The Cross-channel Wedge: How to Combine Email, SMS, & Push for Max Revenue

Have you heard of the “wedge formation” tactic used in warfare?

At its core, it involves placing the strongest, most heavily armored troops at the front, the tip of the wedge, while the flanking units support from behind and the sides. This structure channels the full momentum and force of the formation into a single, focused point, overwhelming the enemy at their weakest spot.

Now, think of email marketing in the same way. 

When email is combined with SMS and push, it becomes a powerful marketing wedge—concentrated, coordinated, and incredibly effective. At Mavlers, we’ve seen this kind of omnichannel strategy drive impressive revenue growth for our clients.

In today’s guide, we’ll walk you through how to apply this formation to your own campaigns and unlock its full potential.

What is push marketing?

What is SMS marketing?

Why email+2 is a win

Email + SMS Marketing

+ Push notifications

How do you run the show?

Attribution challenges

Wrapping up

What is push marketing?

Push marketing in digital marketing refers to a strategy where businesses actively promote their products or services by “pushing” them directly to potential customers, rather than waiting for customers to discover them on their own. 

This approach involves using various digital channels and tactics to place products or messages in front of the target audience, aiming to generate immediate awareness and prompt quick purchasing decisions. Very generally speaking, here’s how it unfolds:

• Businesses initiate contact with their potential customers through proactive outreach.
  
• The focus is on reaching out directly, often at key points in the buyer’s journey, to grab attention and encourage action.
  
• Common tactics include paid ads, email campaigns, direct messaging, and re-targeting, to name a few.

Importantly, push is a high-level marketing strategy where a brand actively promotes or “pushes” its products to consumers. A push notification, on the other hand, is a specific type of communication channel that uses “push technology.” It’s a small, clickable message that “pops up” on a user’s device. It’s a direct, instant, and highly visible way to communicate with users who have opted in.

Neil Patel, the co-founder of NP Digital, talks about how Bump, an app for first-time mothers, uses push notifications.

 “Those who sign up receive regular push messages about the size of the baby (typically using fruits as a reference point), as well as things to expect in coming weeks.”

Source: Taplytics

This is an example of push. Push notifications for e-commerce are  essential for quickly raising product awareness and driving immediate sales, especially when entering new markets or even launching new products.

What is SMS marketing?

SMS marketing, also known as text message marketing, is a direct marketing strategy where businesses send promotional, transactional, or informational messages to customers via text messages on their mobile devices. Notably, SMS marketing is:

• Permission-based: You can only send SMS messages to customers who have explicitly opted in to receive them, ensuring compliance and reducing spam concerns.
  
• Direct and Immediate: SMS notifications are opened and read within minutes, boasting very high open rates (up to 98%), making it one of the most effective ways to capture customer attention quickly.

Now, SMS may also be called a kind of push marketing. However, there are many key differences between the two. 

The above differences make SMS better for urgent, universal, and interactive messages, while push is ideal for engaging app users with rich, timely content. 

Notably, according to Business of Apps, sending targeted push notifications has been shown to boost retention rates by up to 39%, making them a powerful tool for re-engaging users. Meanwhile, Klaviyo reports that 72% of consumers have made a purchase after receiving a text message from a brand, with regional variations: 74% in Europe and 69% in APAC.

Now, when these channels are strategically combined with e-commerce email marketing, they create a unified, multi-channel engagement approach that significantly amplifies conversion potential. 

Each channel complements the others: email builds long-term brand value, push notifications drive immediate engagement, and SMS triggers direct, action-oriented responses. 

Why email+2 is a win

Email marketing remains a proven workhorse. With high ROI, deep segmentation, and visually rich content formats, it’s a vital channel for promotions, lifecycle automation, and brand storytelling.

Now, email marketing does have a few limitations:

• Emails are easily lost in crowded inboxes.
  
• Time-sensitive offers can be missed due to inbox delays.
  
• Not all customers check your emails regularly.
  
• During peak shopping seasons, email’s lower visibility can lead to missed conversion opportunities. 

This is why a multi-channel approach matters. Push notifications and SMS bring their own strengths to the customer journey, offering real-time reach, immediate visibility, and direct access when timing is critical. 

