BlogJuly 1, 2026
Every marketing budget eventually runs into the same question: where do the leftover rupees go, SMS, email, or push notifications? Get this call right and you build a customer retention channel that compounds over time. Get it wrong and you […]
Every marketing budget eventually runs into the same question: where do the leftover rupees go, SMS, email, or push notifications? Get this call right and you build a customer retention channel that compounds over time. Get it wrong and you end up half-funding three channels instead of fully funding the one that actually moves revenue.
Each channel reaches people differently. Bulk SMS lands on every mobile number, whether or not the recipient has installed an app or opened their inbox this week. Email reaches whoever has opted into your list and still checks email. Push notifications reach only people who already downloaded your app and said yes to notifications. That difference in reach is the first thing that should shape your mobile marketing strategy – long before you start comparing click-through rates.
This guide compares bulk SMS marketing ROI, email marketing ROI, and push notification performance side by side, using benchmark data from 2025–2026 studies, so you can decide where your next campaign rupee should go.
In the realm of SMS marketing in Pakistan, the selection of the right channel is crucial.When it comes to SMS marketing in Pakistan, having the right channel matters.
The 2026 Economic Survey has revealed that the penetration rate of mobile phones has reached 82.6% of the population and the number of smartphones has grown to 71.6%. Internet penetration is lower at 45.6%, however, with just about 117 million people online (DataReportal 2026).
That gap matters. SMS Marketing Pakistan campaigns are sent to nearly every mobile number in Pakistan, whether it’s a basic or a smart phone, or online or offline. Not only is the internet access gate, but for push, there’s an installed app as well, and that cuts the audience of any business outside the big cities further.
We at ITS collaborate with businesses in Pakistan to create a channel mix and not just relying on a single inbox. From a branded bulk SMS to order confirmation and OTP SMS, to even considering SMS vs email business decision making, all of these are enabled under one roof at iTS.com.pk.
Businesses can send bulk SMS to a contact list as promotional SMS (discount codes, flash sales, reminders for events) or transactional SMS (order confirmation, delivery updates, reminder for appointments, OTPs). Promotional SMS usually requires an explicit opt-in, while transactional SMS is sent as a result of an account or order event, and generally has a higher priority for delivery compared to marketing traffic.
SMS has an open rate of 98%, and most of the messages are read within 3 minutes.
According to Marketing LTB, SMS messages are 4.5x more likely to be opened than email.
The ROI of SMS is typically estimated to be $21 to $41 per email dollar, while email’s ROI falls somewhere between $10 to $36 per dollar (Omnisend, 2026).
Some benchmark reports include as high as $71 for every $1 invested (Falkonsms, 2026).
Generally, SMS marketing ROI is around 32x, and top performers can attain a 45x ROI (Marketing LTB, 2026).
For many direct-to-consumer brands, SMS accounts for 10–20% of the overall e-commerce revenues (Marketing LTB, 2026).
Over time, SMS subscribers are worth 2.3x more than an average email subscriber (Marketing LTB, 2026), further solidifying SMS as a long-term customer retention channel.
SMS costs range from $0.01 to $0.15 per message, depending on the route and destination (Dexatel, 2025)
The cost of acquiring customers through SMS is as low as $0.10 per subscriber (Optimonk, 2026).
ITS delivers branded, promotional and transactional SMS services to companies in Pakistan and iTS short code and location based SMS services are targeted. ITS clients will not have to sacrifice campaign reach to the greylisting or filtering that can occur with international SMS gateways.
Email Marketing is the process of delivering targeted emails (such as newsletters, promotions, and lifecycle flows) to a list of opted-in subscribers via an ESP.
There are 4.4–4.8 billion global email users, with about 93–99% of users opening their email daily (Demandsage, 2026).
There are approximately 376 billion emails sent around the world every day (Designmodo, 2026) and this amount is projected to exceed 408 billion by 2027.
On average, another industry sees an open rate of 19.21%, and the average click-through rate is 2.44% (WebFX, 2026).
Approximately half of all email opens are now affected by Apple Mail Privacy Protection, causing open rates to be overestimated, hence click-through rate and click-to-open rate are more reliable email deliverability metrics (Prospeo, 2026).
The average bounce rate is 2.48% and the average rate of unsubscribes is 0.89% both indicative of list hygiene and sender reputation (WebFX, 2026).
Brands that have been able to shift their send volume to the inbox by using inbox-placement tools have seen revenue growth in the double-digit percentage range (Mailmend, 2026).
