Is Email Marketing or SMS Marketing Better for Your Business?

Is Email Marketing or SMS Marketing Better for Your Business?

Sep 16, 2022 | SMS Marketing

For decades, email marketing has been the preferred method for sending and receiving mass messages and reaching audiences. Text (or SMS) marketing, on the other hand, is quick and cost-effective. So, which reigns supreme?

Email or SMS marketing?

In order to figure out which strategy is right for your business you need to consider factors like: cost, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, level of engagement, open rate, and ROI – just to name a few.

In this article, we will breakdown the differences between SMS marketing and email marketing. We'll explain each strategy and demonstrate how they work, their benefits and drawbacks, and when to use them. Also, whether you should hire the services of a digital agency for help

So What Exactly Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is mass-sending emails to people (leads or customers) on your e-mail list. The people on your list have chosen to be there. You send emails to inform current and prospective customers about new products, services, discounts, and special offers. Consider it a direct method of communicating with your customers in which you have their permission to send them promotional information. Your email list should be one of your most valuable business assets.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Email Marketing

Approximately 125 billion emails are sent every day. Emails are an important part of any business, and it works best for delivering more detailed information. It also has a much higher ROI than many other marketing channels and is quite versatile. In fact, email campaigns can be for product updates, subscriptions, and promotions.

Here's why you should use email marketing:

It is reasonably priced – With a $40 profit for for every $1, it’s still the best ROI in the game for over 2 decades.

Emails have the ability to be personal to the recipient –Any reputable email marketing expert will tell you that this feature helps you connect with your audience. This can increase the email marketing conversion rate.

The versatility of email is unlike any other marketing tool –You can use emails to provide detailed product information, make brief announcements, and send reminders. Also, you can welcome new customers, announce special offers, follow up with leads, or simply greet your target audience.

It plays on user habits and intent – 44% of consumers check their emails at least once per day. People open emails with specific intentions, such as looking for updates, product information, or customer service. This is why email marketing is so important.

Emails are an excellent way to increase traffic to your website – You can increase the number of website visitors looking for your products or services by using targeted email marketing services. Using targeted traffic increases the ROI of email marketing.

The Cons of Email Marketing

A crowded inbox makes it difficult to capture the attention of your consumer – Every day, we all receive approximately 121 emails. When consumers sort through those emails on a daily basis, it's easy to put everything in the spam folder. In many cases your emails will end up in the same folder as spam.

Emails may not enter the recipient’s inbox – Email servers now have sophisticated filters. If your email appears to be spammy, it may be blocked from reaching your recipient's inbox. A digital agency can assist you in crafting emails that are more likely to reach your target audience's inbox.

People can easily delete or unsubscribe from emails – People may delete your emails or unsubscribe from your list for any reason. Like if they see messed up graphics, poorly written headlines, unreadable text, or blocked images. Or, simply content that isn’t relatable to them.

What Exactly Is SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing is the use of text messages to communicate with customers. SMS, like email marketing, can inform your audience about promotions, campaigns, updates, news, and more.

Before sending any promotional information, both SMS and email marketing ask for your audience's permission. The CAN-SPAM Act and the Consumer Protection Act are the primary laws that protect consumers from unsolicited SMS (TCPA). These rules and guidelines are in use in all good SMS marketing examples.

SMS and email marketing are both owned channels. This means you can choose who receives your emails or text messages.  It also means you have control over the type of user experience your customers will have.

You can send the SMS marketing examples listed below:

1. Promotional SMS: These are SMS messages that are intended to raise brand awareness, promote products or services, and boost sales.

2. Transactional SMS: These are text messages that contain information that your customers require. They may include delivery updates, product specifications, and order information.

SMS Marketing's Benefits and Drawbacks

When comparing SMS marketing to email marketing, SMS has the advantage of capturing the recipient's attention right away. When you receive a text message, your phone alerts you, capturing your attention right then and there. This is why the open rate for SMS marketing is higher than the open rate for email marketing.

This sense of urgency created by the alert is both a benefit and a disadvantage for SMS marketing. On the one hand, it may compel your customers to act immediately in response to your promotion. However, if sent at the wrong time, these texts can turn off users, who will either ignore or delete them.

Let's go over the specific benefits and drawbacks of SMS marketing.

Benefits of SMS marketing:

Your customers do not require internet – It's worth noting that 15% of Americans (52 million people) today have little or no internet access. This is a massive market that is beyond the scope of any email campaign.

