Marketing automation channels are rapidly developing and it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand which one of the available channels is the best option for your brand identity.
At times, it is hard to rely on all of the means: Push notifications, Email, and SMS marketing. It is equally hard to name one of them as the single channel for marketing. So, it is important to understand the subtle differences between the three and to choose which one suits your needs the best.
Let’s take a look at these three channels separately to see their similarities and differences.
Push Notifications
Push notifications are the most recent development in marketing channels. They became famous with the advent of social media, but are currently more applicable to mobile applications and are probably one of the most secure ways to connect to your customers.
Push notifications have a very high open rate, which means they are efficient because most of the people receiving a notification on their phone usually prefer opening it right away to see the content.
With this said, push notifications are a good way of marketing because they are unobtrusive and if a person is doing something on the phone at that moment they can easily close the push notifications. This won’t cut short their current action. This is a good way of making sure that you do not annoy your customers.
Additionally, push notifications offer an easy way of acquiring data about their effectiveness. So, it will be easy to use analytical tools to understand their conversion rate. What is more, it will be easy to present all the data made by the infographic maker.
Push notifications also allow a high level of personalization. For instance, if your marketing campaign is about selling shoes to women, you can personalize gender and preferences. Let’s take women who prefer high heels. You can also target people who belong to a certain location if your business is operating on local consumers.
Considering all these, push notifications are good for businesses that rely on e-commerce because you need to have a mobile app that is linked to your website and this can effectively help the customers to locate new offers or products.
Emails are the more traditional way of online marketing. While they are not completely replaced by other means, they have become a way of formal advertising rather than the exciting. They are also very personalized advertising options offered by push notifications or SMS.
This means that if you are planning to launch a marketing campaign based on Emails, you need to make sure to give as many details about the product or the service you’re offering as it is necessary to make the customer interested in the offer.
For instance, if you are selling used cars or offer them for rent, you need to make sure that the ones receiving the email get the information regarding how old the cars are, what type of cars are offered, and at least an average on the prices.
Of course, a number of other details will also depend on the type of audience you are addressing. So, you need to understand the needs and preferences of your customers in order to tailor them to your marketing campaign.
Another aspect of Email marketing is that it has a lower exposure rate compared to push notifications or SMS marketing. This is why, you need to make sure that once the customer opens the email you need to make it valuable for them as the content needs to be very appealing. Also since Emails can remain not read in an inbox or not opened in a long run, it is a better option to not communicate content that is time-limited.
SMS
SMS has a record high opening rate, more than 90% of SMS are opened and read. This gives you a great chance of interacting with your customers. And it is easy to update them on flash sales or any status updates with regards to their deliveries.
SMS marketing is also good because you can use images or emojis while sending out your message to the customers. You just need to make sure to stay within the limits of 160 characters. Remember, no one has the time and desire to read a long SMS and if you are sending out a lot of details you would better consider the option of Email.
Moreover, the advantages of SMS marketing come at a great cost and you might end up paying thousands of dollars each month if you rely on SMS marketing. So, if anything, you need to consider what this channel of marketing can give you before making swift choices.
What you need to keep in mind is that putting links in an SMS is not always working, because sometimes those who receive it do not have the internet and cannot follow the links. So, it is better to put the main point on the offer in the message and not ask the customer to follow a link for acquiring the needed information.
The biggest setback of SMS marketing is that there is no possible way of checking its conversion rate, so it will depend on the overall change in your monthly or yearly sales. This helps us to understand whether they are effective or not.
Which one better suits your needs?
To sum it up, let’s take a look at the three channels in comparison and see which one can be the most profitable for your business. Both push notifications and SMS have higher opening rates as compared to Email and are by far the most interactive of the channels.
When it comes to expenses, SMS marketing is the most expensive of the three followed by Email and push notifications. Instead Emails have the advantage of offering you a platform where you can describe in detail your product or service.
So, every one of the channels have their setbacks and advantages and it is important to clearly define your goals before you decide, which one of the channels you need to utilize.