Text and email marketing work better together than either does alone, but only if each channel does the job it is good at. Email carries detail, links and anything a buyer may want to forward or find later. SMS carries short, time-sensitive prompts that need to be seen within the hour. Run both from one workflow on the platform and you can send the right message on the right channel, stop both the moment someone replies, and keep consent separate so you never text someone who only agreed to email.
Which message belongs on which channel
The deciding question is: does the reader need to act soon, or read carefully? If they need to act soon, text. If they need to read, email.
- Email: proposals, recaps, newsletters, guides, invoices, anything with more than two sentences or a document attached.
- SMS: appointment reminders, "your proposal is in your inbox", a same-day event reminder, a quick question that a yes or no answers.
Most teams get this backwards at first. They send long promotional texts and short emails that could have been texts. Long texts feel intrusive. Short emails get lost.
Consent is separate per channel
A contact who agreed to receive marketing email has not agreed to receive marketing texts. Treat them as two permissions, captured separately and stored separately.
In the United States, marketing texts generally require prior express written consent, and the rules on automated texting are strict. In the United Kingdom, electronic marketing rules require consent for most marketing texts to individuals. This is not legal advice, so check your own position, but the practical rule is simple: ask for SMS consent with its own checkbox and wording, and record when and where it was given.
Before you start
- Email sending configured and authenticated under Settings.
- A phone number set up for SMS in Settings, with any registration your region requires completed.
- Forms that capture email consent and SMS consent as two separate fields.
- Contacts with those consent fields filled in, plus mobile numbers in a consistent format.
How to set it up
- In Sites, open your enquiry form for editing.
- Add an unticked SMS consent checkbox mapped to a custom field.
- Save the form.
- In Marketing, Emails, Templates, build the sequence emails.
- In Automation, create a workflow with your starting trigger.
- Add the first Send Email action.
- Add If / Else on the SMS consent field.
- On the consent branch, add a Send SMS action.
- Add Wait steps so an email and a text never coincide.
- In the Settings tab, tick Stop on Response.
- Test with two contacts, one with consent, then publish.
A sequence that uses both
Day 0, within five minutes: email with the fact-find link and what happens next. Day 0, one hour later, SMS (consented contacts only): "Your fact-find link is in your inbox. Reply here with any questions." Day 2: email answering the three most common questions. Day 3, SMS: "Shall I book a 15-minute call? Reply YES." Suppose the brokerage handles 200 enquiries a month: if the text prompt moved even 10 extra people a month to complete the fact-find, the advisers would gain those cases without extra calls. The volumes are hypothetical.
The text never repeats the email. It points to it, or asks for a quick decision. That keeps texts short and makes each one earn its place.
What this replaces and the weekly time
It replaces two disconnected tools: an email service on one side and a texting app or personal phones on the other. When those are separate, nobody can see whether a buyer replied by text before the next email goes out, and contacts get chased on a channel they already answered.
Once built, expect an hour a week reviewing replies across both channels in Conversations, where email and SMS sit in the same thread per contact.
Sending the same message on both channels. The contact gets the same words twice and assumes it is automated noise. Each channel should add something the other did not.
When not to combine them
Skip SMS for audiences who only know you through a newsletter. A text from a firm they have never spoken to feels like an intrusion. Also skip it for long, considered B2B decisions where nothing is time-sensitive; email alone is enough. Texts earn their place where speed matters: enquiries, bookings and reminders.
Troubleshooting
Texts go to contacts who never agreed
The consent check is missing on one SMS step, or the form field is pre-ticked. Add the condition before every SMS step and untick the box by default.
Texts fail to deliver
The number format is inconsistent or your sending number is not fully registered. Standardise numbers with country codes and complete registration.
Replies on one channel do not stop the other
The exit listens for email replies only. Set it to end the workflow on any inbound message.
Contacts receive messages at night
Waits are counted in hours from a midday trigger. Add a time window so texts only send during working hours in the contact's time zone.
Related reading
For the wider picture of chained messages, see how an email sequence works. The email workflow guide covers conditions and branches, and how email automation works explains triggers and timing.
Frequently asked questions
Is SMS better than email for marketing?
Neither is better overall. SMS gets seen quickly and suits short, urgent prompts. Email suits detail and anything worth keeping.
Can one consent cover both email and text?
Treat them as separate. Ask for each with its own wording and record each one. That keeps you on safe ground in the US, the UK and most other markets.
How many texts is too many?
For most firms, no more than one or two texts in a sequence, and rarely more than a few a month to any one contact. If people reply STOP, you are sending too many.
Where do I see replies from both channels?
In Conversations. Email and SMS replies from the same contact appear in one thread, so whoever picks it up sees the full history.