It has a better response rate -On average, text messages are read in three minutes. That's a response rate of up to 209 percent when compared to social media, email, or even phone calls.

It has a high level of engagement – SMS, like email marketing, is a marketing channel with higher levels of engagement than other lead generation strategies. Higher engagement levels suggests a higher SMS open rate.

Drawbacks of SMS marketing:

It has a limited amount of content space – You have only 160 characters to work with. Sending messages that short while still packing a punch requires a pretty big vocabulary.

It's more expensive -The cost of running an SMS campaign is higher than the cost of running an email campaign.

It may erode customer trust – Customers can easily lose trust with businesses that send them unwanted text messages or SMS that are poorly structured. Customers may become irritated if you send text messages at inconvenient times. This may also cause them to opt out.

What Is the Difference Between SMS and Email Marketing?

Which is better: SMS marketing or email marketing? Think about the following:

Insert the table here from the bottom of the article Chris.

One of the first things marketers notice is that the ROI of email marketing is higher than that of SMS marketing. This suggests that the conversion rate for email marketing is also higher.

These are the figures that email marketing companies will provide you with. The lower email marketing open rate, on the other hand, proves the case for SMS marketing. Text messages also have a significantly higher CTR and response rate.

The Answer: Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing is the use of multiple marketing channels to increase your bottom line. Your business has unique needs, so balancing SMS and email marketing is recommended for better results. You have a better chance of capturing your audience's attention if you develop a marketing strategy that uses both in tandem.

When should SMS marketing be used?  To respond to customer questions, solicit feedback, promote one of your products, and collect signups for your programs. Keeping track of its usage allows you to stay within your marketing budget.

Email marketing, on the other hand, is better suited for promoting multiple products due to its lower cost. It can be used for company updates, newsletters, and a variety of marketing.

Working With a Seasoned Digital Marketing Agency

Finding the right balance between SMS and email marketing can be difficult, especially if you haven't had much success with either.  If you are looking to improve your SMS and email marketing results, connect with us today. We can help you create a customized omnichannel plan based on your budget and goals. Connect with us to learn more!

We want to help you with all of your marketing needs. Looking to step into the world of video marketing after perfecting your email and SMS strategy? Click here to meet with Jay Vics on the Meet the Experts podcast. Get your name out there!

5 Ways to turn Facebook Fans into Paying Customers

5 Ways to turn Facebook Fans into Paying Customers

Aug 15, 2017 | General, Social Media Management and Optimization (SMM, SMO)

Here’s the deal. Your business can have a huge presence on Facebook with thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of fans, but still struggle to get new clients. Why is this? Well, for the most part it is because you’re not doing a good enough job of turning those fans into actual paying customers.

You have done a great job with the first step in the process which is attracting people on Facebook and ultimately building a raving fan base. Now is the time, however, to take that next step of turning those fans into people that actually pay you money for what you have to offer.

Here are 5 strategies to consider that will help your fans turn into customers.

1. Be Consistent with Content

In the overall scheme of things, it is important that you keep your Facebook fans engaged and keep your brand in front of them at all times. To that end, it is very important that you as a business owner maintain a consistent approach to the content you are publishing for your followers. A good practice is to put something out there once a

day that is likely to be shared or liked a lot. Not only will this help your content go viral and get in front of more people, it will also establish you as an authority in your industry.

Examples of content that you can post on a daily basis are how to articles, tips related to your industry or even interesting photos that your fans may want to see.  The key is to make this content as engaging as possible so that it keeps getting shared and it keeps your fans coming back for more.

 

Now, when one of your fans needs the service or product you offer who are they going to call? Exactly! They will call you because they know who you are and consider you an authority in your industry.

2. Reach More of Your Fan Base

In order to convert more fans into customers, first your fans actually have to SEE what you are posting and promoting so they have the opportunity to become a customer.  One of the most dramatic changes Facebook has made recently is minimizing organic reach for brands.  Basically, this means that only a tiny fraction of your fans will see your updates in their newsfeed.  According to Edge Rank Checker as of march 2014 it was estimated that you reach about 6.5% of your fan base with every post you make on your fan page.

