Best Time to Send SMS Marketing Messages

Why Consider Timing When Sending Text Messages

The fact is that your target audience is going to be on their devices during certain times of the day. For instance, it would not make sense to send your messages in the middle of the night when most of your recipients are asleep.

Also, you want to avoid times of the week when they may be away from their devices. You can increase open, click-through rates, and desired actions by scheduling your messages at the right time.

Best Day to Send SMS Marketing

Before we talk about the best time to send SMS marketing, let’s talk about the days that you should avoid. First, avoid sending messages on Mondays. People don’t want to start the week pouring through messages. Mondays historically have low open rates.

If you are a retailer, it is recommended that you send your messages on Thursday and Friday afternoons. That’s because people usually get paid on Fridays, and they will likely have your message in mind when it is time to shop.

Best Time of Day to Send SMS Marketing

You want to make sure that you are sending messages when your recipients are likely to open them. Most marketers have found success sending their messages during the afternoon hours.

Particularly, sending your messages between 2 PM and 6 PM has shown to have the highest open rates.

When Should I Not Send SMS Marketing Messages?

First, you should not send your messages overnight. That’s because people will likely unsubscribe or delete your messages without opening them.

Also, you should avoid sending your messages during the weekend. That’s because the weekend typically has lower open rates.

Tips for Timing Your Text Messages

Finding the right time to send your message is not an exact science. You will have to consider several factors. Here are some tips that can help you find the right time to send your messages.

Consider the Type of Message

If you have a business that gets lots of weekend traffic, then you will want to consider sending your message on a Thursday afternoon. That is because people tend to plan their weekends on Thursdays. If you wait until Friday afternoon to send your messages, then it could be too late.

If you are holding a sale, then you will want to send your message before the sale starts. Also, you will want to send follow-up messages during the sale and send one more message about 24 hours before the sale ends.

Finally, if you sell products and services to other businesses, then you will want to consider sending your message during business hours. That’s because your audience will likely have their business on their mind. If you wait until after business hours, these same people will be more likely to think about their home life rather than their work life.

Desired Customer Action

You will also want to consider the call to action. For instance, if you are trying to get people to purchase tickets to a movie, then you will want to send your messages during the premiere week of the movie.

Let’s say that you are a tax accountant. Therefore, you will want to time your messages during tax season. If you happen to sell tires, then you will want to send messages selling snow tires right before the first snowfall of the season.

Consider Time Zones and Holidays

If you have a global audience, then you will have to consider the different time zones that come into play. For example, if you set all of your messages to go out at 2 PM EST, your audience in Sydney, Australia, will receive your messages when they are asleep.

Be sure to segment your messages, so they go out during the right time for each audience.

Try Different Days

You will also want to split tests on different days of the week to send messages. As an example, if you have a list of 1,000 people, you should send half of your messages on Thursday and the other half on Friday.

If one day performs notably better than the other day, then you can send all of your messages to the better-performing day next week.

How Often Should I Send SMS Marketing?

The honest answer is that there is no universal answer that will fit all clients and all campaigns. However, many businesses will send out anywhere from 2 to 6 messages per month.

If you send out too many messages per month, you will get a high level of unsubscription requests. If you don’t send enough, then your company’s message will be forgotten. The best tactic is to test different frequencies to see what works best.

Industry-Specific Uses for SMS Marketing

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the best time to send SMS marketing?

The best time to send messages is in the afternoon. In particular, you should send messages between 2 PM and 6 PM in an audience’s specific time zone.

When is the best time to send bulk SMS?

The best time to send a bulk SMS message is Noon on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

How frequently should I be texting customers?

You should text your customers anywhere between two to six times per month. However, you should test out different frequencies to see what works best.

What is the best SMS solution for scheduling texts?

If you want an easy way to schedule your texts, then consider SimpleTexting. This SMS texting scheduler makes it easy for you to segment and schedule multiple SMS messages.