At the same time, it’s important to understand that the use of push and SMS shouldn’t be viewed simply as a way to compensate for email’s limitations. That would be putting it chiefly negatively. As industry veteran Kath Pay noted nearly a decade ago, email remains the ultimate push channel — and rightly so. 

That’s why we call combining SMS, email, and push marketing as a “wedge,” with email still leading the charge, so to speak. 

“We still see more revenue from the email channel, but that channel has been around for much longer. However, those who are on both channels are truly the highest-value customers,” Elizabeth Jacobi, founder of MochaBear Marketing, says while presenting her case for the synergy between email and SMS. 

“Highest-value customers” is the key phrase here. That’s not just a flattering label, it’s a strategic indicator. High-value customers are those who not only spend more but engage more frequently, respond to promotions faster, and are more likely to become brand advocates. 

What Jacobi is underscoring is that customers who opt into both email and SMS communication are demonstrating a deeper level of trust, interest, and intent. They are effectively saying, “I want to hear from you, and I want to hear from you now.”

Source: Only Influencers

These customers are more reachable across moments and devices. 

Email, push notifications, and SMS are all direct communication channels that can be triggered by specific user actions, locations, or time-based events. This allows marketers to deliver relevant messages at the moment a user is most receptive or in need of information, thereby effectively driving “moment-based marketing.”

In addition, it creates a compounding effect for e-commerce email marketing. It’s not essentially email vs SMS vs push marketing.

As our campaign manager, Disha Sharma, says, “When we blend multiple communication channels in our campaigns, we consistently see a multiplier effect on engagement and retention. This layered approach ensures customers stay connected, informed, and more likely to respond, ultimately increasing their lifetime value in a way that single-channel strategies can’t match.”

Layered sequencing involves staggering messages across channels like email, push, and SMS based on customer behavior. For example, a promotional email may be followed by a push reminder a few hours later, then an SMS the next day if the offer remains unopened. Each touchpoint is timed and tailored to guide the customer naturally through their journey. 

Moment-based marketing focuses on delivering messages in real time, triggered by specific customer actions or contextual events like cart abandonment, location entry, or a loyalty milestone.

We also continuously optimize with testing. A/B testing push notification timing helps us understand when users are most likely to engage, while SMS holdout groups allow us to measure true lift and prevent over-messaging. These insights ensure every message earns its place in the customer journey, and delivers maximum impact.

Source: Thriwin

Now, let’s look at a real-life example of email + SMS marketing for e-commerce. 

Email + SMS Marketing

Kodiak Cakes launched a Father’s Day giveaway campaign designed to do more than just celebrate dads. The brand rolled out a creative campaign inviting customers to share a photo capturing their idea of an “epic day.” 

The goal was to inspire participation through UGC, turning everyday moments into brand-building stories. 

To drive awareness and entries, Kodiak Cakes tapped into email and SMS marketing for e-commerce, making sure their message reached customers where they’re most engaged. SMS was used for instant notifications and last-chance reminders, while email provided more visual storytelling and detailed messaging about the campaign. 

Source: Attentive

By encouraging photo submissions, the campaign cleverly fostered community participation and gave customers a reason to interact beyond a simple click or entry form. 

The submitted content served a dual purpose:

• Strengthened emotional brand association (epic memories = epic products)
  
• Created a stream of shareable UGC for future social and email content. 

Please note that there are key differences between email CTAs and SMS CTAs. An email CTA can be longer and more creative, focusing on the benefit the user will get. It can be a button with text like “Discover Your Perfect Style,” “Claim Your Free Ebook,” or “See Your Personalized Plan.” 

An SMS CTA, on the other hand, must be short, clear, and use strong action verbs. Examples are “SHOP NOW,” “REPLY YES,” “BOOK YOUR SPOT,” or “CLAIM YOUR 20% OFF.” The message often ends with the CTA and a short link.

Let a copywriter handle your email and SMS copy. Don’t ask your tech folks to generate it on AI. It can backfire.

But, in order to leverage email and SMS marketing for e-commerce, you need to keep a few things in mind:

• Encourage email subscribers to opt into SMS, and vice versa. Include SMS sign-up links in your emails and email opt-in prompts in your SMS onboarding. Offering exclusive benefits for joining both channels can boost adoption.

