Why Your Email List Is Underperforming — and How Texting Fixes It Overnight
If you’re reading this, you already know: your email list isn’t performing the way it should. You’ve painstakingly grown those leads, nurtured them via drip campaigns, and yet you’re still wondering why the promised engagement, clicks and revenue just aren’t materializing. The truth is this: in 2025, email alone is not enough. And the gap it leaves? You fill it with texting. Here’s the story.
The Email Engagement Problem: Your List Isn’t “Bad”—the Channel Is
First, let’s confront the reality of email marketing today. The data speaks to an underperforming channel, and if your list isn’t blowing up with engagement, you’re not alone.
- Recent benchmarks report that email open rates across industries in 2025 hover around 42% (HubSpot) while some older averages are much lower—around 19% per other sources.
- Click-through rates (CTR), the real driver of action, are still low: many sources put average email CTRs in the range of 2–3%. (The Email Marketers)
- Other analyses suggest even lower: some reports list email CTR closer to 1–2%, depending on industry. (WebFX)
What does this tell us? That email is still valid, but it’s hard work. The inbox is clogged; your message might get opened, but translating opens into clicks—and clicks into revenue—is a tall order.
| Metric | Typical email benchmark in 2024–25 |
|---|---|
| Open rate | ~30-45% (many sources around 40%) |
| Click-through rate | ~2–3% |
| Click-to-open rate (CTOR) | ~4–6% (varies by industry) |
So if your list is “underperforming,” maybe it’s not your content—it’s the channel. And in 2025, that means you need a high-performing complementary channel.
Why Texting (SMS) Sits Where Email Falls Short
Enter texting (SMS/short message service) — the channel that breaks through. Here’s why:
1. Visibility and immediacy
- SMS open rates are routinely reported around 95–98%. (Emarsys)
- Many text messages are read within 3 minutes.
- By contrast, email may sit in the inbox and go unnoticed or never opened. One report: “98% open rate for SMS, email average ~39%.”
2. Engagement and conversion
- Click-through rates for SMS vary across studies: for example, many businesses report CTRs in the 21–35% range in 2025.
- Some sources show SMS CTRs as high as 19–20% on average, compared to email’s ~3%. (OptiMonk)
- Conversion rates (turning that click into a purchase or an action) are also much stronger with SMS in certain environments.
3. ROI and business adoption
- The market for SMS marketing is expected to reach roughly USD $12.6 billion by 2025. (Textellent)
- Studies show businesses using SMS are significantly more likely to report success: one source claims “businesses that text their customers are 5.89 times more likely to report digital marketing success than businesses that don’t use text message marketing.”
All of this adds up to a channel that can rescue a lackluster email list and turn dormant contacts into active respondents.
Why Your Email List Is Specifically Underperforming (and What Texting Fixes)
Let’s dive deeper into why your email list may be underperforming—and how texting fixes each issue.
A. Saturated inbox vs. uncluttered SMS
Your subscriber sees dozens—maybe hundreds—of emails daily. Their inbox is a war zone. So many brands blast generic messages, and yours gets buried. With SMS, you’re hitting a much less crowded channel. Your message has a better chance of being seen.
B. Timing matters—SMS wins the speed game
An email might sit unopened for hours or days. But a text? As the data says: many read SMS within minutes. That means a timely offer, reminder, or upsell via SMS can arrive when the moment is right.
C. List quality and intent
If your email list is comprised of weak opt-ins, stale contacts, or disengaged readers, your open and click rates will suffer. Texting is often used for higher-intent, more recent leads (phone number opt-in is a stronger signal than a passive email capture). That means your SMS list is often more engaged by nature—and you’re playing a higher-value game.
D. A “voice” your audience responds to
Email still works for relationship building, content, longer-form storytelling. But for high-impact actions (cart abandonment, flash sale, urgent reminder), texting is the channel the user is already monitoring. It’s more conversational, more immediate, more personal.
How to Supercharge Your Email List With Texting — Step by Step
Here’s a 3-step approach to transform your underperforming email asset into a powerhouse by layering in SMS and capturing the best of both worlds.
