WhatsApp Marketing VS SMS Marketing: A Comparison

WhatsApp marketing and SMS marketing are two popular text-based communication options for businesses available to them today. However many people think the two of them are the same, but that is far from the truth.

If you are looking for effective ways to boost your brand awareness or hoping to reach a broader range of customers, both of these ways are perfect for you to increase your business sales and revenue.

As we mentioned earlier, most people get confused and think of both as a single communication channel without proper insight.

So, we did some research and compiled a comparison between WhatsApp Marketing and SMS Marketing to help you understand and decide which is better for your business. Similar to our previous work:

WhatsApp Business API or App: What’s the best for your brand?

We will share with you what exactly they are, what features each of them offers, and their respective pros and cons. So without further ado, let’s get started.

What is SMS Marketing?

Short Message Service or SMS is a type of text messaging used by millions of users worldwide. Though invented in the 1980s, it wasn’t until the 1990s that SMS became popular among people.

Initially, people use this service for nothing other than just normal chatting. However, it didn’t take long for businesses to recognize the potential of SMS and include it as an essential part of their marketing strategy.

Today, businesses using SMS capitalize on various product promotion opportunities and keep in touch with their customers. Unlike social media or email marketing, SMS marketing solely takes place on mobile phones.

Advantages of SMS Marketing

Here are some of the most common advantages of SMS Marketing.

Cellular Networks

SMS marketing operates on cellular networks. This means that even without the internet connection, text sent via SMS marketing will still be able to go through.

No Smartphone Required

Even though smartphones have become an essential part of customers worldwide, there’s still a significant number of people who don’t own smartphones. However, according to a report, 11% of US citizens own cellphones that aren’t smartphones.

No Extra App Required

Unlike WhatsApp Business API or App, SMS marketing does not require any additional app. Today, cellphones, smartphones or not, are built with pre-installed SMS capabilities.

What is WhatsApp Marketing?

WhatsApp Messenger was launched in 2009, and the official WhatsApp Business API and App was launched only as recently as 2018.

WhatsApp has been a massive success story for both customers and businesses. It is used by billions of people worldwide and has become the go-to message channel for text-based marketing.

Advantages of WhatsApp Marketing

Let’s look at some of the most significant benefits of WhatsApp marketing over SMS marketing.

Multimedia Messaging

Though classified as a text-based messaging tool, there’s much more that WhatsApp can do for you. For example, you can interact with your friends, family, relatives, and anyone with various emojis, stickers, and GIFs to better illustrate the mood.

It doesn’t stop here. WhatsApp allows you to send and receive rich media files (Audio & Video). A crucial feature for businesses that must offer a 360-degree view of their products.

Richer Features

WhatsApp marketing also allows you to use several integrated options, such as sharing live locations, contact info, and different types of files (pdf, doc, etc.).

Users can also place voice and video calls from the WhatsApp app, meaning they don’t need to download a separate app.

Encrypted Messages

According to WhatsApp, all the messages sent and received through the messaging platform are end-to-end encrypted with military-grade encryption.

This means that only the sender and receiver can read or listen to the messages – not even WhatsApp itself can decrypt your messages.

This is a handy feature as it guarantees the security of sensitive information such as billing details, addresses, and more.

More Integrations

Visual integration with popular apps like Instagram, YouTube, and Netflix is an exclusive WhatsApp marketing feature.

For example, if you share Instagram content on WhatsApp, the post appears entirely in the WhatsApp chat instead of just the link.

Likewise, there are also built-in players in WhatsApp for Netflix and YouTube so that videos from these platforms can be shared and watched within WhatsApp itself when shared.

Final Thoughts

SMS marketing and WhatsApp marketing aren’t mutually exclusive. This means that you can easily do both.

However, if you’re looking to use just one, you’ll have to closely look at the benefits and limitations and see which one fits your business better.

If you ask for our advice, we suggest that WhatsApp marketing is a far better option because it can offer much more than what SMS marketing provides.