How to use email, SMS, and push together

You will learn

Learn how to use SMS, email, and push notifications together, including what makes each channel unique, what to send first, and more.

Differences in each channel

Email

Email has been around the longest, and interested website visitors are often willing to give out an email to a company. It also doesn’t have any channel-specific technical requirements, so it’s simple to start collecting subscribers and sending.

SMS

SMS is a relatively new messaging channel, but it is growing rapidly. Its popularity varies country by country, but SMS is becoming more common and accepted, with more people being willing to give out their phone number to businesses year over year.

Push notifications

One unique thing about push notifications is that subscribers tend to see them as helpful and not purely sales-focused. They are often reminders for how the subscriber can get the most of your app, whether that’s to achieve a personal goal or find the best deals. However, this perception can change if the subscriber gets overloaded, or if the notifications are not relevant.

Summary

The table and image below summarize the key benefits of each channel.

Email	SMS	Push
Large reach/list growth High sending frequency Low technical requirements Low compliance regulations Good message longevity	Immediate Medium reach/list growth High engagement Low technical requirements	Immediate High engagement Low compliance requirements

When to use email vs. SMS vs. push

The table below suggests types of messages to send via email, SMS, and mobile push.

Collecting subscribers

When it comes to growing your list, it’s important to consider how to use all of your channels together. This not only includes your owned channels like email, SMS, and push but also social media.

For email and SMS, you can use forms or subscribe pages in a variety of ways. For instance, they can be directly on your site, but you can also link to them via QR codes, social media posts, email banners, and more. Collect consent separately for email and SMS. Email consent does not count as SMS consent.

For mobile push, collect consent in your app. Downloading the app alone does not mean someone has agreed to receive push notifications. You can encourage people to download your app using the same approaches as email and SMS. For instance, rather than a QR code linking to a sign-up form, it could take users to your app listing.

Targeting your subscribers

Regardless of the channel, you want your messages to feel personalized. Start with subscribers to that channel, then add criteria for the audience you want to reach. You can use these segment ideas across channels:

• All subscribers
• Subscribed to 1 channel (email, SMS, or push notifications)
• VIPs
• Gender
• Age
• Location
• Preference, interest, or hobby
• Engaged/unengaged from 1 channel

When re-creating the segments, note that they shouldn’t be identical between the channels.

• The timeframes for SMS and push notification segments should be shorter than for email.
• Push can include custom metrics (e.g., active on app), depending on your setup.
• For engagement segments, use channel-specific events within your chosen timeframe (for example, at least 1 event in the last 30 days):
  • Email: Opened Email or Clicked Email.
  • SMS: Clicked Text Message.
  • Push notifications: Opened Push.

Messaging all 3 channels together

If you’re using all 3 channels, you don’t want multiple messages going out at once. Imagine how strange it would be to get an email, text, and push notification at the same time from the same company.

Choose which channel to send first, then stagger messages on the other channels. To avoid sending the same promotion to someone on multiple channels, exclude the audiences you targeted earlier. You can also exclude recent purchasers, as in the example below.

Say you’re having a winter sale on your app and website that starts at 12 p.m. The table below shows an example of how you can target different groups via your owned channels.

Best practice: universal links and App Links

When sending email or text messages to promote your app, use iOS universal links and Android App Links after completing the setup for each channel.

These links direct your customers to content within your mobile app or, if the app isn't installed, to the same content on your website. This allows you to use consistent URLs across all your marketing channels while creating a seamless experience for your customer, no matter their device.

Work with your developer to configure your app and complete the setup in Klaviyo. For email, you need a dedicated Klaviyo-hosted click-tracking domain. For text messages, you need a branded custom link.

Read more about How to set up iOS universal links and Android App Links.

Additional resources