• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 16, 2023

Consumers widely prefer email as a marketing channel — nothing else even comes close. Yet SMS -- while a distant second -- can be used to support email, judging by the State of SMS Marketing in 2023, a study now being distributed by Validity. 

To put this in context, consumers list the following methods through which they most like to receive marketing message from brands, according to the survey, which was conducted by Validity last year: 

• Email — 52% 
• Messaging/SMS/Text — 19% 
• Social media — 16% 
• Direct mail — 6% 
• App notifications — 6%
• Other — 1% 

Despite the disparity in popularity, brands are increasingly using SMS and email together. 

Potpourri Group is one company that is doing this. “We’re using SMS as an adjunct to email,” says Glenn Paster, email marketing director, Potpourri Group, Inc., according to the study. “We use it to promote sales, drive revenue, and mitigate cart abandonments. If you abandon a dress in your cart, for example, we send an instant email, then follow up a few hours later with a text." He adds that this results in much stronger engagement:  "SMS makes our email function much stronger.”

Hickory Farms is another company using SMS and email together. “At Hickory Farms, we use SMS and email in a complementary way,” says Jen Partin, senior marketing manager, email and SMS, Hickory Farms. “We reserve SMS to drive urgency (like sending shipping deadlines), promote sales, or for trigger-based notifications like abandoned cart reminders. These topics seem to resonate as something our subscribers want to see on their phones.”

But brands should understand that SMS can’t be used simply as another form of email. It is a more personal channel. And it carries special risks. 

“Given the highly personal nature of the SMS channel, consumers have firm standards for how and when they want to receive messages,” the study notes. 

It continues, “This means marketers can’t simply rinse and repeat winning strategies from other channels (like email) and expect success with SMS. The costs are higher, the character counts are smaller, and the risk of seeming intrusive is far greater than with any other channel.’