Why Email, SMS & Push Are Your Brand’s Most Dependable Revenue Channels

In 2025, with rising acquisition costs and declining ad effectiveness, DTC brands can’t afford to overlook their owned channels. 

While brands scramble to keep up with new ad platforms and algorithm shifts, the smartest operators know that email, SMS, and push notifications are the most reliable, scalable, and high-margin revenue channels.

These channels don’t just drive sales—they increase customer lifetime value, drive repeat purchases, and deepen customer relationships without depending on rented traffic sources. 

If your business isn’t already generating at least 30%+ of its revenue from email, SMS, and push, you’re leaving money on the table.

What This Article Covers:

• Why email, SMS, and push outperform paid media in today’s landscape
• How each channel plays a unique role in your marketing mix
• Actionable strategies to optimize and integrate them effectively
• The biggest mistakes brands make (and how to fix them)
• A step-by-step roadmap to maximizing your owned marketing channels

Let’s dive in!

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Why Email, SMS & Push Are Non-Negotiable for Sustainable Growth

The golden age of cheap Meta and Google ads is over. Paid media is still essential, but you need high-margin, retention-driving channels to scale profitably. 

Here’s why owned channels should be your #1 priority:

Predictable Revenue & High ROI

Unlike paid ads, owned channels don’t fluctuate based on bidding wars or algorithms. 

Email alone has a ROI of 36:1, meaning for every dollar spent, brands make $36 back. And SMS and push notifications have the potential to deliver even better returns, as mobile-centric channels in a time where more and more shoppers are becoming comfortable buying with their smartphones.

No Platform Risk

Social media algorithms throttle organic reach and ad costs can spike unpredictably.

You can even wake up one day to find your ad accounts banned, and your traffic faucet shut off.

Such is the risk of tying yourself to third-party platforms, instead of channels you actually control.

Email, SMS, and push land directly in your customer’s inbox or phone, unfiltered by third-party platforms, and giving you a direct, unfiltered line to your audience.

Higher Engagement & Conversion Rates

Let the results speak for themselves.

• Email: Consistently delivers 3-6x higher CTR than paid social
• SMS: Boasts open rates of 98%+ and CTRs 6x higher than email
• Push Notifications: Instant re-engagement similar to SMS, with minimal friction (and lower costs)

Better Margins

Every email, SMS, and push campaign costs next to nothing to send, unlike paid traffic that eats into your gross margin.

Combine with how effective these channels are for driving engagement, and you’ve got a bulletproof formula to counteract the rapidly rising cost of paid acquisition.

First-Party Data

Recent privacy changes to iOS and web browsers have made the value of first-party data go up exponentially. 

Owned channels allow you to leverage this valuable asset to create personalized experiences that drive conversions.

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The truth is stark but simple: if your business isn't currently generating a significant share of your revenue (ideally approx. 30% of total revenue) from email, SMS, and push notifications, you’ll struggle to keep margins high enough to achieve sustainable growth.

How Email, SMS & Push Fit Into Your Marketing Strategy

Email: The Relationship Builder

• Strengths: Long-form storytelling, deep personalization, detailed automation
• Best Use Cases: Product launches, nurturing, post-purchase engagement

Email excels at nurturing long-term customer relationships through detailed storytelling and education. Its format allows for comprehensive product explanations, brand storytelling, and multi-step nurture sequences.

The key advantage of email lies in its flexibility and depth. You can segment your audience with remarkable precision, create sophisticated automation flows, and deliver rich content experiences that simply aren't possible in other formats.

SMS: The Immediate Attention Grabber

• Strengths: Immediate attention, high engagement, time-sensitive offers
• Best Use Cases: Flash sales, abandoned cart recovery, VIP updates

With open rates exceeding 98% and most messages read within minutes of delivery, SMS creates urgency like no other channel. Its power comes from its immediacy and unavoidability. 

The economics of SMS marketing are particularly compelling for high-AOV brands.

While SMS costs more per message than email, its dramatically higher engagement rates often justify the investment, especially for time-sensitive promotions.