There’s a number of ways you can increase your posts visibility within your fans news feed, and one of the best ways is to promote your posts.  A promoted post starts off just like any other post you’ve made on your fan page.  You simply choose a post you want to promote, like a special sale, or a story you want to share about your business.  Then you set a budget and the post is shared to a set number of Facebook members depending on your budget.  Your post will be seen by your fans, and even friends of your fans depending on your budget.  Promoting your posts is a very inexpensive way to ensure you get maximum visibility.

Another way to ensure your fans see your updates is to educate your fans that they can ‘Get Notifications’ from your Page.

Most of the time, users aren’t even aware that they aren’t getting seeing your updates.  Simply by telling them how they can stay better informed with your businesses special promotions will boost the number of people that actually see your posts.

3. Create Offers with Urgency or Scarcity

If you want to turn more of your Facebook fans into paying customers then you are going to have to market to them – plain and simple.

Now, a common and effective practice to use is creating offers and posting them to Facebook that have an element of scarcity or urgency to them in order to get people to act right away. In other words, why not post a coupon limited to the first 10 people who claim it for a certain percentage off your service? Or what about a special offer on a service that expires in 24-hours? Make the offer something that your fans cannot pass up and you will see the phone begin to ring! That said, once you end driving your fans from Facebook through your doors it is your job to keep them coming back. Use these special offers as a way to get them there – it’s up to you to keep them there.

Another way to reach your audience with a special deal is through Facebook Offers. This is a form of paid advertising where you can create an ad and target specific people with a special offer that will fit their needs.  Once the ad is created and displayed it will have a “get offer” button on it. When a user clicks this button, they will be directed to an area where they can claim the discount offered by your company. The thing that makes Facebook Offers unique and very powerful is that they will actually email the person that claimed the offer to remind them to use it. In other words, they will do some of the dirty work for you to ensure that the person actually becomes a paying customer!

4. Drive Fans to Your Email List

Having a robust fan base on Facebook is great and can be very profitable but there is an even better way to engage these people to turn them into customers. What is it you ask? Simple, it’s email. If you are able to drive your fans to your email list then you will be able to communicate with them on a whole other level.  Email newsletters are still the best way to communicate directly to your audience. 

Think about it for a moment. Not only are you engaging them within Facebook, but now you are also engaging them within their inbox. This is very powerful as the more “planes of engagement” there are between you and your potential customers the more you will see your bottom line increase.

The best part about building that email list from your Facebook fan base is that it’s easy! You simply need to drive your fans from Facebook to an email opt-in form on your website or to an opt-in form right within Facebook. There are many apps out there that make it really easy to create these lead capture forms right within Facebook so the fan never has to leave if you don’t want them to.

Please keep in mind that people will only opt-in to your email list if you give them a good reason. Don’t be afraid to offer a discount or some other valuable form of content to ensure they sign up right away!

5. Show Them Some Love Too

A final strategy to turn fans onto customers is to show them some love too! What this means is making sure you are active on Facebook and sharing content that your fans have produced. This will create a feeling of reciprocity between you and your fans. It will also show that you are just a normal person too – not a corporate machine.

People love being engaged with in social media. If you take a few minutes each day to engage with some of your fans, you will see that investment on time come back to you tenfold. Even if you post though automation and use a platform such as MySoPro, it’s a great idea to always check in daily and take a look at new likes, comments, shares and overall engagement. All of a sudden, a normal fan will become a raving fan just because you reached out to engage them. Who do you think that person will do business with when they need what you have to offer?

All in all, getting your Facebook fans to turn into paying customers is easy if you know what you are doing. Just follow the strategies that are outlined above and watch your business take off like you never thought possible!

Learn more about online marketing by visiting JVI Mobile Marketing or by contacting us!


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Crush It with Video Marketing

Mar 30, 2016 | General, Uncategorized

Are you convinced you’re doing everything you can do to market your business online?  If you’ve been listening to us, you probably have blog posts, photographs, and client testimonials – all the things you’re supposed to have. If your list of great content doesn’t include videos, though, you’re missing out.

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The Lowdown on Video Marketing

Video marketing is hugely popular with internet users. While people might not make time to read a couple of thousand words, most will take a few minutes to watch a short video. If that’s not reason enough to add video to your content, here are a few statistics that might help you make the leap:

  • 55% of all internet users watch video online at least once a day and 78% do so once a week
  • Online video accounts for 50% of all mobile traffic as of 2015
  • 81% of all brands feature videos on their websites
  • Just using the word “video” in the subject line of an email boosts open rates by 19%, and click-through rates by 65%
  • Internet users stay on sites that have video an average of two minutes longer than sites that don’t have video

You have to admit, those are some pretty impressive numbers. In case that’s not enough to convince you, the next step is to learn about some additional benefits of video marketing.