• When integrating SMS with email, tailor messages and timing for each channel to ensure they complement rather than duplicate, especially for subscribers on both.
  
• Segment SMS audiences similar to email, leveraging data like purchase channel and email engagement to send highly targeted messages.
  
• Utilize automation for scenarios like abandoned carts (e.g., SMS follow-up if email doesn’t convert) and re-engaging customers who have become inactive on the email channel.
  
• Design a seamless customer journey by understanding the distinct roles of email and SMS at various buying stages. Strategically manage welcome messages and ongoing communication for subscribers who opt into both channels, acknowledging their existing brand relationship.
  
• Treat SMS as a more intrusive channel (like a phone call) and carefully manage frequency and timing to avoid annoying subscribers. Utilize quiet hours, and avoid “batch and blast” sending, especially for subscribers also on your email list.

Combining email and SMS marketing for e-commerce with push notifications takes it a level higher, a layer deeper.  

+ Push notifications

Similar to SMS and email, businesses can use push notifications for e-commerce in order to grab attention and drive immediate action, then follow up with emails for more context or detailed information, ensuring messages are seen promptly and users are fully informed. 

Start with a single channel to initiate outreach, ensuring users aren’t bombarded with messages across multiple platforms at once. Stagger follow-ups on other channels, using segmentation to avoid reaching those who already received or acted on earlier messages.

Take back-to-school, for example. 

Begin your back-to-school campaign by sending a mobile app push notification at 10 a.m. to highlight limited-time deals. 

At 12 p.m., follow up with an SMS targeting users who haven’t opened the app in the last 7 days. Then at 3 p.m., you can send a personalized email with curated product bundles to engaged subscribers who clicked on similar promotions in the past, excluding those who have already converted earlier in the day. 

This kind of channel-led sequencing ensures message relevance while reducing fatigue. Here are a few cases where both the channels can be effective for e-commerce email marketing:

• Send an email with a detailed list of abandoned items and a link to complete the purchase, followed by a push notification offering a limited-time discount or free shipping to encourage immediate action.
  
• Announce a flash sale via email with all the details, then use a push notification as a “last chance” reminder shortly before the sale ends to create urgency.
  
• Notify customers via email when a previously out-of-stock item they showed interest in is available again, then send a push notification a few hours later as a gentle reminder to purchase before it sells out.
  
• Send an email with exclusive offers or loyalty program updates, then use a push notification to remind them of their accumulated points or available rewards.
  
• Send an email with a curated list of product recommendations based on past purchases or browse history, then use a push notification to highlight a specific, high-converting item from that list.

In all these scenarios—and e-commerce marketing automation as a whole—your actions hinge on user behavior. 

Nearly every flow requires dynamic logic and well-timed delays. Broadly speaking, though, these are the types of campaigns where the email + push notifications for e-commerce can drive significant revenue for your brand.

How do you run the show?

Managing e-commerce marketing automation isn’t easy. Between juggling customer preferences, timing, and content across multiple channels, there’s a lot to get right. That’s where tactics like failover logic—also called conditional channel fallback—become essential.

This means if a message on one channel (like email) doesn’t reach or engage the customer, the system automatically follows up on another channel (like SMS or push). For example, if a user doesn’t open an abandoned cart email within 24 hours, a follow-up SMS can be triggered.  

For all the benefits of the marketing wedge, it can be quite hard to orchestrate the three channels. Here’s why:

• Designing automation requires a deep understanding of the user journey and how each message fits into that journey across different channels. This can involve complex decision trees and conditional logic. (See image below)
  
• Sending the right message at the right time across multiple channels without annoying the user is a delicate balance.
  
• What happens if a user doesn’t open an email? Do you send an SMS? What if they don’t have push notifications enabled? So, building robust fallback strategies is crucial.

“Managing a multichannel flow can sometimes be challenging. It typically begins with brainstorming which channel should take the lead and identifying the most appropriate channels for the campaign. This process involves close collaboration with the client, and decisions are made based on mutual understanding, audience segmentation, and the urgency of the message”

– Shyam Sai, our campaign manager, explains.