Push Notifications: The Frictionless Engagement Maestro

• Strengths: App engagement, low-friction reminders, fast re-engagement
• Best Use Cases: Time-sensitive updates, abandoned cart notifications, browse abandonment loyalty rewards, in-app behavior triggers

Push notifications excel at bringing customers back to your store or app with the same high engagement rates as SMS, and the same low cost as email.

A well-timed push can create an immediate engagement opportunity without requiring users to check their inbox or messages. Push notifications are particularly effective for:

• Browse abandonment recovery
• App engagement initiatives
• Location-based offers and promotions
• Loyalty program updates and rewards
• Order status updates and shipping notifications

The brilliance of push lies in its low-friction nature—a single tap brings customers directly to your desired destination, creating engagement opportunities that might otherwise be missed.

Learn more: The Ultimate Guide to Push Notifications for Ecommerce Brands

How They Work Together (Multi-Channel Synergy)

While each channel has distinct strengths, the real magic happens when they work together in coordinated sequences. 

A well-executed multi-channel strategy creates multiple touchpoints that reinforce your message without overwhelming customers.

Consider this approach for abandoned cart recovery:

1. Email (Hour 1): Send a helpful reminder with product details, reviews, and objection handling
2. Push Notification (Hour 6): Deliver a simple, direct reminder with one-click return to cart
3. SMS (Hour 24): Create urgency with a time-limited incentive to complete the purchase

This layered approach significantly outperforms single-channel strategies by addressing different customer preferences and creating multiple opportunities for conversion.

You’re able to reach customers in different moments and contexts.

Email might be checked during focused time at a desk, SMS noticed immediately regardless of location, and push notifications seen when actively using a device. 

By using all three, you catch customers at different points in their day, or meet your customers where they prefer to interact with brands, rather than forcing them to adapt to you.

Learn more: How to Craft High-Converting Abandoned Cart Sequences

How to Maximize Email, SMS & Push’s Contribution

Developing a high-performing owned channel strategy requires focus in three core areas:

(a) List Growth Strategy

Your owned channels are only as valuable as the audience you've built. Rather than focusing solely on list size, smart brands emphasize quality and engagement.

• Use aggressive opt-in strategies like exit-intent popups, quizzes, and gated content.
• Optimize capture points: Collect emails & SMS at checkout, via live chat, and through loyalty programs.
• Experiment with incentives: Discounts work, but early access, free gifts, and VIP perks build long-term loyalty.

(b) Nail Segmentation & Personalization

Automated flows deliver the majority of revenue for top-performing brands. These behavioral triggers respond to specific customer actions with relevant, timely messages.

• VIPs get different offers than first-time buyers.
• Geo-targeted SMS for in-store promotions.
• Behavioral triggers (e.g., lapsed customers get win-back offers).

Effective segmentation is the difference between a novice and a pro when it comes to email marketing.

Segmented campaigns generate as much as 760% more revenue; while failing to segment and sending irrelevant emails to your list causes 56% of people to unsubscribe.

(c) Build a High-Converting Lifecycle Automation Flow

Beyond automations, planned campaigns drive significant revenue through timely, relevant offers.

1. Welcome Series → Drives the first purchase immediately.
2. Abandoned Cart → SMS + Email = recovery machine.
3. Post-Purchase Sequence → Upsells, referral nudges, education.
4. Replenishment Reminders → Timed flows for repeat buyers.
5. Win-Back Flows → Discount-based + value-driven re-engagement.

Read more: Why Push Notifications are the Best Tool for Abandoned Carts

Common Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)

Even brands with established owned channel programs often make mistakes that limit their effectiveness. Here are the most common pitfalls and their solutions:

1. Treating Email Like a Batch-and-Blast Tool

Many brands still send generic email blasts without segmentation or personalization. This leads to low engagement, high unsubscribe rates, and wasted opportunities.

Solution: Automate and personalize every touchpoint. Leverage behavioral triggers and lifecycle marketing.

