SMS marketing vs. email marketing: Which channel drives better results?

Should you pour your marketing budget into tried-and-true email campaigns, or is it time to embrace the immediacy of SMS marketing? It’s a question many marketers are grappling with as consumer behavior shifts and attention spans shrink. Each channel has distinct advantages, and understanding when to use which one can make or break your campaigns.

SMS cuts through the noise like nothing else: with a 98% open rate and the ability to generate $71 for every dollar you invest, it’s hard to ignore. Email, on the other hand, gives you room to tell your story with rich content, detailed automation, and the flexibility to nurture leads over time.

The truth is, these channels work best when you stop thinking of them as competitors. SMS excels at urgent, time-sensitive messages that demand immediate attention. Email shines when you need to educate, build relationships, or deliver complex information that your audience can digest at their own pace.

In this article, we’ll walk through the real-world performance of both channels, break down the costs, and show you exactly when to use each one, plus how tools like Rebrandly can make both channels work harder for your business.

Head-to-head comparison: the key metrics

To get started, let’s take a look at key metrics for each channel and how they differ for SMS marketing vs. email marketing.

Open rates

Open rate is often the first metric marketers look at when evaluating new channels. And it’s here that SMS definitively comes out on top:

• SMS: 98% per SlickText
• Email: 42.35% per MailerLite

This dramatic difference in open rate comes down to where these messages land. Text messages show up right alongside conversations with friends and family—it’s personal space that people check constantly throughout the day. Email, meanwhile, has become the go-to for business communication, something people tackle when they have time to sit down and sort through their inbox.

That behavioral difference is crucial for timing your campaigns. When you’re running a flash sale that ends in six hours or need people to act immediately, SMS gets results. People see it, read it, and often act on it within minutes. Email works better when you’re not racing against the clock.

Response time

It’s probably not surprising that SMS leads in response time as well:

• SMS: 90 seconds per SlickText
• Email: 2.5 days per SlickText

The inherent urgency in SMS marketing means text message recipients are much more likely to respond quickly than email recipients. But not every campaign requires immediate responses; consider your goals and the type of information you need to communicate before selecting a channel.

Cost per message and ROI

Every campaign has a dedicated budget, and you need to ensure that the channel you use can effectively reach your target audience within those constraints.

• SMS: $0.015–$0.050 per message per Forbes
• Email: Depends on a number of factors, including email platform and send volume.

• SMS ROI: $71 per dollar invested per Forbes
• Email ROI: $36 – $40 per dollar invested per Omnisend

SMS delivers a more substantial return per dollar because it drives faster engagement, higher conversions, and a more direct line of action.

Unique advantages of SMS marketing vs. email marketing

Now that we’ve covered the key metrics, let’s dig into what each channel does best. Understanding these strengths will help you decide which one fits your campaign goals.

The strengths of SMS marketing

Speed is everything with SMS. Your message hits someone’s phone in seconds, often with a notification that’s hard to ignore. This makes SMS perfect for those “act now” moments—flash sales ending in two hours, appointment reminders, or breaking news your customers need to know immediately.

Your message gets seen. While email inboxes overflow with newsletters, promotions, and spam, most people’s text inboxes stay relatively clean. Your SMS doesn’t have to fight for attention against dozens of other messages. People also check texts obsessively—many respond within minutes of receiving one. Add branded links to your SMS campaigns, and you can see click-through rates jump by up to 39%.

Less is more. The 160-character limit might seem restrictive, but it can also be liberating. You can’t ramble or bury your call-to-action in paragraphs of text. You have to get straight to the point, which often makes your message clearer and more compelling. No design headaches, no HTML coding—just write your message and hit send.

The strengths of email marketing 

Email lets you tell the whole story. You’re not cramming your message into 160 characters—you have room to breathe. Want to showcase your new product line with stunning photos? Include a how-to video? Walk someone through a complex onboarding process? Email handles it all. This makes it perfect for newsletters, detailed announcements, or any time you need to educate rather than just inform.

Personalization gets sophisticated. Email platforms let you get incredibly specific about who sees what. You can trigger different messages based on what someone bought last month, where they live, or how they’ve engaged with your previous emails. Dynamic content means the email your longtime customers see can be completely different from what new subscribers get—all sent from the same campaign.

Your budget stretches further. Sending 10,000 emails costs a fraction of what 10,000 text messages would run you. Plus, you’re not fighting character limits so that you can include multiple offers, detailed explanations, and several calls-to-action in a single message. When you need to do more with your marketing budget, email delivers serious bang for your buck.

When to use sms marketing vs. email marketing

The good news? You don’t have to pick sides. Most successful marketers use both SMS and email strategically, playing to each channel’s strengths depending on what they’re trying to accomplish.

Use UTM parameters in your links to track performance by channel. Rebrandly lets you manage UTM tags without bloating your URLs, keeping SMS messages concise and email links clean.

