Push Notifications vs. SMS Messages - Which One is Best?

A smartphone is the most efficient way to reach out to people nowadays. A smartphone is a very first thing that many of us grab before they go to bed, isn't it? Businesses have begun to benefit, and today there are three primary means of a marketing campaign such as an email, SMS and push notifications.

Many entrepreneurs or companies find it challenging to decide which one to use. There are a plethora of rivals and reaching your target audience is critically important. So, when should you use SMS, email and push notification? There's no definite reply, to be honest. In different situations, each way of informing a customer is better. We have compared SMS notification and push notification here on this single page to assist your company in deciding what is best for it.

Push Notifications

Push notifications were later on published than text messages and e-mails, but soon became popular with social media sources. When more services became available as smartphone applications, then push notifications became obviously an elegant way to interact with customers. What are the primary advantages of push notifications? Push notifications, like SMS, first have higher open rates. Besides, the measuring of how effective you can integrate into your implementation is more straightforward thanks to sophisticated analytical instruments.

The second thing about push notifications is that they are less intrusive as compared to text messages. They don't break down a user's activity but only appear in the status bar of the device. That makes them very simple to delete, and interestingly, a push notification will vanish immediately with a mere swipe to the right. Therefore, push notifications are for instant news and updates only.

The push conversion rate highly owes to the secure connections (deep links), allowing users to go to a specific location in an application. For instance, if you submit a push for a product discount, you can direct the notification to the product page where you can readily order it.

SMS Notifications

The open rate for SMS (or short message service) is far more remarkable as within 90 seconds of receipt, more than 85% of the SMS is opened. Sounds awesome, right? As such, SMS is an excellent instrument for data on discounts, unique offers, and supplies that is time-sensitive. Interestingly, one can use SMS for two-factor authentication too.

Another big part of SMS notification is that modern providers can send text information as well as media files through different software such as SMS broadcaster machine as this kind of software doesn’t restrict users to use a specific number of symbols.

The SMS message can include connections, i.e. different links too, but not always opened by the people. And while there is no need for an internet connection for SMS to reach the customer, they may not be able to act until they are online. Therefore, it's not a smart move to use SMS for information your users may need later. Probably your customers will not go back to such messages just to open a link. Besides, SMS messages are simple to remove and difficult to search.

The primary drawback of SMS is the cost — a text message sent to a US customer costs in between $0.0060 to $0.0070. Emails, however, are much less expensive in terms of SMS vs email marketing expenses. And you will definitely have to send more. The quantity of SMS messages per week entirely depends on what you want them to use. You will occasionally have to send information about delivery status, but if you plan to inform your customers about your discounts, coupons of exclusive deals, it should only be once or twice a week.