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
5 Fantastic Spring SMS Marketing Phrases
SMS Marketing: 10 Things You Shouldn’t Do in Your Marketing Strategy
In order to gain success with SMS marketing, certain strategies need to be put in place. Here are a few top tips on what not to do when marketing your business through SMS messaging.
SMS Marketing – 4 of the UK’s Best Ever Campaigns
Discover how to come up with an SMS marketing campaign in this article which looks under the surface of some of the UK's most successful ever SMS marketing campaigns. Whether you are looking to boost revenue, improve customer satisfaction or help your brand stand out with a unique and memorable promotion, this article shows how a simple approach to SMS messaging can work wonders for your company.
5 Marketing Trends That Matter for SMS in 2018
Getting a Reply: Should You Choose a VMN or Shortcode? Part 2
Part two of a two part article explaining the differences between SMS Shortcodes and Virtual Mobile Numbers. Here we explain in detail the costs and characteristics of Dedicated Shortcodes and Shared Shortcodes. You can also get advice on how to choose between shortcodes and VMNs.
To Txt Speak, or NTTS. TITQ.
Is it a good idea to cram more information into your precious 160 characters by using "txtspk" acronyms and abbreviations? Yes and no! It depends on the audience and the message. In this post you can pick up some insights into this question and join us in dissecting a real life example.
Travel agencies: Take advantage of New Year’s resolutions
6 SMS Marketing Faux Pas To Avoid
SMS marketing can be an incredibly useful tool for successful mobile marketing campaigns. However, it is not without its pitfalls. We have compiled a list of six of the worst SMS mobile marketing faux pas, so that you can avoid them and text your way to marketing success.