s not working, Dylan spends his time enjoying a good book. Connect with him on LinkedIn.