2. Using SMS for Everything (And Annoying Your Customers)

SMS is a powerful but highly personal channel. Sending too many generic messages can lead to opt-outs and spam complaints.

That’s not to mention the higher cost; mass-SMS is a quick way to cut into your margins.

Solution: Keep it high-urgency and high-value. Send flash sales, limited-time offers, or exclusive access updates.

3. Forgetting About Push Notifications

Many brands neglect push, even when they have an app. 

A lack of engagement leads to app abandonment—and just as importantly, it’s a missed opportunity.

The dangers of sending too many notifications (and annoying your customers) are largely overblown. 

The average person receives 46 push notifications per day.

We’re conditioned to receive push notifications, and the dopamine hit of receiving a new notification can actually be exciting; not annoying.

If you want your notifications to break through the nose, one notification a week won't cut it.

TL;dr: send multiple weekly notifications (if not daily).

Solution: Send more push notifications. Use app data for hyper-relevant messaging. Push is great for engagement, and has great results when tied to behavior-based triggers.

4. Neglecting First-Party Data Capture

Relying on third-party data is risky as privacy regulations tighten. 

Don’t just think of your email and SMS lists and mobile app as a sales channel. Think of them as a direct source for first-party data about your customers.

Solution: Actively collect and leverage first-party data through forms, quizzes, checkout prompts, and loyalty programs to create personalized experiences.

5. Not Messaging Your List Enough

Many brands just don’t utilize their list as much as they should.

If you're only emailing or texting when there's a sale, you're missing out on relationship-building opportunities.

Like with push, many brands are afraid of over-messaging their list. But you need to send a ton of emails to send someone to the point where they unsubscribe (though the barrier is lower for SMS).

This is the positive about many brands’ emails getting “banished” to the promotions folder. There’s less visibility, but it also makes it almost impossible to send too many emails.

Example: Ridge is a $100m+ brand. They know what they're doing when it comes to growth, and they send daily emails (sometimes more than one per day).

Develop a consistent messaging strategy with a mix of content, value-driven offers, and community engagement to keep your audience warm and responsive.

Solution: Stop hoarding your list—USE IT! Email and push cost virtually nothing to send, yet many brands under-message. You should be consistently engaging your audience with valuable content, offers, and brand updates.

Tactical Execution: What To Do Next

Whether you're just beginning to build your owned channel strategy, or looking to get more out of your existing approach, here are the action steps to take:

Audit Your Current Performance

Before making improvements, you need to understand where you stand. 

Review key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, SMS opt-in rates, and push notification engagement levels. Compare them to industry benchmarks and set goals for improvement.

Optimize Key Flows

Audit your existing automation sequences and enhance them based on user behavior, purchase frequency, and customer preferences. 

Identify gaps in your abandoned cart, post-purchase, and win-back sequences and optimize for better engagement.

Expand SMS & Push Strategy

If you’re primarily relying on email, it’s time to layer in SMS and push notifications. 

Identify key moments where these channels can provide real-time engagement, such as product restock alerts, flash sales, and subscription reminders.

Test & Iterate Based on Data

A great marketing strategy is never static. 

Run A/B tests on subject lines, message timing, and segmentation strategies. Monitor the results and double down on what works while eliminating what doesn’t. 

Track engagement patterns and adjust frequency accordingly.

Scale What Works

Once you find strategies that consistently drive conversions and engagement, scale them across your entire marketing ecosystem. 

Expand successful email campaigns into SMS and push notifications, ensuring a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints.

Email, SMS & Push: The Only Channels You Can Fully Control

Email, SMS, and push aren’t just another marketing tactic—they’re your lowest-risk, highest-reward growth levers. 

While brands obsess over new trends, these fundamentals quietly print money.

For sustainable growth, the strategic question isn't whether to invest in owned channels. It's how quickly you can optimize them to reduce dependency on increasingly expensive paid acquisition. 

The brands that will thrive in the coming years aren't necessarily those with the biggest ad budgets, but those with the most engaged owned audiences and sophisticated strategies to drive revenue from owned channels.