The key to higher Marketing ROI: using SMS + Email to engage your customers

Email is still customers’ preferred communication channel: 77% of the respondents we surveyed refresh their inboxes at least once a day, and 31% check their emails between 2 and 5 times a day.

But email is not suited to all communications use cases; the average response time for an SMS is 90 seconds, making SMS a critical tool for timely notifications.

The key to optimising your marketing spend and efforts is to combine the power of both tools.

Scroll down to discover a few Email and SMS tips and how brands like Airbnb, Uber and Yelp use SMS + Email to create loyal customers.


yelp
airbnb
UBER

Leveraging SMS to improve Email, and Vice Versa

Combining both SMS + Email can help you create a seamless customer communication experience, when done right.
Consider these best practices to build strategic and effective engagement campaigns:

Leveraging SMS to improve Email, and Vice Versa
Grow your lists together

Grow your lists together

Use your SMS list to cross-pollinate your email list, and vice-versa. Periodically encourage your email list to subscribe to your SMS messages and your SMS recipients to opt in to your emails, so your customers don’t miss out on timely messages and exclusive deals from your brand.
Cross-promote campaigns

Cross-promote campaigns

Some campaigns don’t need to be email or SMS—they can be both. For example, at a hiring event, Twilio had interested applicants submit their application by texting a number—quite different from the traditional email registration approach.

Segment your audience

Segment your audience

Learn from both SMS and email engagement to create customer personas that transcend channels. If a customer always opens emails about new hats but not shoes, they’ll likely respond similarly to SMS messages featuring the shoe content.

Cross-promote campaigns

Twilio SendGrid

Our team of 24/7 experts can help you get started with email in days, so you can scale your communications efforts. As an existing Twilio SMS customer, you can benefit from a 20% discount on your first year with Twilio SendGrid
When hosts receive a reservation request through Airbnb, they only have 32 hours to accept or decline the request. If a host doesn’t respond to a booking request via email, they receive an automated SMS message with info on the guests, dates requested, and prices for the booking. Hosts can then easily accept or decline the booking from their phone with a short text response. airbnb
Uber created a great communication experience for its riders, by combining both email and SMS notifications for different use cases. With SMS, customers can stay up-to-date on their Uber ride with real-time text alerts. For less timely notifications, such as ride receipts or policy updates, Uber uses email alerts.


UBER
Anytime a Yelp user makes a restaurant reservation, they receive a confirmation email containing details and updates on their booking. In addition, Yelp also started using SMS messages to reach their customers. Now, Yelp users can easily confirm or cancel their reservations via text.


yelp

Don’t let outdated IVRs slow your business down.
Get started with email

Ready to boost your Marketing ROI with email?

As an existing Twilio SMS customer, you can benefit from
a 20% discount on your first year with Twilio SendGrid.

With its market leading 96% deliverability rate, 1 trillion emails sent annually and team of 24/7 dedicated experts, Twilio SendGrid gives you the tools to automate and scale your email marketing efforts as you grow.

What you can build with Twilio SendGrid:

  • A single view of your customers communications preferences
  • Automated email drip campaigns
  • Product, order updates and reminders, such as abandoned carts emails

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