Here’s the thing—you don’t have to choose just one. The smartest marketers use SMS and email as a tag team, with each channel covering what the other can’t quite reach.

Think of it this way: SMS grabs attention, email provides the details. You might send a quick text saying, “Check your inbox for exclusive early access to our sale,” then deliver the full catalog and terms in the email that follows. Or re-engage subscribers who’ve gone quiet on email with a simple SMS check-in (as long as they’ve opted in, of course). You can even flip it—send a brief SMS survey, then follow up with a detailed email containing additional resources.

Tools like Rebrandly make this integration seamless by giving you branded links and unified analytics across both channels. Whether someone clicks from a text or an email, you’re tracking it all in one place.

Here’s how this might play out in real life: Let’s say you’re launching a new feature for your app. Your integrated campaign could look like this:

1. The week before: Teaser email and SMS hinting at something big coming
2. Launch day: Quick SMS notification with a branded link to try the new feature
3. Same day: Detailed follow-up email explaining how it works, with the same branded link
4. One week later: SMS to users who haven’t tried it yet: “Haven’t checked out the new feature? Here’s what you’re missing.”
5. One month later: Email survey asking for feedback on the experience

The beauty is in the flexibility. Know your audience prefers texts over emails? Weight it toward SMS. Have a tech-savvy crowd that loves detailed breakdowns? Lead with email and use SMS for gentle nudges. The key is understanding what works for your specific audience and adjusting accordingly.

Overcoming channel-specific challenges

Every communications channel has its difficulties, and understanding how to navigate those effectively is the key to building successful campaigns.

SMS marketing challenges (and solutions!)

SMS is still mostly where we text our friends and family, but people are warming up to brand messages, as long as you do it right. Here are the main hurdles you’ll face and how to clear them.

You’re working with tiny real estate. That 160-character limit forces you to be ruthless with your words. Every character counts, so focus on the value you’re delivering and use branded short links to save space while still driving traffic where you need it.

Carriers can be picky about links. Many automatically flag messages with generic shortened URLs (like bit.ly) as spam, which kills your deliverability before you even get started. Rebrandly’s 99% deliverability rate helps your messages reach people’s phones instead of getting filtered out.

The rules are strict—and for good reason. TCPA and GDPR aren’t suggestions. You need crystal-clear opt-in processes and easy ways for people to unsubscribe. Always work with consent-based lists, never purchase contact lists, and make your opt-out process as simple as texting “STOP.”

Personalization at scale gets complex fast. When you’re sending thousands of personalized messages, you need infrastructure that can keep up. If your link management platform can’t generate links as quickly as your SMS tool can send messages, you’ll hit bottlenecks. Rebrandly’s API handles up to 100K links per second, so your campaigns won’t get stuck waiting for URLs to generate.

Keep these challenges in mind during your planning phase, and you’ll save yourself headaches down the road.

Email marketing challenges (and solutions!)

Email feels safe and familiar—people expect marketing messages there. But that comfort comes with a downside: everyone else is fighting for the same attention you are.

Your message is drowning in a sea of emails. The average person gets over 100 emails daily, so yours needs to earn its spot. Compelling subject lines help, but consistency matters even more. When people know to expect your weekly newsletter on Tuesdays at 10 AM, they’re more likely to look for it.

Spam filters are getting smarter and stricter. The best defense? Clean practices from day one. Only email people who’ve opted in, regularly scrub inactive addresses from your list, and make unsubscribing effortless. 

What looks perfect on your screen might be a mess on theirs. Email rendering is notoriously inconsistent across different devices and email clients. Always use mobile-responsive designs and test your emails in major clients like Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail before hitting send. Your beautiful layout means nothing if half your audience sees broken formatting.

Even engaged subscribers can hit email fatigue. When open rates start dropping, don’t panic—run re-engagement campaigns first. A simple “We miss you” email with a special offer can bring people back. If they still don’t engage, it’s time to let them go.

Master these challenges, and you’ll have the foundation for cross-channel campaigns that move the needle on your marketing goals.

Use SMS and email marketing together (but strategically)

Stop thinking about SMS versus email—that’s missing the point entirely. Each channel has its own superpower. SMS cuts through the noise and gets immediate action. Email builds relationships and delivers detailed experiences. 

The magic happens when you implement them together strategically. SMS creates urgency and drives immediate clicks. Email provides context and nurtures long-term engagement. Match your message timing, keep your creative consistent, and use compelling calls-to-action that work across both channels. Your customers get a seamless experience, and you get better results.

Here’s what doesn’t change regardless of which channel you choose: branded links and solid analytics make everything work better. Rebrandly ensures your links are secure, actually get delivered, and give you the insights you need to improve, whether they’re coming from a text message or an email campaign.