SMS vs Email Marketing: Which Channel Delivers Better ROI?

Today, businesses have several communication tools for engaging and building relationships with customers. Two stand out as dominant forces: SMS and Email. Both channels are powerful, popular, and easy to use.

But which one truly delivers the better return on investment (ROI)? In the debate of SMS vs email marketing, the answer isn’t as simple as instantly choosing one over the other.

It depends on factors like your audience, budget, message type, and campaign goals. Let’s get into the metrics, strengths, and scenarios of SMS marketing vs email marketing, where each channel shines to help you make an informed decision for 2025 and beyond.

Difference between SMS vs Email marketing

When it comes to SMS vs. Email, marketers often face the dilemma of which one to choose. Both platforms are popular among businesses and are used to interact with customers directly or indirectly.

Short Message Service, mostly known as SMS, is a more direct type of marketing. It directly reached consumers’ inboxes as text messages that contained advertisements, savings offers, alerts, announcements, booking reminders, etc.

SMS marketing is commonly used by businesses to promote their products or services and raise brand awareness.

In SMS marketing campaigns, you can send short, straightforward messages with a clear call to action that will motivate your customers to engage with the promotion or offer.

Because of its low cost, exceptionally high open rates, and quick response times, this kind of marketing effort can be highly effective and successful.

According to Statista, businesses worldwide spent around $790 million on SMS marketing. Which is expected to reach $870 million by 2029.

On the other hand, email marketing is a marketing strategy used by businesses to send promotional product updates, announcements, newsletters, etc., to a group of people via email.

People give their permission to receive email updates from a business. Marketers then create a list of those subscribers and segment them based on their behavior, preferences, demography, location, etc.

In SMS marketing vs email marketing, emails provide a more versatile platform for detailed and visually rich content. Emails can include images, videos, and comprehensive information for any type of campaign.

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach your target audience and build awareness and loyalty. 

Another key difference lies in accessibility and engagement. There is also a significant difference in SMS vs email open rates. SMS is highly effective for reaching users in real-time, even without internet access, ensuring your message is seen quickly.

Email, on the other hand, requires internet connectivity but offers a non-intrusive approach, giving subscribers the flexibility to engage on their own time.

Advantages and disadvantages of SMS notification marketing

When you have an SMS notification service as one of your marketing tools, you’ve got the opportunity to trigger your customer’s buying sentiment directly. That’s why SMS marketing is considered special in the digital marketing category.

Like any other tool, SMS also comes with some advantages and disadvantages. Let’s have a look at some pros and cons of SMS notification marketing.

Advantages of SMS Notification Marketing

• Higher Open Rates
  The open rate of SMS notifications is extremely high, approximately 98%. That means recipients almost always see your notifications. Which encourages the receiver to engage with the content instantly.
• Deliverability
  SMS is being delivered over cellular networks; no internet connection or data plan is needed. So messages are typically delivered within seconds, making it an ideal solution for time-sensitive updates, such as flash sales or appointment reminders.
• Wide Reach
  SMS works on all mobile phones, regardless of internet connectivity or smartphone capabilities, which allows access to a broader audience. Also, no third-party apps are needed.
• Cost-Effective
  Compared to other marketing channels, SMS is relatively inexpensive and provides higher engagement rates.
• Personalized Communication
  Messages can be tailored with names and preferences to create a personal connection with customers. It can create a one-to-one conversation with them.
• High Engagement
  Recipients often respond quickly to SMS, making it an effective tool for direct customer interaction. The average CTR for SMS marketing campaign is 19%. In some cases, it can go over 46% as well.

However, despite the many benefits of text messages in SMS marketing vs. email marketing, they also have some drawbacks.

Disadvantages of SMS Notification

• Character Limitations
  Text messages are typically restricted to a limited number of characters, which limits your potential to provide any in-depth or detailed information.
• Potential disturbance
  SMS is seen as a more personal medium. So, sending messages frequently or inappropriately might annoy your recipients.
• Opt-In Requirement
  Businesses must obtain explicit consent from users before sending SMS, which can restrict reach.
• Limited Visual Appeal
  Unlike email notification marketing, SMS does not support multimedia like images or videos, which reduces its ability to deliver visually appealing content.
• Higher Cost per Message
  While cost-effective overall, sending messages to a large audience can become expensive compared to bulk email campaigns.

Advantages and disadvantages of Email notification marketing

Email is now an integral part of our personal and professional life. Every day we receive a lot of emails from various industries. Because of its cost-effectiveness and greater reach, email notification marketing has become one of the go-to marketing channels for businesses.

Like SMS marketing, email marketing has some benefits and drawbacks too.

