Loading…
Email, SMS and WhatsApp: reaching your own audience
5 minutes, 7 steps, workout 5 of 6 in this module
Ad prices go up, a platform changes its rules overnight, and the brand that relied only on paid traffic sees sales drop the same week. The email list and the SMS list sit in the background, rarely discussed, until someone suggests sending a promotion to everyone three times a week. That's how a list built over years loses its subscribers in a month. Knowing what that list is worth and how often to use it makes you the person who protects it.
What you'll be able to do
By the end of this workout, you'll be able to calculate what an email list is worth in revenue, pick the right owned channel for each kind of message, and protect the permission that makes these channels work.
A first look: Channels you own, permission you earn
Email, SMS, WhatsApp, push notifications and your own site or app are the channels where you decide what goes out and when, and each message costs cents or less. The catch is permission. People must opt in, you must make it easy to opt out, and the law is strict: CAN-SPAM for email, TCPA for texts in the US, and WhatsApp Business requires explicit opt-in. Each channel has a job. Email carries content, offers and stories, weekly or so. SMS is for short, time-sensitive messages, a few times a month at most, because a text interrupts. WhatsApp is conversational: order updates, questions, one-to-one help. One behavioral note: the “last day” and “ends tonight” messages work because people hate losing something more than they like gaining it. Marketers call this loss aversion. It works, and it stops working the moment every message is an emergency.
Example: Green Garden Skincare: a weekly email with one skincare tip and one product. An SMS only for the two sales a year. WhatsApp for “your order shipped” and “which serum is right for me?”
What this workout covers
- 1Channels you own, permission you earn
- 2Case: Three texts a week
A question from this workout
Corner Coffee has 4,000 email subscribers and 4,000 Instagram followers. It announces a new seasonal drink in both places. Which group is more likely to actually see the announcement? Take a guess based on how each channel works.
- Instagram followers, because social is more visual and engaging
- About the same, since both groups chose to hear from the café
- Email subscribers, because a typical email is opened by 30-45% of the list, while an organic post reaches a few percent of followers
- Neither. People ignore both
Pick your answer first, then open the reasoning below.
Show the answer and the reasoning
Answer: C. Email subscribers, because a typical email is opened by 30-45% of the list, while an organic post reaches a few percent of followers
Email lands in an inbox the person controls; a post lands in a feed the platform controls. A decent list sees 30-45% open rates, while organic reach on Instagram is often under 10% of followers. The most common mistake is assuming the more engaging-looking channel reaches more people. Engaging and delivered are different things.
The other steps work the same way: you decide first, then see why each option is right or wrong.
How you practice here
- 1 short concept card
- 2 multiple-choice questions
- 1 campaign case with real-looking numbers
- 1 matching exercise
- 1 guided calculation
- 1 recall question from an earlier workout