Contact Sales
The Power Duo: How Email and SMS Work Together in an Omnichannel Strategy
Email is for building relationships. SMS is for driving action. This simple distinction is the key to unlocking one of the most powerful and profitable combinations in a marketer’s toolkit. When used together as part of a single, cohesive strategy, email and SMS can dramatically boost your holiday revenue. But to achieve this, they cannot operate in separate silos. They must be orchestrated as a single, connected conversation with your customer.
The Foundational Channels of Owned Marketing
For the vast majority of brands, email and SMS are the first and most foundational communication channels they build. Why? Because they are owned channels. Unlike social media, where you are subject to the whims of an algorithm, your email and SMS lists are direct lines of communication to your most engaged customers—people who have explicitly raised their hands and asked to hear from you.
However, a common mistake is to treat them as completely separate entities. A brand’s email team might run a promotion without any knowledge of the flash sale the SMS team is planning. This leads to a jarring and sometimes overwhelming experience for the customer, who is receiving uncoordinated messages from the same brand. A truly connected system recognizes that you are talking to the same person, just in different contexts. When your email platform knows a customer just received an SMS, it can adjust its own cadence and messaging, leading to a smarter, more respectful, and ultimately more effective communication strategy.
Defining Clear Roles: The Storyteller and The Announcer
The secret to a successful email and SMS strategy is assigning each channel a clear and distinct role based on its inherent strengths. Don’t try to make SMS do what email is good at, and vice versa.
- Email: Your Digital Storyteller. With its flexible format, rich visual capabilities, and space for longer-form content, email is the perfect channel for building brand equity and nurturing customer relationships. Use it for:
- Visually Rich Lookbooks and Gift Guides: Showcase your holiday collection in a beautiful, editorial format.
- Brand Storytelling: Share behind-the-scenes content, your company’s mission, or features on the artisans who make your products.
- Detailed Promotional Announcements: Explain the full details of your upcoming Black Friday sale, build anticipation, and provide sneak peeks.
- SMS: Your Urgent Announcer. With an open rate that hovers around a staggering 98%, most often within minutes of receipt, SMS is unparalleled for immediacy and urgency. Its short-form nature demands concise, action-oriented messages. Use it for:
- Time-Sensitive Flash Sales: “FLASH SALE! 25% off everything for the next 3 hours. Code: NOW25.”
- Transactional Alerts: Provide high-value updates like “Your order has shipped!” or “Your item is back in stock.”
- Urgent Reminders: “Heads up! Our Black Friday sale starts in 1 hour,” or “Last chance! Sale ends at midnight.”
A Coordinated Campaign in Action: An Orchestrated Conversation
Imagine this carefully orchestrated flow during the week of Black Friday:
- Email (Tuesday): A beautifully designed email lands with the subject line, “Our Black Friday Sneak Peek Is Here!” It showcases the top deals and builds excitement for Friday.
- SMS (Friday, 1 hour before launch): A concise text message arrives: “Heads up! Our Black Friday sale starts in 1 hour. Get ready.”
- SMS (At launch): Another text pings at the exact moment the sale goes live: “It’s on! Shop now before top sellers are gone. [Link]”
- Email (Saturday): A follow-up email segments customers. Those who purchased get a “Thank You” note. Those who didn’t might get a message with the subject line, “Still Thinking It Over? Top Deals Are Going Fast.”
This isn’t just sending messages; it’s guiding the customer on a journey with perfectly timed prompts.
The Art of the Respectful Opt-In
You can’t have a conversation if no one is listening. Build your email and SMS lists by offering clear, distinct value for each. Don’t just use a generic “Sign up for updates” popup. Instead, be specific:
- “Join our email list for early access to new collections and our weekly newsletter.”
- “Sign up for SMS to get exclusive flash sale alerts and instant shipping notifications.”
Beyond the Duo: Why You Need to Invest in New Channels Now
While email and SMS are a powerful foundation, let’s be realistic: inboxes are more crowded than ever, and the novelty of marketing texts is fading. The brands that will truly dominate the holiday season are the ones already investing in the next wave of communication channels, such as web push notifications and app inbox messaging. These channels offer a direct, less-saturated way to reach customers. Web push can re-engage users even after they’ve left your site, while an app inbox provides a persistent, branded space for important messages. Investing your time now to build a presence on these emerging channels can give you a significant competitive advantage and make a major impact on your results this year.
