Text vs. Email: The pros and cons

While text messages and email both serve a purpose in a well-rounded communication strategy, organizations are now realizing the benefits of text messages and using it to their advantage. Text messages allow for quick and concise communication where email tends to be more long-form and viewed by the recipient as low-priority.

Let’s dive into the benefits of both email and text messages and see how your organization can improve their communication strategy by effectively choosing the correct medium for each message.

Text Messages vs. Email

Benefits of Text Messages:

• Text messages open immediate channels of communication. Sending a text is a simple process and replying to a text can be just easy. Your text message inbox allows for easy access to conversations resulting in faster response rates. Almost 60% of consumers say that a text message is the quickest way to get ahold of them and 83% of those same people will reply to a text message from a business in 30 minutes or less*.
• Texting is becoming more common. You can thank the rise of smartphones for this one. All mobile phones now come equipped with a text message app and, unlike email, you do not need a reliable internet connection to send a text message. The pandemic is also creating more fans of text messaging. 50% of people are saying they are texting more now than ever before*.
• Text messages convey a higher priority than email. The open rate on text messages is roughly 98%, while the average open rate on emails will hover around only 20%*. Email inboxes have become overrun with messages, many of them spam, and that leads to people taking more time to respond (if they ever do…). A new text messages typically comes with a notification and we are all conditioned to reach for our phone when we see it. We have been trained to treat these text messages as more important and needing our immediate attention. Couple that with the ease of creating a response like we talked about earlier and you will see much greater success with text messages.
• People trust text messages. Like I said, deleting spam emails has become apart of the morning routine for almost every American. We wake up, we see 10+ emails from retailers, news organizations, etc. and we immediately throw them in the trash. Not text messages. Less than 10% of people claim they receive spam via text and 51% say they trust text messages over email for important incoming messages*.

Benefits of Email:

• Email supports more attachments. Let’s say you are trying to send a business proposal to a potential client, then an email would likely make more sense so that you can attach the document without worry.
• Emails can be longer than texts. Text messages are limited by the number of characters you can send, but emails allow for more in-depth analysis and explanation. Email is the place to go if you are trying to explain a complicated topic in a more formal business setting.
• Reach the masses with email. While email marketing can be looked at as spam by some consumers, it is still a viable option for most organizations hoping to reach a large audience. Text messages that are not tailored to the recipient can come across as spam and run the risk of decreasing engagement.

Enhanced engagement only comes from a well-rounded communication strategy. Create text messages, emails, and phone calls that work for you.

Interested in learning more about how Stacked Messenger can take you text messaging to the next level? Check out our homepage or schedule a demo with one of our text message expert today.

*The 2021 State of Texting – See the Latest Texting Trends.” Zipwhip, www.zipwhip.com/state-of-texting/.