What is an owned media channel?

Like email and SMS, push notifications require individuals to opt into receiving mobile or browser alerts from your company. Once they’ve given your brand permission, your users will receive your push notifications even when their phone is locked and your application isn’t running. When used effectively, push notifications can drive in-app and in-browser engagement and even increase user retention and conversions.

Another reason to consider leveraging push notifications is that it’s free for your users to receive—although mobile users without unlimited texting plans have to pay for incoming texts and are unlikely to opt into receiving your brand’s SMS communications. Since push notifications are free for consumers, your business can use this channel to communicate with customers on their mobile devices.

If you’re ready to get started using push notifications, here are a few things to consider: 

1. Share messages that only provide value

When your messages are spammy, your users might opt out of your notifications. To prevent the opt-out, ensure your recipients find every notification you send valuable in some way, whether you share a new product update or deal or remind them of a timely promotional deal.

2. Segment your audience

Audience segmentation is absolutely necessary with push notifications. It can help your business serve up more relevant messages to your consumers, which, in turn, can boost engagement and conversions.

If a user downloaded your company’s app on their phone or opted into receiving your browser notifications, they’re clearly familiar with and interested in learning more about your brand. For this reason, push notifications are best to target the later stages of the customer journey and convince users to convert. You can use push notifications to send product/service news, recently published content, promotional offers, event reminders, and even abandoned cart nudges. Then, use the opportunity to encourage users to return to your app, learn more about your newest products/services, and do business with your brand. 

Email has the best ROI of any marketing channel—for every $1 your business spends on email, it gets $36 in return. Plus, it’s a context-rich medium that allows your brand to send longer, more eye-catching marketing messages to your recipients. 

While many people like to claim “email is dead,” this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, our 2022 Global Messaging Engagement Report found that email is the No. 1 customer preferred communication channel worldwide. Many recipients like that email is secure, reliable, visually appealing, and easily referenceable—making it an ideal channel for your marketing campaigns.

1. Use email and SMS together

Your email strategy shouldn’t exist in a vacuum—it should work together with your SMS/MMS strategy. Together, your business can use these 2 channels to:

• Understand your customers’ preferences better
• Segment your audiences further
• Create more personalized communications 

For example, if a customer frequently engages with email content about jeans but never shoes and accessories, they’ll most likely respond positively to similar SMS content. You can use that information to refine your customer profile and send them more content personalized to their interests, like a sale on your top-selling jeans. That can help deepen your relationship with your customer and drive engagement and conversions. 

2. Measure email performance

Every time your recipients open, click, forward, and ignore your messages, they send your brand a powerful message. Using email metrics—like open rate, click through rate, bounce rate, forwarding rate, and unsubscribe rate—can help you evaluate the effectiveness of your messages and learn what your recipients like and don’t like about them. Many email service providers even offer email delivery and analytics dashboards that give senders quick access to these key metrics and more, so your brand can easily monitor your email program’s health and identify opportunities for improvement.

Like SMS, email also plays a significant role in almost all parts of the customer journey—from a welcome series sent to a new subscriber to an abandoned cart email sent to a potential customer to a personalized discount code sent to a long-time loyalist. The key difference between the 2 channels is that SMS is best for urgent communications, while email is better suited for longer, design-heavy messages that recipients can reference as needed. While you should determine which channel is best for your unique audience/content needs, here’s a closer look at which types of messages work best with each channel:

Whatever content you choose to send, Twilio SendGrid’s Marketing Campaigns has everything you need to create engaging emails. Our email design, automation, and testing tools can help you build one-off emails and elaborate workflows and, most importantly, ensure every message you send reaches its intended recipient.

ESMS and MMS are proven, effective marketing channels since they allow you to create highly personalized and engaging customer communications, furthering your relationship with customers and building brand loyalty. These messages can also reach global customers with no additional applications needed, even in low-connectivity areas.

Here are a few things to consider before getting started with SMS/MMS marketing:

1. Stay compliant

Similarly, you’ll need to meet regional compliance requirements based on your recipients’ locations. Check out Twilio’s Regulatory Guidelines for SMS page for a complete list of compliance considerations to keep in mind before hitting send. 

For marketing messages in North America, many businesses will choose to use a toll-free number or a short code to send large volumes of messages. US application-to-person 10-digit long codes (US A2P 10DLC) might also be used for marketing messages where a localized experience is helpful. This might include a realtor or local branch sending promotional messages for a recognizable local area code.  

With A2P 10DLC now in effect, all businesses using 10-digit long codes to send messages to US-based consumers need to complete  A2P 10DLC registration. This shift to a verified messaging ecosystem aims to improve consumer trust and business messaging ROI by giving senders:

• Higher throughput
• Increased deliverability
• Improved customer engagement

2. Know when to use SMS

Lastly, not every message is best suited for SMS. Some customers have a low tolerance for bulk messaging, so ensure every text you send makes sense for the channel and provides value to your recipients. 

While SMS/MMS messages are perfect for concise, timely communications—like flash sales, security alerts, and back-in-stock notifications—longer, more business-critical communications are often better suited for alternative channels—like email. The best way to determine if a message is a good fit for SMS is to ask yourself:

• How quickly should the recipient receive the message?
• How business critical is the content of the message?
• Have consumers been asked what type of content they’d prefer to receive over SMS?

Depending on your answers, decide the best channel to deliver your message to your recipients.

While your brand can use SMS/MMS at any stage of the customer journey, this channel is best suited for highly important and time-bound offers that provide value for your recipients. Otherwise, your communication might be a better fit for a less-urgent channel, like email. 

 While an SMS can communicate your message quickly, using images and videos alongside your text can help it stand out even more. In a sea of 160 character messages, MMS allows your business to differentiate your brand and drive sales with a unique mix of images, emojis, videos and more.  

Here’s a look at the different ways you can leverage these 2 message types to reach your recipients:

• The conversion stage: Abandoned cart texts and back-in-stock alerts
• The loyalty stage: Birthday/anniversary messages and personalized deals
• The advocacy stage: Feedback requests and surveys

As customer acquisition costs continue to skyrocket, SMS can help you retain and reengage customers throughout the buyer’s journey, increasing customer LTV for your brand.