The average ROI of email marketing is $36 to $42 per dollar invested, with some merchant groups seeing ROI as high as $68 to $72 (Robly, 2026; Mailmend, 2026)
Automated / transactional emails boast a 30.63% open rate and a 7.39% click-through rate, which is significantly higher than campaign emails (Brevo, 2026).
The majority of ESPs will charge per subscriber or per volume of sends, not per campaign, so the price is based on the number of subscribers, not the number of sends.
Pakistan’s markets are not free from restrictions.
The numbers look good for email in Pakistan, but it is the reach that is lacking. As internet penetration has been at 45.6%, and the proportion of those users who check their email as opposed to WhatsApp or SMS is shrinking, using just email means that a significant part of the local audience (outside major urban areas) is not part of your reach.
App push notifications are sent directly to a user’s device through the app’s notification service (Apple’s APNs or Google’s FCM), appearing on the lock screen or notification tray even when the app isn’t open.
Push notifications carry no per-message send cost once an app and notification infrastructure are built, the real cost is upfront development and ongoing app maintenance. ROI here is measured less in dollars-per-send and more in retention: push is the cheapest, most repeatable touchpoint for users who already chose your app.
Push only reaches people who already installed the app and granted permission — the smallest, most pre-qualified slice of any audience. Over-sending backfires fast: users who receive more than six push notifications a week are 3.4x more likely to uninstall within 30 days (Klaviyo, via Amraandelma, 2026), and just 2–5 notifications a week is enough to push close to half of users into disabling notifications altogether (Sci-Tech Today, 2026).
Push notifications only work if the app behind them is solid. iTS’s web and app development team builds and integrates app push notification infrastructure as part of a wider mobile marketing strategy, so businesses aren’t stitching together SMS, email and an app-based channel from three different vendors.
Which channel delivers better ROI: bulk SMS or email marketing?
Dollar-for-dollar, most 2025–2026 benchmarks put SMS slightly ahead, with conservative estimates of $21–$41 returned per $1 spent against email’s $10–$36 (Omnisend, 2026), though some reports show an even wider gap. The honest answer to “SMS vs email for business” is rarely either/or: SMS wins on speed and open rates, email wins on cost-per-send at scale and long-form storytelling. Most businesses get the best bulk SMS marketing ROI by using SMS for time-sensitive or high-value messages and email for nurture content.
Is bulk SMS marketing legal and regulated in Pakistan?
Yes. Promotional SMS in Pakistan is subject to opt-in and Do-Not-Disturb (DND) requirements enforced by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, while transactional SMS, order confirmations, OTPs, delivery alerts , is generally exempt from DND filtering because it’s triggered by an existing customer relationship rather than a marketing campaign.
Can push notifications replace SMS or email entirely?
No. Push notifications only reach people who already have your app installed and have granted permission, which is almost always a smaller audience than your full SMS or email list. Push works best as a retention layer on top of SMS and email, not a replacement for either.
Why does email deliverability matter more than open rate?
Open rate has become a less reliable indicator since Apple Mail Privacy Protection started pre-loading tracking pixels on roughly half of all opens (Prospeo, 2026). Email deliverability sender authentication, list hygiene and inbox placement determines whether a message reaches the inbox at all, which is why marketers increasingly track click-through and bounce rates instead of open rate alone.
What’s the best mobile marketing strategy for a business in Pakistan?
Given Pakistan’s 82.6% mobile penetration versus 45.6% internet penetration, most businesses get the broadest reach by leading with bulk SMS , promotional SMS for offers, transactional SMS for order updates , and layering email and push notifications on top for the subset of customers who are already online or already use the company’s app.
There’s no single winner across bulk SMS, email and push notifications there’s a winner for each job. SMS delivers the widest reach and the strongest open rates, making it the backbone of any SMS marketing Pakistan strategy and a genuine customer retention channel in iTS own right. Email remains the most cost-efficient channel for nurturing an already opted-in, already-online audience. Push notifications cost almost nothing per send but only speak to users who already chose your app.
The businesses getting this right aren’t picking one channel and hoping they’re sequencing all three: SMS to reach everyone, email to nurture the subset who read it, and push to retain the subset who installed the app. iTS (iTS.com.pk) helps Pakistani businesses build exactly that stack, running the bulk SMS marketing layer directly while supporting the app infrastructure that makes push notifications possible, so the channel mix is one project instead of three vendors.
Contact UsHave questions or need assistance? We're here to help! Whether it's crafting impactful SMS campaigns, streamlining your social media presence, or exploring digital solutions like web and app development, our team is ready to support you. Reach out to ITS today and let’s simplify your marketing journey together.
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