Somewhere along the way the line between SMS and email became blurred and businesses now easily intermix the two failing to recognize the unique benefits of each. SMS is often incorrectly viewed as a new version of email, when in fact, it is an entirely separate communication and marketing channel.
Additionally, the statistics around SMS and email show grave differences about how the two marketing channels perform as well as how users interact with each. SMS open rates are around 98%, but email is only at about 20%, which in part is due to large amounts of spam mail received. On that note as much as 90% of emails can be viewed as spam, while spam rates for SMS are a mere 1%, reports Luxury Daily.
Behavioral differences are also worth noting. People respond to text messages more quickly than email, with 9% of recipients responding within 3 minutes. Not only do they respond quicker, people are also more likely to respond to text message incentives, as SMS click through rates are six times higher than email. Other differences included the 160 character limit of SMS messages and the higher redemption rates of SMS coupons compared to those sent using email.
With Millennial use of email dropping and SMS increasing it may be time advertisers look at SMS marketing with a fresh set of eyes. Email will always be there and will likely be part of most advertising strategies but the many benefits and growing popularity of using SMS messages in general is becoming hard to overlook.
