Email, Mobile, or Both? How to Pick the Right Channel Every Time

As marketers, we understand that timing and channel selection have a direct impact on engagement. However, with so many options available (e.g., email, push notifications, in-app messages, SMS), the real question is: which channel and when? Email, mobile, or both? 

Here’s how to make that decision with confidence.

Step 1: Start with Customer Data

Before selecting your channels, get a full picture of how your customers behave and which channels they prefer. Bringing all of your data together makes this easier. Look at email clicks, products they browsed or left behind, in-app activity, offline purchases, and loyalty activity. Each piece of information reveals where your customers are and what will resonate with them best.

Before deciding on email, mobile, or both, pause and ask yourself:

• What customer data do I already have?
• Are my customers active on both email and mobile?
• Which channels have historically driven the strongest engagement?

This checkpoint prevents you from defaulting to a channel, helping you make a data-driven decision.

Step 2: Match Your Message to Its Most Impactful Channel

Once you understand how and where customers interact, match the purpose and urgency of your message to the right channels. Here’s a simple way to decide:

• Need immediate action? → Push Notification or SMS: Urgent triggers, such as cart abandonment, flash sales, or real-time updates, work best on channels customers can see instantly. 
• Need to educate or inspire? → Email: Email gives you room to tell a story, showcase visuals, or provide detailed product info. Think personalized product recommendations, newsletters, loyalty summaries, Year-in-Review campaigns. 
• Want to boost mobile app engagement? → In-app messages: Perfect for onboarding, nudging next steps, or surfacing personalized offers while customers are active. Interactive In-App Messages can help you stand out from the competition and boost engagement.

Pro Tip: Some of the most effective campaigns utilize multiple channels. They coordinate messages across various touchpoints to strike a balance between urgency, detail, and timing. Check out this example from Ulta Beauty. 

Their marketing team created a mobile carousel to pair with their omnichannel year-in-review email. Using Movable Ink and Airship, they showcased each customer’s loyalty stats and progress, like their favorite beauty category, the amount of points they earned and dollars they redeemed, the number of times they shopped, and their current loyalty tier information.

Step 3: Control, Coordinate, and Measure Success

Even after you’ve picked your channel(s), make sure the experience feels seamless—and avoid bombarding customers with the same message.

Here’s how:

• Adapt content to behavior and context: Use dynamic content that updates automatically based on customer actions, inventory, or timing. At the same time, set rules to prevent events, like purchases or redemptions, from triggering duplicate messages across channels.
• Monitor cross-channel performance: Track which channels drive which actions (e.g., opens, clicks, app opens, conversions) and adjust based on what the data shows.

Make Every Message Count

There isn’t a single “best” channel. The right one depends on the customer, the message, and the moment. Start with your data, match the urgency of your message to the channel, and use both channels when it makes sense. Doing this helps you stop second-guessing and start creating campaigns that truly connect.

Looking for omnichannel inspiration? Check out our related resources below.