Every company needs to keep up with the times if they’re going to effectively engage their audience and get the results they need. In the past few years, SMS (Short Message Service, better known as text messaging) has burst onto the scene as a top communication platform.
Given the popularity of smartphones—which the vast majority of us keep at our sides at all times—it’s no surprise that SMS and email marketing have become a powerful combination. When used together, the results are powerful.
What’s there to gain by combining email marketing with SMS? In this post, we’re sharing the top 5 benefits of combining email marketing with SMS.
1. Email marketing and SMS are entirely permission-based
SMS marketing requires the intended recipient to enter a short code before they begin receiving messages. This is done to ensure that a person actually wants to receive messages from an organization and that they’re not simply being spammed.
The reason this is a major plus for any organization using email marketing with SMS is that, by entering the short code, the prospect is essentially saying, “Yes, I would like to learn more about what you have to offer.”
Similarly, email marketing requires subscribers to opt-in. Rather than targeting your audience with ads they don’t want to see, email marketing and SMS offer a way to target the right people. Those who opt in are interested in what you have to say, making them perfect prospects.
2. Both reach subscribers on their smartphones
SMS developed because it’s the perfect medium for a smartphone. However, what remains less obvious is that more and more people use their phones to check their emails, too. In fact, the majority of emails are read on phones – and that trend isn’t showing any signs of reversing.
Thus, by combining email marketing with SMS, you’re almost guaranteed that your recipient will notice your messages through at least one channel.
3. You can prep email subscribers via text
For the most part, shorter emails tend to perform better. People don’t want to spend the time on reading longer messages. So, even if your subject line convinces them to open yours, they may turn away after taking one look at how much time you’re asking them to spend on reading it.
Unfortunately, sometimes, short emails won’t do justice to your message. For example, introducing a new product or service usually requires a lengthy explanation of what it entails and what its benefits are.
With SMS, you can send a short text message that tells prospects what to expect from an upcoming email message. The great thing about this strategy is that you can use more words than your email subject line would allow, yet as long as there’s no need to scroll, most recipients will just instinctually read it. Keep your SMS messages to 160 characters and you shouldn’t have any problems.
4. You can use SMS for quick responses
People often check emails on their phones, but that doesn’t necessarily improve their response times – or even when the messages are initially checked.
If your company is launching a long-term sales campaign, this isn’t the end of the world. However, if you’re attempting a flash-sale or want to take advantage of an unexpected opportunity, this lack of response becomes a major problem.
That’s when combining your email marketing with SMS is the perfect solution. The average text message is responded to within 90 seconds. So, whatever the offer, when you want instantaneous results, combining email marketing with SMS is far superior to relying on email messages alone.
5. You already have a large database
If you’re starting an email campaign from scratch, one of the biggest challenges you’ll face is the fact that you don’t know your audience yet – at least not how they respond to emails.
This makes it nearly impossible to effectively utilize a segmentation strategy. You may need to send several emails – or even go through an entire campaign – before you understand how to best approach your market.
Fortunately, if you’ve already done this, you don’t have to worry – as much, anyway – about doing this again with your SMS approach. At the very least, you already understand your segments, so you know what kinds of messages will work best for each one.
Yes, you’ll still have some fine-tuning to do, but you won’t need to start with nothing like most companies do with their email marketing campaigns—that’s a big advantage.
6. Use email to build relationships and SMS to secure commitment
Another way that combining email marketing with SMS will make it easier to reach your company’s long-term goals is because of how well they complement each other when being used for the same campaign.
Emails are better for long-form messages. Again, you want to keep them relatively short, but you can definitely fit more into an email than a single text message. SMS— as the name makes clear—is meant for shorter ones.
So, you can use email marketing for the majority of your funnel and then use a simple text message for your SMS to help seal the deal. All someone has to do is text back the code you give them to confirm they’re interested in your offer.
Wrap up
In the future, combining email marketing with SMS will be a no-brainer that every organization across all industries utilizes. However, at the moment, your company will still stand out by utilizing this strategy.
Before other companies get onboard with these solutions to engage your market, be sure to leverage this powerful duo and you’ll enjoy uninterrupted access to their attention—no matter where they are.