3 Tips to Help You Time Your SMS Marketing Campaign
Timing is everything. While it’s an axiom everyone can understand and agree on, it’s doubly true when it comes to SMS marketing. If you send your messages at the wrong time, you’ll see your opt out rates jump and your ROI plummet. So when should you send your text marketing messages? Here are three key guidelines to help you schedule your next campaign:
- Don’t send on weekends. Percentages vary, but in just about every kind of business, opt out rates jump when messages are sent on a weekend. Retail businesses have seen as much as a 372% increase in opt outs in messages sent on Saturday or Sunday. Restaurants have a less drastic, but still substantial, increase of opt out rates of around 150%. Either way the trend is very clear: people don’t want to be marketed to via text messages on weekends. There are obviously exceptions dependent on the nature of the messages, but just think – will your audience have made their major decisions for the weekend before Saturday?
- Send Tuesday-Friday. Do your best to skip sending messages on Mondays. The evidence and trend isn’t as strong as for weekends, but Mondays tend to have a lower response rate (meaning people don’t take action on the message). The common sense reason given for this is that people are just too busy on Mondays. They are inundated with emails and work demands that built up over the weekend. Your simple text message is likely to get lost in the noise.
- Pick the right time of day. Unfortunately picking the right time of day is not as simple as avoiding weekends. Some studies suggest avoiding traditional work hours (9-5) and reaching out to people just before and just after. But there are other examples that show just the opposite. Before and after work are “rush hours”. People are busy getting to work or getting home, and don’t have time to look at your message. The only agreement in the data is to not send messages after hours, generally from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. So what is the right time of day? You’ll have to experiment, or take a survey of your list, to find out what will work for your business.
Remember these are guidelines. They won’t apply to every business and really completely depend upon your list and what they want. If these guidelines don’t seem to bring good results, consider surveying your list to find their preferences. And you can get more ideas from our free SMS Marketing Guide.
Related Articles
A Checklist for Your First SMS Marketing Campaign
This year SMS marketing is predicted to become an even bigger piece of the mobile marketing pie. Businesses of every size will be launching their first ever campaigns. If you’re one of them, take a look at our handy SMS marketing checklist below to help you do it right from the very beginning.
What You Can Learn About SMS Marketing from These 7 Companies
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued seven monetary penalties against companies this year. We’ve read through them all – so you don’t have to – and discovered two lessons every company should learn about SMS marketing if they want to be successful.
Why SMS Marketing is Superior to Email for Entrepreneurs
As an entrepreneur, it is notoriously difficult to get your message out there. It's even harder to get seen and heard in a meaningful way that doesn't offend people. Email marketing has been the darling of entrepreneurs for years, but it's time for something new. Something that supersedes the email and circumvents the spam folder.
3 More Reasons to Use SMS Marketing This Year
If you’re still not sure about why you need SMS marketing, this blog takes you beyond the usual statistics to show three convincing reasons why you do. Find out how it provides value to you, and your, customers a variety of ways.
5 SMS Marketing Ideas for Volunteers Week
Is SMS Marketing Complicated?
How hard is it to use SMS marketing? If you’ve been told it’s complicated, you heard wrong. Using SMS is simple, though there are a few things you should know. This blog shows you how simple it can be, and provides links to useful resources.
10 Super Successful SMS Marketing Phrases
6 Tips To Help You Get The Most From SMS Marketing
What are the dos and don’ts of SMS marketing? How can you get the most from your business text messaging? We’ve put together six actionable tips to help you get the best from your SMS marketing campaigns.
Top Three Things Retailers Should Do to Keep Customers on Their SMS Opt-In List
You've run a successful SMS opt-in campaign for your retail store. Now that you have your list, do you have a plan to keep them from opting out? Wait, you mean there's more to this than just sending out coupon codes? There is if you want to keep your customers from opting out.
Older Generations and SMS Messaging
50% of people between 55 and 64 own a smartphone and 18% of people over 65 do too. If you’re trying to reach out to these older demographics, it might be time to consider mobile marketing. But what kind should you choose?