Advantages of email marketing 

• Detailed content
  Unlike SMS, email provides a much better scenario for your marketing campaigns. With no word or character limitations, email is a great way to promote your products, services, or businesses.
• Visually rich
  Email lets you design and customize your templates as per your need. You can add images, videos, attachments, or any type of visual elements to provide comprehensive information. This is one of the biggest differences between SMS and email marketing.
• Personalization and Segmentation
  Using advanced email marketing tools like FluentCRM, you can customize your content, segment your audience, and target specific groups of people based on their behavior, preferences, or demographics. Email marketing also allows personalization tags. This allows you to customize your email with the customer’s name, company name, or other specific information.
• Cost-Effective
  Email marketing is relatively inexpensive compared to SMS, especially when you’re sending bulk emails to a large number of audiences.
• Trackable Metrics
  Email marketing tools provide detailed analytics, such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. This helps businesses to measure the campaign’s success effectively.
• Automation Capabilities
  Tools like FluentCRM allow businesses to send timely, automated, and relevant emails without any manual input. Create an automation funnel and then seamlessly run your whole campaign step by step.
• Review or feedback
  Using email marketing services, you can ask for reviews or feedback directly from your users.

When we talk about the benefits of email marketing vs SMS marketing, let’s not forget its drawbacks.

Disadvantages of email marketing

• Low open rate
  When we compare SMS vs email in terms of open rate, SMS marketing is the clear winner. Though email open rates vary by industry, the average open rate is somewhere between 17-28%, resulting in a lower CTR than SMS.
• Deliverability
  Emails often face deliverability issues. Sometimes, they can get flagged as spam or junk, which prevents them from reaching the recipient’s inbox.
• Design Complexity
  If you want to design your email templates, then you must have some design sense. Without expertise, creating visually appealing and responsive emails can be time-consuming.
• Requires Internet Access
  Emails cannot be accessed offline; both sender and receiver require internet connectivity. Also, it limits the effectiveness in areas with poor or no connectivity.
• Compliance Challenges
  To avoid penalties, businesses must avoid strict regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM.

Analytical comparison of SMS marketing vs Email Marketing

When we compare SMS vs email marketing, analytics become essential. You’ve got to check the SMS vs email statistics. The stats are important for assessing ROI and making informed budget decisions.

Parameters	SMS	Email
Open rate	98%	17-25%
CTR	36%	2.62%
Deliverability	97%	84.2%
Average response time	90 sec	90 min
Spam rate	<3%	85%
Cost	5 to 15 cents per SMS	$9 to $1,00 per month
ROI	$5 on every $1 spent	$36 on every $1 spent

In this small comparison, SMS marketing clearly outperforms email marketing on most metrics. Then why are we having a long debate on SMS vs email marketing? The answer lies in understanding that statistics don’t always tell the full story.

Just look at the ROI; you can see how incredibly profitable email marketing can be, even when SMS dominates in metrics like open rate, CTR, deliverability, etc.

By now, you’re probably wondering: after reading this entire blog, the takeaway is that both are essential.

Exactly! It’s never about choosing one over the other—it’s about understanding how SMS and email marketing can work together to amplify your results.

While each channel has unique strengths and can complement each other to add unique value, the best practice could be to have an omnichannel strategy.

How to combine SMS and Email marketing

We know that both email and SMS have unique strengths in reaching out to customers with different approaches. So you should segment your audience first. Let them choose the way they want to receive product updates, shipping updates, or purchase confirmations. And then target them with their preferable channel.

Effective segmentation allows you to build a relationship and nurture it to make a stronger one. 

You can also do next-level email marketing by targeting your SMS-segmented users. Imagine this: if you’re releasing a product update, start by sending your SMS users a short, concise text—just enough to spark their curiosity.

You can take your email marketing to the next level by targeting your SMS-segmented users. Imagine this: you’re releasing a game-changing product update. Start by sending your SMS users a short, intriguing text—just enough to spark their curiosity.

Then, follow up with a detailed email packed with all the exciting details. It’s a perfect way to build anticipation and drive deeper engagement!

Later, follow up with a well-structured email packed with all the exciting details, both visually and textually.

Here is another example: you can use SMS services to announce a flash sale on a product. Then use email to provide a complete overview of the same product.

Also, whenever customers purchase anything from your online store, one of the most important things is to provide them with an invoice. First, you can use SMS service for purchase confirmation and then email them attached with an invoice.

How to Generate PDF Invoice on WordPress.

The same goes for donations also. If donors make a contribution, the first thing is to thank them. You can create an email automation that triggers a “thank you email” whenever a donation is made. You can also include the invoice with the thank-you notes.

How to write a Thank You notes for Donations

Paymattic is a WordPress plugin for payment and donation that allows you to send an instant notification through SMS and email whenever someone purchases something or makes a donation.

It has seamless integrations with Twilio for sending SMS notifications and FluentCRM for email marketing. It also offers sending invoices to your customers through email, and that too in its free version.

This is how a well-strategized combination of SMS and email marketing can bring a better ROI to the table.

Wrapping up

In the debate of SMS vs email marketing, there is no clear winner. It shouldn’t even be a debate. Businesses know the importance of SMS and email in nurturing a relationship with their customers.

The most important thing is to understand their needs and preferences so they don’t feel overwhelmed with countless updates.