Today, mortgage lending institutions have what experts call overchoice, or the challenge that comes with having too many options. You can market about a million ways on countless different channels. You only have so many hours in the day and so much marketing budget, though. 

That, then, begs the question about which you should choose: mortgage SMS marketing or email marketing? 

The short answer: both can be powerful (and can even be deployed together to simplify things for your team while powering up your conversion rates). 

Still, you might want to refine your focus. If you’re trying to figure out what gets a better mortgage lead response, we’re here to help you find the answer.  

The winner in 2025: SMS lead follow-up

If you’re looking to optimize your marketing program, mortgage SMS marketing delivers in 2025. 

Let’s go over a few statistics to back our claim here:

• SMS has a 98% open rate (compare that against email’s 20%)
• 90% of SMS messages get read within three minutes of sending
• 77% of SMS messages get a response within 10 minutes (that rate is three times higher than email)
• SMS has an average click-through rate of 18% (compare that against email’s 2.5%) 
• Brands report an ROI of $21–$41 for every $1 spent on SMS marketing
• Integrating mortgage SMS marketing can boost customer engagement by 47.7%

In short, if you’re looking for a better mortgage lead response, shooting them a text gives you an extremely powerful way to achieve just that. 

Using AI to reap these benefits

This doesn’t mean you need to designate some team member as your de facto texter. Instead, technology can power this marketing channel for you. Specifically, AI has the power to automate mortgage SMS marketing, from initial communications to follow-ups and lead qualification. 

It can, for example, send a loan summary via text after someone fills out one of your lead workflows. If the potential borrower has any basic questions, they can text back a response and the AI can handle it. If they need to talk to a human, the AI connects them with one of your loan officers. 

You can also use the AI bot to chat with leads via text in order to qualify them, set appointments, and send reminders about loan documents your team needs. 

And because people are generally so responsive via text — as the stats we outlined above highlight — this helps drive results. You’re more likely to get a faster mortgage lead response, and to be able to move that person meaningfully toward close. Best of all, a lot of this process can happen as the lead interfaces with AI, making it effortless for your team. 

That doesn’t mean you’ll lose your human touch, either. A good SMS AI agent carefully monitors texts with leads and notifies your team as soon as a real person needs to be involved. It can even tee up all of the information it has gathered for the loan officer. This way, when that lead talks to your team, it feels seamless. 

A note about compliance

While mortgage SMS marketing can be a powerful tool in your arsenal, you can’t just send it at will. Laws like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) specifically ban sending automated texts without explicit one-to-one consent.

Fortunately, today’s SMS tools can help you here. If you’re getting the person’s phone number to text through a lead workflow, for example, you can add a checkbox for them to opt into texts.  

The power of the inbox: Use cases for mortgage email conversion

While SMS often outperforms emails, there are absolutely some times when a message to someone’s inbox still makes sense. Lending institutions often see mortgage email conversion when using this communication channel for:

Drip campaigns 

This kind of marketing means sending a lead a steady stream of marketing content over time. For mortgage banks, brokers, and credit unions, this often means teeing up periodic rate alert emails. 

By regularly pinging prospective borrowers with new information about the rate market, you keep them engaged. Better yet, if they’ve been waiting for rates to come down to buy, these emails can help you get a mortgage lead response one of two ways. 

First, if rates do drop, these emails give you a way to quickly inform the lead. This doesn’t just encourage them to take action. Because you’ve been helpful and informative, it motivates them to choose your lending team when they do decide to move forward. 

Alternatively, though, if rates hold steady, regular emails help leads get a feel for the market. They may realize waiting out a rate drop doesn’t fit their specific situation, and decide that they’re ready to move — ideally with your team. 

More traditional borrowers

Some folks don’t like receiving texts, or don’t pay attention to their SMS messages at all. Older borrowers tend to fall into this category, and you probably won’t see a mortgage lead response if you primarily text them. 

It may make sense to have your loan officers ask leads about their communication preferences so you can see when people will be better served by emails. 

Long-form communications

Text messages work best when they’re short and sweet. In fact, it’s best practice to keep them under 160 characters. 

If you have a lot of information you want to convey, then, email is better suited than mortgage SMS marketing. If your team has been developing a detailed look at rate movement, an explanation of why the Fed did or didn’t cut rates, or a preapproval checklist, for example, use email. 

Design-based marketing content

You’re fairly limited in what you can do over SMS when it comes to design. You can include some emojis or attach an image, but there’s not a lot of range there. 

With email, however, there’s almost no limit to the colors, graphics, etc. you can use. You can create something really eye-catching to drive mortgage email conversion. 

In fact, some lending institutions work with designers to develop templates. This way, the design is in place and the loan team only needs to fill in the gaps with pertinent communications. 

Clearly, then, there’s a place for both SMS and email marketing to generate more mortgage lead response. 

If you want help deploying these tools without adding a lot of work to your team’s desk, book a demo with us. Here at BankingBridge, we offer AI SMS chat, automated rate alert emails, lead workflows with built-in TCPA compliance, and more. And with BankingBridge Engage, we can help you tap into the power of both email and SMS marketing at once.