SMS vs. Email vs. WhatsApp: Picking the Right Channel for Your Marketing Needs

Consumers today spend a significant amount of their time on conversational channels such as SMS, WhatsApp, and Email. Even though SMS and Email platforms have been around for quite some time now, people prefer them over their recent counterparts. They spend their valuable time checking SMS and email messages. These platforms are also recommended for creating the perfect Omnichannel Customer Service.

While these communication channels continue to hold their importance, which one should you use for your business?

This guide attempts to answer this question.

SMS Broadcast

SMS (short message service) broadcasts are also known as bulk SMS and allow you to transmit a message to a large number of recipients. You can send different types of messages, including promotional ones, using text.

What makes SMS so Important, Still!

• Marketing SMS has an open rate of 97%
• 90% of recipients open SMS messages within 3 minutes of receiving
• 58% of consumers agree that texting is the perfect way for businesses to reach them

Consumers are most likely to opt-in for promotional SMS messages from retail, ecommerce, finance, healthcare, and banking sector businesses.

Most businesses continue to rely on SMS marketing to promote their brands and sell their products and services. Bulk SMS is also effective at promoting new discounts and deals. When you send out an SMS broadcast, the recipients cannot determine how many other people the message was sent to.

You can also use custom SMS strategies to send out the following messages to specific users:

•  OTPs
•  Order confirmation or status
•  Account verification

Easy and quick global reach is an important feature here. Your business or cause can also reach those regions of the world that don’t have access to mobile data. Additionally, you can also reach people who cannot afford mobile data.

Key SMS Advantages

Some key advantages of using SMS messaging are as follows:

•  SMS broadcasts can be sent and received by any mobile device, including and excluding smartphones.
•  SMS messages can be sent or received without the need for internet connectivity.
•  Recipients cannot tell whether a message was sent in bulk.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is still here and more essential than ever before. People still require their email addresses, for personal or professional reasons. Many have their social media and other profiles connected to their email addresses. And people still check their email inboxes.

Email continues to be among the top marketing mediums for both commercial and non-profit entities.

Key Email Stats

Before you learn about the advantages of email marketing and broadcast, it is recommended to check out the following key statistics:

• 8 out of 10 people will open a welcome email they receive from a brand
• 92% of adults who spend time online use email
• Each $1 spent on email promotion generates around $40 in terms of sales
• According to surveys, 59% of people agree that email has a direct influence on their buying decisions

Email continues to be an important communication, marketing, and support platform even in this age of Omnichannel Chat Support tools. The power of audience segregation and personalization are key features that make email broadcasting and email marketing even more important to any online marketing strategy.

Email marketing or broadcasting is when the same email message is sent out to a group at the same time. It is also referred to as an email blast. 

There is no word count limit to emails. They also allow you to include multimedia components in the message. This includes formats such as:

• Images
• Videos
• PDF

You can use email marketing as part of both your direct marketing and digital marketing strategies. Email newsletters can be used to keep your target audience up-to-date about your latest product launches or offers.

Key Email Advantages

Some key advantages of using email marketing are as follows:

•   Email marketing enables you to send out targeted and tailored messages
•   Email marketing has among the highest ROI in both online and offline marketing strategies
•   There is greater space for creativity with email messaging, as it allows the inclusion of pictures, animated GIFs, and videos

WhatsApp Broadcast

WhatsApp is a powerful messaging app and WhatsApp broadcast is a specialized mass messaging feature part of the WhatsApp API. WhatsApp broadcast also enables you to send out bulk messages to a group of recipients, similar to SMS broadcasting.

Key WhatsApp Stats

Some of the key WhatsApp statistics that make it a powerful platform for communication and promotion are as follows:

• More than 2 billion people use WhatsApp worldwide
• Over 5 million businesses are registered on WhatsApp
• 68% find WhatsApp to be easy to use for business chats
• 61% of businesses are planning on adding WhatsApp as a new channel for business communication

Today, WhatsApp has become so popular that it has also found its way into the creation of powerful OmniChannel Social Media Customer Service. As indicated above, WhatsApp marketing is a newer mode of promotion and communication as compared to the other two platforms. 

Since its inception in 2013, WhatsApp broadcast has grown in leaps and bounds. It has revolutionized the marketing space by providing a highly sophisticated communication channel.

WhatsApp allows you to share documents and files in messages. It offers a wide range of marketing options while helping build brand engagement. Similar to SMS messaging, your WhatsApp Business account allows you to send quick messages and react to consumer questions.

Key WhatsApp Advantages

Some key advantages of using WhatsApp for your business are as follows:

• WhatsApp broadcast message recipients cannot know if a message was sent to a mass audience
• Broadcast messages can use all the features and functionalities of WhatsApp, including sharing location and media
• Maintain a broadcast recipient list and send out bulk messages to everyone at once. There is no need to select each recipient each time.

Which Platform is the Real Winner?

When it comes to choosing the right message broadcasting platform from the three, your choice will depend on your marketing goals, target audience, and business.

• When you need a communication medium to send texts in volume, and you can do it with limited word count, SMS broadcast may be for you.
• When you need to broadcast messages without any limit on the number of words, especially for content such as newsletters, consider email marketing.
• If you want to avail the benefits of both, consider WhatsApp broadcast. WhatsApp has features that are widely integrated into omnichannel chat feature tools.
• WhatsApp broadcast allows you to send bulk messages to contacts without causing distraction or annoyance to your audience.
• WhatsApp has also inspired the development of many Omnichannel live chat tools.
• WhatsApp broadcast has features that allow you to modify and personalize messages.
• WhatsApp also allows you to begin private conversations with specific recipients.

An AI Omni Channel Chatbot with the best features of all these three platforms can be an ideal solution for most businesses. Personalization, private conversation, affordability, multimedia integration, and wider reach and popularity are some of the most important factors driving development in this area, and you should also emphasize them when making a choice for your marketing and communication channel.