SMS marketing and email marketing are two He Tuber channels that generate leads, retain prospects and customers and support consumers throughout their purchasing journey. Through this article, you will discover the differences between these two means of communication and the ideal situations to exploit them.

The goal is not to make you choose a particular marketing channel, but to highlight the strong points of each of them, to highlight their advantages or to list their differences so that you understand their impact and you adjust your 

What the numbers tell us

To begin, let's compare the figures and statistics of email marketing and SMS marketing.

First of all, contrary to what one might think, email is one of customers' favorite means of communication , since they want the brands with which they are in contact to use this channel . . In comparison, 80% of mobile users are interested in SMS messages from their favorite companies , particularly new generations who are particularly sensitive to SMS marketing. However, more and more prospects and customers want to be contacted by SMS because their inboxes are being flooded with emails.

In addition to being the favorite communication tool, email is also extremely effective since on average. Email campaigns have an unbeatable cost/performance ratio and this unrivaled ROI makes email an undisputed leader.

In addition, according to comarketing-news, emails are 40 times more effective in terms of customer acquisition than ads on Facebook and Twitter combined. Added to this, 49% of professionals who have received an email purchase a service, so email campaigns are formidable for winning over new customers. However, SMS is not being discouraged because 49% of French people make a purchase after receiving a promotional SMS .

Moreover, speaking of SMS, its opening rate crushes that of email. If 95% of SMS messages are opened, only of BtoC emails are. Readers seem to prefer the direct approach of text messages and can't help but read the content received, whereas emails have a harder time capturing the recipients' attention. In addition, an SMS is generally read within 3 minutes of receipt, compared to 1h30 for emails.

The opening rate of SMS is almost 5 times higher than that of emails. The messages are shorter, contacts see the redirection link directly when they open an SMS.

 Design and formatting

Emails are completely customizable blank pages . You can insert images, gifs or even videos, incorporate your logo and your company colors, use typography specific to your identity or even include graphic shapes that suit you. With email campaigns you can successfully stand out from your competitors thanks to your visual identity. In addition, you do not need to have advanced knowledge of graphic design to successfully create designer emails, you just need to use Whereas with SMS campaigns it is impossible to create a striking graphic layout that reinforces your brand image. Indeed, marketing SMS are short messages, they contain 160 characters. You can write an SMS of up to 450 characters maximum, no graphic elements and no colors can be added .

Please note, however, that the design and formatting of the information can happen later thanks to enriched SMS (SMS containing a link to a landing page) to counter the lack of visuals. To succeed in an SMS campaign, it must be impactful and easily remembered. With enriched SMS, you can get to the point in the content of your message and say more about the landing associated with your SMS.

Since marketing SMS are short and have no particular formatting, campaigns are quick to set up and can be programmed in just a few clicks. Likewise, messages are more easily remembered by contacts and CTAs (Call To Action) are impactful because they only have one place to click and little information to remember. Moreover, according to INSEE, the memorization rate for SMS campaigns is 60%.

Conversely, recipients remember the information present in email marketing campaigns less well since there is more content. Additionally, their design is longer. 

Different situations

Marketing emails adapt to all possible situations and circumstances. You can use marketing emails to find new customers, notify, promote your services and/or activities, make your recipients aware of a cause, engage and build loyalty, inform your contacts of your news or follow up with those who are inactive. For each event, there are many types of emailing.

If SMS marketing is a particularly effective and practical channel for, for example, reminding people of an event or keeping up to date with a delivery, SMS messages can also quickly be perceived as intrusive in other situations. They should therefore be used sparingly for marketing communications, for example for a special offer or flash sales. SMS is more generally used in more specific situations where communication is expected (notifications, important information). Thus SMS do not adapt to all circumstances unlike emailing campaigns.

The mobile phone is an object that has become essential in our daily lives, and rare are those who do not have one, since are equipped with one. As a result, SMS marketing campaigns can reach a very large number of people. In the same way, email marketing campaigns can also reach many individuals since in 2019 the number of email users in France amounted to . In both cases, the reach of the marketing campaigns is immense, making them effective weapons.

Emailing campaigns promote exchange between readers and your brand, in particular thanks to newsletters which transmit information about you but also anecdotes, advice, news or even testimonials. Being more comprehensive than SMS, emails build long-term relationships and inspire trust. Whereas SMS can only focus on the essentials due to the character limit. So when customer interactions and engagement are necessary, we must focus on email marketing .