Mobile Marketing Vs. Email Marketing

Sharing a good article from Digital Street:

http://blog.digitalstreetinc.com/?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mobile+Marketing+vs+Email+Marketing

Mobile Marketing Vs. Email Marketing

A number of companies make a huge mistake and assume that if they already have email marketing, there is no need for mobile marketing and vice versa. We have previously spoken of the advantages provided by email marketing but are you aware of the power of the humble text message? With both forms of marketing, you are asking your customers to give you their contact information which will allow you to begin your direct marketing campaign.

An advantage of both email and mobile marketing is that you are ‘preaching to the choir’ so to speak. You are marketing to people who are already interested in your services (otherwise they wouldn’t have given you their details). As a result, you have a readymade target audience. There are subtle differences between the two which are covered below.

Catching The Eye

It has to be said that mobile text message marketing has a far higher view rate than its email counterpart. If you write emails with compelling subject lines, you may find that 20% of them are opened. In contrast, around 95% of text messages are read. If this seems artificially high, ask yourself: When was the last I last failed to open a text message?

Same Day Sales

Email marketing is more of a slow burner. The idea is to craft an email campaign that helps customers to gain your trust. This takes time and effort. With mobile marketing, you could increase your level of sales on the day you send the text messages. According to various surveys, it takes someone 14 minutes to open a text message on average. The average time it takes to open an email is 6 hours and 24 minutes. Although the number of phones with internet capability is increasing dramatically, there are still millions of people with ‘older’ phones. If you are offering special discounts, the customer can avail of the promotion by showing their phone with mobile marketing. With email marketing, they need to print out the page.

Cost

Email marketing certainly wins this battle as it is one of the lowest cost methods of marketing on the planet. Small businesses can find email marketing providers, such as Digital Street that send unlimited emails on their behalf for as little as $15 a month. This means an outstanding return on investment, well over 400%. In contrast, mobile marketing can be expensive but it does generally offer a higher rate of respondents.

In summation, companies need to utilize both forms of marketing. Emails allow them to build a rapport with customers in the long term whereas mobile marketing can lead to instant sales.