What Video Marketing Can Do for Your Business

seo-896175_640It’s no accident that video marketing is so popular. Most marketers find video marketing to be an effective way to communicate with existing customers and attract new ones. Here are just a few of the ways getting into video marketing can help you:

  1. It can boost your SEO. You might not be aware of this, but YouTube (which is owned by Google) is actually the world’s second-largest search engine. It’s also the world’s third-most trafficked website. Not only is YouTube a great way to share your videos, the information you include (such as keywords and links to your website) can boost your search ranking, and that’s a big benefit.
  2. It can increase conversions. Research shows that customers are about 80% more likely to convert on a page that includes video – and they’re 64% more likely to make a purchase.
  3. It encourages social sharing. Videos are some of the most popular content on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. In fact, Facebook has recently added features like auto play and view count to its embedded video player, and Twitter now has a native app that allows viewers to make and edit videos up to 30 seconds long.
  4. It gives you a leg up in marketing to mobile customers. As mentioned earlier, videos account for about 50% of mobile traffic – and 40% of customers say that video on a website increases the chances they will make a purchase using a mobile device.

The benefits are undeniable.

What You Need to Make a Video

cables-89043_640The thing that ends up stopping a lot of local business owners from using video marketing is that they can’t get past a string of questions like these:

Aren’t videos expensive to make?

Don’t I need to know a lot of technical information and expertise to make a good-looking video?

What about equipment?

None of these questions should stop you – and if they are, it’s time to get over it. The truth is that you probably already have most of what you need to make an effective marketing video.

Here are the nuts and bolts of what you need to make a video:

  • A camera. Most smartphones will shoot video, or you can buy a point-and-shoot digital camera or DSLR to record HD video.
  • A microphone. While most cameras come with a built-in mic, the sound quality tends to be terrible. Invest in a separate microphone – they don’t cost much and they can make a huge difference.
  • A tripod. A marketing video is not the place for herky-jerky, handheld footage. A tripod will keep the camera still.
  • Editing software. Most new computers come with basic editing software, such as iMovie (Mac) or MovieMaker (Windows).

That’s it. The chances are good that you already have most of what you need, and it won’t cost much to get the rest. If you don’t have a decent camera, keep in mind that most digital cameras can shoot short videos. It won’t cost much to get what you need – at most, a couple of hundred dollars – and you’ll earn your money back quickly because you’ll be able to use the equipment over and over again.

What Kind of Video Should You Make?

hands-1167621_640The thing about video marketing is that it’s so incredibly versatile. You can make almost any type of video you want, but here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Demo a product or shoot a how-to video. The key to any kind of online marketing is to offer value to your customers. How-tos and demos are easy and inexpensive to make – and the truth is, nobody is more qualified than you are to tell people about your product.
  • Give a behind the scenes tour. Do you have a unique manufacturing process, an enthusiastic staff, or an interesting origin story? Make a video to let your customers know about it.
  • Record interviews with company leaders or staff, or shoot some “man on the street” style videos with customers. This can be a terrific way to grab some off-the-cuff client testimonials and product reviews.
  • Ask some of your customers if they’d be willing to sit down to record a video testimonial. Take it a step further and make a video case study of one of your clients. Most consumers today say that they look up reviews and testimonials online before making a purchase, and videos add a personal touch that makes them hard to resist.

Those are just a few ideas, but you could also consider doing a whiteboard “explainer” video for your product or service, or making an animated video about your company.

Make Sure People See Your Video

tree-1148032_640After you’ve shot and edited your video, the final step is to make sure that it’s out where people can see it. We’ve already talked about YouTube a bit, but creating your own station there and uploading your video is an important first step. You can also:

  • Embed the video on your website, and link to it in marketing emails.
  • Post it as a video blog.
  • Share the video on your social media pages. Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn are all good options.

You can also consider sponsoring a contest or giveaway to encourage social sharing.

The bottom line is that adding videos to your marketing mix can make a huge difference in areas like brand recognition and conversions. Why not give it a try?

At JVI Mobile, we are passionate about creating and growing awesome social relationships. Tell us how we can help!

While you are here, check out our “2016 Small Business Checklist for customer engagement“.