1. Segment for intent and readiness
Your full email list likely contains various levels of engagement. Identify your strongest segment: recent buyers, recent site visitors, people who opened email but didn’t click, etc. These are ideal for SMS outreach. Prompt: “Hey [Name], we sent you an email—just a quick text to make sure you saw it.”
2. Trigger timely, action-oriented messages
Use SMS for high-leverage moments:
- Cart abandonment: “Forgot something? Your cart’s still waiting…”
- Time-sensitive offers: “10 hours left for 20 % off + free shipping.”
- Appointment or booking reminders.
The immediacy of SMS means you’ll hit them when they’re mobile and ready.
3. Coordinate channel strategy
Don’t ditch email—it’s still crucial for depth: content, education, newsletters. But use email to feed the pipeline and SMS to activate. Example timeline:
- Day 0: Email tip/offer
- Day 1: If no click, send SMS: “Quick text: did you catch our email re: [offer]? Click here.”
- Day 2: If still no action, send email reminder + SMS follow-up that same day.
4. Measure, compare, iterate
Track key metrics across both channels:
- Email open rate, CTR, conversion
- SMS open (delivery/read), CTR, conversion
Use these to compare performance: if your SMS CTR is 20 % and email CTR is 2 %, you know where to invest more of your “push”. But still refine both.
What This Means for Your Business Right Now
If you’re leaning on email alone and frustrated by lack of traction, know this: you’re doing the hard work, but the channel might be weak. The good news: you already own one of your most valuable assets—your list. You just need to deploy it better.
By introducing SMS:
- You take advantage of an ultra-high-visibility channel.
- You give your message the urgency it often lacks in email.
- You unlock higher CTRs and faster conversions.
- You give your underperforming list a fresh lifeline—without buying new traffic.
Here’s a stat to remember: most businesses in 2025 report SMS marketing click-through rates between 21–35%. (SimpleTexting) Meanwhile, email CTRs linger in the ~2–3% range. That’s a 7x–10x gap.
So ask yourself: what would happen if even a portion of your email list performed like that?
Your email list isn’t broken. It’s just attacking the wrong problem. Email still builds relationships, educates, nurtures. But when you want more—more visibility, more immediate action, more conversion—you bring in texting. The data is clear, the gap is real, and the opportunity is yours.
Start thinking of your list not as “just an email asset,” but as a dual-channel asset: email + SMS. Build the rhythm, segment smartly, trigger at the right time, follow up fast. The email alone underperforms because it lacks immediacy and personal urgency. SMS fills that gap.
Ready to see what happens when your list wakes up? Get started with plain-spoken, high-impact texting—your list will thank you.
Sources
Mailmodo — 17 SMS vs Email Statistics to Know in 2025 (https://www.mailmodo.com/guides/sms-vs-email-statistics/)
Emarsys — 20+ SMS Marketing Statistics (With Sources) to Know in 2025 (https://emarsys.com/learn/blog/sms-marketing-statistics/)
Textellent — 30 SMS Marketing Statistics You Need to Know For 2024 (https://textellent.com/blog/sms-marketing-statistics/)
Klaviyo — SMS Marketing Statistics 2025: Trends, Insights, and Data (https://notifyre.com/us/blog/sms-marketing-statistics)
OptiMonk — 43 SMS Marketing Statistics for 2025: Open Rates, CTRs & … (https://www.optimonk.com/sms-marketing-statistics/)
Mailchimp — Email Marketing Benchmarks & Industry Statistics (https://mailchimp.com/resources/email-marketing-benchmarks/)
HubSpot — Email Open Rates By Industry (& Other Top Email Benchmarks) (https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/average-email-open-rate-benchmark)
The Email Marketers — Essential Email Marketing Benchmark Insights for 2025 (https://www.theemailmarketers.com/blog/essential-email-marketing-benchmark-insights-for-2025-performance)
WebFX — Email Marketing Benchmarks: 2025 Industry Data (https://www.webfx.com/blog/marketing/email-marketing-benchmarks/)
