Email Newsletter or SMS Blast: Which Should Carry Your Next Promotion?
I get asked this one at least once a week: "should this go out as an email or a text?" 💖 The honest answer is that most businesses choose based on whichever platform is open on their laptop that morning, not which channel will actually get results. That's backwards. Email and SMS behave completely differently once they land in someone's hand, and matching the message to the channel is one of the cheapest wins in marketing — you're just being smarter with tools you already pay for.
What most businesses get wrong
The most common mistake is treating SMS like a shrunken email — cramming in a logo mention, three selling points and a "click here to find out more," then wondering why the only replies are opt-outs. A text gets read in the time it takes to glance at a lock screen, so if it needs more than one sentence to make sense, it's an email, not a text. The opposite mistake costs just as much: running a genuinely time-sensitive flash sale through email only, so half the list opens it two days later, once the stock is gone.
Run every promotion through these three questions before you touch a template:
- Does the offer expire in under 48 hours? → SMS.
- Does it need more than one sentence to make sense? → Email.
- Is it relevant to everyone on your list, or just past customers? → Segment first, then pick the channel.
Pin this next to your laptop. It takes less time to run through than writing the first draft of the promo itself.
How to run both without doubling your workload
You don't need two campaigns running forever — one campaign with two stages does the job. Lead with email for anything that benefits from context: new offers, seasonal pushes, bigger announcements. Then, in the final 24 to 48 hours, pull the subset of your list who's opted into SMS and send a short, standalone text that references the deadline, not the backstory. This keeps SMS as reinforcement rather than a first (and only) touch, keeping opt-outs low because people don't feel spammed on a channel they gave you sparingly.
Segmentation matters more than the channel itself. A customer who's bought from you three times doesn't need the same persuasive email as a cold subscriber who never opened since joining for a discount code. If your platform lets you split by purchase history, use it — send warmer segments the SMS nudge earlier, and save the fuller email story for people who still need convincing.
- Sending identical copy to both channels instead of writing SMS as its own short, direct format.
- Using SMS for every promotion because the open rate is high — overuse burns the channel and drives up opt-outs.
- Skipping proper consent tracking for SMS, which is both a compliance risk and a trust issue.
- Never telling people why they're hearing from you twice, so it feels like spam instead of a deliberate sequence.
Frequently asked questions
Should I just move everyone to SMS since it gets opened faster?
No — and this is the part most "SMS is the future" advice skips. A higher open rate doesn't mean higher-quality attention; people often read a text and forget it within the hour because there's no visual anchor to jog their memory later. Email still outperforms for considered purchases. Use SMS for urgency, not for everything.
How many SMS messages a month is too many?
For most small businesses, more than two or three genuinely promotional texts a month starts pushing opt-outs up. Reserve SMS for moments that are actually time-sensitive — if everything is urgent, nothing is.
Do I need separate consent for SMS and email?
Yes. A person agreeing to receive your emails hasn't automatically agreed to receive texts. Collect SMS opt-in explicitly, ideally at its own checkbox or sign-up step, and keep a record of when and how each person opted in.
Keep reading 🤍
I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.
Work with me ✦