Email and SMS Marketing in 2024: 5 Trends to Expect

2023 was another record-setting year for e-commerce sales and the growth is expected to continue in 2024. How companies achieve their growth will depend on how effective they are with engaging their audience via different channels and subsequently maximizing the return on investment of those channels.

In all of this, one thing remains consistent year after year: opt-in channels continue to punch beyond their weight in terms of engagement and ROI. The trends from the past several years continued throughout 2023 and shed light on what we should expect to see from brands in 2024. Those trends include the following:

1. Email will continue its staying power.

While news headlines focus on the challenges of increasing e-commerce sales on social media sites, with their fluctuations in daily users, email keeps quietly engaging customers and generating sales. According to a recently released report, e-commerce brands sent 33 percent more promotional email campaigns and generated 17 percent more orders in 2023 than the year before.

The performance of marketing emails continues to be positive for retailers. Open and click rates for campaign emails increased year-over-year (YoY), meaning more people see and engage with the emails in their inbox.

Expect brands to double down on this proven channel. In particular, by increasing their focus on improving their day-to-day email campaigns to maximize sales and finding ways to refine their email program strategy even further in 2024.

2. The use of automated emails will increase.

Automation really is the power that drives successful programs. In 2023, brands sent 79 percent more automated emails and 107 percent more automated SMS than the year before. These automated emails accounted for 41 percent of all email orders and only 2 percent of email sends, while the automated SMS generated 26 percent of all SMS orders and only 13 percent of sends.

Because of this performance, expect automated sends to further increase in 2024.

There are clear winners in terms of which automated messages generate the most sales. Welcome, browse abandonment, and cart abandonment messages were the three most frequently sent messages in 2023 and were responsible for 88 percent of all automated orders for the year. However, there is one automated message to keep an eye on — back-in-stock messages.

Even though overall send numbers are lower than other more popular automated messages, the adoption and performance of back-in-stock messages have steadily increased. They command the best open, click and conversion rate of any automated marketing email.

3. Holiday marketing will start earlier for all holidays.

Black Friday holiday marketing starts a little earlier each year, and 2023 was no exception, especially when it came to email marketing. The week of Oct. 22 saw brands increase their email sends by 40 percent and orders increase by nearly 26 percent over the same period in 2022. The following week saw increases of 38 percent and 28 percent, respectively.

Knowing that consumers turn to emails as a source of product discovery and discounts, brands will use them to their advantage and capture early holiday sales. But this won’t be limited to the Q4 holiday season. Expect brands to begin marketing other holidays like Valentine’s Day and Independence Day earlier than in years past.

4. SMS has broken through and brands will lean into it even more.

The myth that SMS is annoying has been busted. More SMS marketing messages were sent last year than ever before, including on the busiest shopping days of the year. Cyber Monday saw brands send 308 percent more SMS and generate 222 percent more orders YoY. Overall, SMS generated $33 million in sales in 2023.

SMS is now a permanent part of companies’ marketing programs and we expect to see brands rely even more on them, especially in combination with their automated email program. Automated SMS outperforms scheduled messages and last year generated 26 percent of all SMS orders on only 13 percent of sends. SMS messages are easy to create, quickly read, and flat-out work at influencing purchases.

5. Web push messages will come to life.

Would you have guessed that over the past two years brands sent nearly half a billion web push messages? With 60 million more sends in 2023 than the year before, and generating $13 million in sales, the channel is growing and companies are taking notice.

Companies sent more than double the number of automated push messages YoY to great success. In 2023, automated push messages generated 21 percent of all push message orders from only 3 percent of sends.

As brands look to increase sales with any channel possible, expect many of them to add push messages to their marketing playbooks in 2024.

More brands are recognizing the value that opt-in channels hold, even more so when they're combined to work in conjunction with one another. Understanding how and when consumers are engaging with each channel allows brands to be more effective, more efficient, and maximize their sales to their fullest potential.

Greg Zakowicz is a veteran marketer and the senior e-commerce expert at Omnisend, the all-in-one e-commerce marketing automation platform.