Unlike before where we only have TV, radio, and print as a form of advertising, today, there are other channels and strategies that marketers can use to promote brands. And these new strategies have been proven to be more effective than the traditional ways of marketing. Some of the new marketing channels and strategies that have emerged in the past years are SMS marketing and email marketing. Both marketing strategies came from bigger marketing umbrella of digital marketing. However, both SMS marketing and email marketing deals with connecting directly with customers.

But which among these two is the best for brand promotion? Which among these two has a higher open and click through rate? Moreover, which of these two has the power to convert? To answer these questions, it is better to compare these two powerful marketing channels.

The Power Of Email Marketing

If you are targeting SoundCloud professionals and small artists, email marketing is a good strategy to reach out to them since it is the major communication that they use during work. However, there are a lot of brands that are using email marketing. And people use it every day. So chances are, your email messages can get lost in the endless pile of unopened email messages.

Despite this fact, email still continues to be a good tool for mass marketing communications. As years passed, it continues to be a staple communication tool for professionals and SoundCloud users. That is why, despite the competition marketers experience when using email marketing, they still stick to this strategy because it is one way to connect with their target market.

But the real question is – is it effective?

Whilst it is a good way to directly connect and communicate with professionals and SoundCloud users, it was proven in the study made by txtsignal that email marketing is not as effective and powerful as SMS marketing.

The Power Of Sms Marketing

One reason why SMS marketing is an effective marketing tool and strategy is that everyone has a mobile phone. In fact, 5 billion people own a mobile device. In the United States alone, 91% of its population has a mobile device. And their mobile devices are text-ready.

There are other mobile advertising that is available for brands to use. But SMS is the most effective one as most mobile devices have built-in text messaging system. They don’t need to download any apps or system in order for it to work. Moreover, SMS is not internet dependent which means it can still work offline unlike other online messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, and Skype. The availability of text in all mobile devices is a powerful tool. You can already tap millions of customers with it.  

Another reason why SMS marketing is powerful is that of its speed ability. You can read a text message within minutes. In fact, 98% of text messages can be read in 2 minutes time. This is fast. This means that you will have a read rate of 100% within 24 hours.

Comparing it with email, email has an average of 20% read rate. This is over the entire lifespan of the email sent. With this, it is clear that SMS marketing receives faster attention and more personal communication as compared to email marketing.

And since text messages are limited with characters, you are able to create straightforward texts that are easy to remember and digest. With text messaging, you only have 160 characters industry standard. Marketers should use this wisely in order for them to pass through the message they want for their customers. Having this short characters means that it would be easy for the receiver to read the marketing message.

Also, most people have a shorter attention span. So having this kind of short message is indeed a perfect way to target and communicate with customers.

That is where emails fail. Emails are often too long that receivers do not have the time to scan through all of its content.

Another good thing about having shorter characters for text messages is that it would be easy for the receiver to reply to the message. Shorter messages are interactive messages. That is why SMS marketing is more interactive than email marketing.

What is best for your SoundCloud Band?

Despite learning the benefits of SMS marketing and how it is more effective than email marketing, we should still not ignore the power of email. Email marketing will always have a place in the SoundCloud and marketing word. There will come a time that your brand or your SoundCloud will need to produce long-form content and email is the only way that you can use. When it comes to long-form content, email is the best tool as you can send the information in the form of a newsletter.

However, no matter how good email is when it comes to sending long-form content, there will still be a chance that it will get lost in your customers' inbox. Moreover, if they read it, sometimes, they are left with nothing to do.

So if you want to avoid getting lost in your customer’s email inbox, you need to create engaging subject lines. Creating engaging subject lines are proven to increase your open rate.

Moreover, you should also use engaging call-to-action to direct people on what they need to do after reading your message. You need to create an enticing call-to-action to increase your customer engagement.

This is also true when it comes to SMS marketing. Having an enticing call-to-action will help them convert sales. That is why it is always recommended to provide enticing call-to-action like giving a discount offer or giveaway to increase engagement.

Conclusion

Not because the other one is more effective than the other, you will stop using it. You also need to know what is best for your brand. If your brand targets professionals and small SoundCloud owners, chances are they are more likely to be interested in professional and long-form content like emails. On the other hand, if you want to get your message to receive faster, you can use SMS marketing.

You can also use both at the same time. You can use SMS marketing as a support to your email marketing. You can use that by including a call-to-action on your text messages “check out your emails for more updates”.

Date: March 13, 2019 / Categories: Marketing, / Author: Rich Drees