He recommends these best practices: 

• Start by mapping out the customer journey across email, SMS, and push before building the canvas. This ensures a unified flow and consistent messaging.
  
• Outline important user actions and behaviors that will trigger message delivery or guide the next step in the journey.
  
• Define what success looks like for each branch to guide measurement and optimization.
  
• Continuously test different messages, timings, and channels to understand what works best for your audience segments.
  
• Keep a close eye on canvas analytics to track engagement, identify drop-offs, and uncover areas for improvement.
  
• Make sure to document any custom attributes, filters, or decision logic used within the canvas in order to support transparency, troubleshooting, and future updates.

With respect to management and documentation, Zenith Maclean, our campaign manager for Braze, tells us: 

“Automation is not just a technical task; it involves marketers, CRM strategists, copywriters, designers, and QA teams. We work in tight feedback loops, with clear ownership and approval flows before launch. We maintain internal Confluence pages with flow maps, audience logic, message variants, and test results. This helps keep everyone aligned and onboard new team members faster.”

Pro tip: Another important best practice Zenith insists on is having proper naming conventions. “Handling multiple variants across channels can quickly become chaotic. To keep things organized, we follow a standardized naming convention:

cc_countryname_campaignname_channelname_ddmmyyyy

(“cc” denotes a curated collection.)

For example:

cc_au_family_friendly_email_05062025

This system streamlines tracking, reporting, and quality assurance.”

Now, in a marketing mix like this, how do you navigate the problem of attribution in e-commerce email marketing? 

Let’s talk about it before we close. 

Attribution challenges

Many businesses find it challenging to accurately measure the true impact of email marketing. This issue largely stems from the widespread use of basic attribution models, such as first touch, last touch, or any touch that depend heavily on open rates, CTR, and conversions within limited timeframes. Most of the time, however, a single click does not capture the full customer journey, nor does it capture delayed conversions occurring through other channels.

Chad S. White, author of Email Marketing Rules, anticipated the emerging challenges for email attribution, “…the traditional linear measurement of email interactions is dying, except as a short-term proxy. A broader, more holistic look at email marketing’s influence is needed, and that will require some new metrics, subscriber-centric thinking, creative testing and a little faith and common sense.” 

To uncover the real value of email, marketers must move beyond simplistic, click-based attribution approaches. 

To begin with, consider the following strategies:

• Include multi-touch attribution models into your analytics. Linear, time decay (see image below), or position-based attribution can help distinguish email’s role alongside SMS and push, attributing value at each interaction stage rather than just the first or last touchpoint.

Source: Airboxr

• Analyze total revenue across all channels to understand overall performance, then drill down to assess email’s specific impact relative to other channels.
  
• Subtract revenue already attributed to email from the total to identify overlapping influence and better gauge incremental lift from email compared to SMS or push.
  
• Compare non-email channel performance on “email send days” versus “non-send days.” This helps detect any uplift or halo effect that email might have on SMS or push-driven conversions.
  
• Use campaign-specific identifiers like unique coupon codes in emails. These codes offer direct evidence of email-driven conversions
  
• Run holdout/control group experiments where a segment of users does not receive the email but continues receiving SMS or push. Comparing conversion behavior between groups reveals the incremental value of email alone.
  
• Take a channel-agnostic view of the customer journey. Track engagement and conversion paths across email, SMS, and push to understand how each channel contributes individually and in combination, enabling more precise attribution.

A note on the holdout/control group test: While effective, it does require effort and significant data volume for reliability. 

Wrapping up!

Think of your strategy not as three separate campaigns, but as a single, unified formation, a marketing wedge, where each channel amplifies the others. Email builds your brand and nurtures long-term loyalty, SMS delivers immediacy and action, and push bridges the two with just-in-time relevance. The result? Higher engagement, stronger conversions, and more valuable customer relationships.

But with power comes complexity, especially with respect to e-commerce marketing automation. Orchestration across channels requires intentional design, disciplined testing, and advanced attribution strategies. It’s not easy but it’s worth it.

At Mavlers, we’ve seen firsthand how brands thrive when they move from channel-first to customer-first thinking. If you’re ready to harness the full force of your “marketing wedge,” we’re here to help you spear forward. Schedule a 30-min call with us!