3 Golden Rules for Sending Your SMS Messages at the Perfect Time of Day
The best thing about SMS messaging is you can reach your customers at any time. The worst thing about SMS messaging is you can reach your customers at any time. Think about it. People have their mobiles with them constantly. Even while they sleep according to many surveys.
So, you can get their attention immediately when you send a message. You can just as easily disturb them. While there really isn’t any universally agreed time to send a message, there are three rules you can follow to get as close to perfect timing as possible.
1. Don't Send Too Early
This seems obvious, doesn’t it? But I’ve been awakened by an SMS message multiple times. The most recent one was at 12:35 a.m. My mobile network sent me the message to inform me I had plenty of data left in my plan for the month and that I had three days left to use it.
I can tell you, I wasn’t using it while sleeping. That message could have waited until later in the morning. Even if the message was a warning about using too much data, there’s nothing I would do about it in the middle of the night.
My example is clearly an automated message generated by the mobile network. I don’t think someone sat there and said, “Let’s wake someone up”! But it does bring up an important point: All messages need to be scheduled for appropriate times, even automated ones. Luckily, fastsms users can use the business hours feature to set the timeframe you want messages to be sent (even automated ones) – if a message gets sent outside those set hours it’ll simply wait till the morning and send it then.
You want to send your messages when they will be useful to your list. Too early in the morning and you might wake them up. Or they won’t see the message because they’re in a hurry to get ready for work or school. So just because you’re raring to go at 8 a.m., doesn’t mean it’s the best time to send a message.
2. Don't Send Too Late
Sending a message too late in the day can be just as bad as too early – at least from your point of view. That’s because later in the day people are getting on with their lives. Once they get home from work they’re doing things with family, friends, or their hobby. They might still be using their phone, but studies show mobile activities switch to apps in the evening hours. No one wants their game, or streaming movie interrupted by a text message.
That means messages sent too late can be seen as interrupting important activities. And if your messages are seen as annoying, it could increase the number of people who opt out of your marketing. That’s the last thing you want to happen.
3. Pay Close Attention to Your Metrics
Now that I gave you useful, but vague, advice in rules one and two, this is where it gets serious. If you look around the web, you’ll find lots of articles with guidelines about what times you should send your message. Many of those can be a great place to start.
For example, I see articles all the time that say never send on a Monday. They have statistical data to back them up on that point too. So, in the beginning, maybe you don’t want to send messages on Mondays.
Other places say to send the messages at “odd” times. Maybe 1:36 instead of 1:30 (in the afternoon obviously). More generic advice is to send between 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.
Of course, there are different types of messages that need to be considered too. Appointment reminders aren’t the same as marketing messages. But when deciding the time of day, most of the same rules apply. For example, a client has an appointment at 7:30 a.m. Thursday. Best practices say you probably want to send a reminder 24 hours before. But do you really want to send it at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday? Maybe. But it might be better to add a delay so it goes out after 9 or 10 (easily done with fastsms).
This rule mentioned metrics, which I haven’t talked about yet. But I wanted to make the case first, that you can find all kinds of information about time of day if you do some research. After you do that though, and have sent lots of messages, that’s when you do the real work of discovering the perfect time of day for your list.
The way to do it is to find correlations between the actions taken with the time of day the message was sent. Examples of actions include clicking a link, replying with a keyword, or opting out of the list. If you get the most clicks at 11:36 then that’s a great time for you.
You’ll know if a time is bad when you get a jump in unsubscribes, or very few clicks. Of course, this could also be because the offer was bad. This is why you need to keep looking at your metrics versus time before you make any rash decisions. The more data you have on how your list behaves, the better the correlation will be. Not all lists are the same, and they won’t always stay the same. But if you keep rules one and two in mind, and watch your metrics, you’ll be able to focus in on the perfect time of day to send your messages.
Related Articles
How to Use SMS Marketing to Counter Retail Fatigue
Uncertain economic times and an ever-extending holiday retail season is apparently making Brits less excited about the “usual” sales. But don’t worry, find out how SMS marketing can help you boost sales even in the face of retail fatigue.
How SMS Can Help Your Local Business Optimise Your Local Campaign
One of the great advantages of SMS: it's completely trackable so you know exactly how your campaigns are engaging your opted in customers and clients. And if you’re a small business, operating in a specific geographical location, then that local knowledge can be invaluable in targeting your campaigns to a local audience.
Why SMS Messaging is the Future of Marketing…
Since the first ever mobile ad was sent out via text back in 2000, SMS marketing has become hugely popular. What's more, it's a successful technique that an increasing number of marketeers are taking advantage of. So why is it the future? Here are a few reasons...
How to Have Your SMS Messaging Pay for Itself
SMS messaging supports all sorts of use cases. Most of the time, businesses consider it an expense. But for some businesses, there's a method that could turn that expense into income. See some examples of how it works, and if it might be for you in this blog.
4 Tips for SMS Marketing Success
SMS marketing is one of the most effective and efficient marketing channels currently available, enabling businesses to directly communicate with their target customers. If you're considering building your first SMS marketing campaign, or you have already ran a campaign but achieved limited success, read on to see how you can build an effective SMS marketing campaign to achieve your business objectives.
Planning Your SMS Marketing Campaign: Back to Basics
SMS messaging is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing available. Like any marketing, though, it is vital to plan your campaign effectively to ensure maximum success. So let's look at a few basic principles that will help you make the most of your online SMS marketing.
10 Killer SMS Strategies
Nowadays, there are an increasing amount of companies using SMS marketing, but you can stay ahead of the trend by using it more wisely with our killer strategies list. Best used as part of your marketing mix, alongside other strategies, this should complement other points of contact and deliver an intuitive and responsive customer service that is unrivalled by competitors.
How SMEs can use SMS in their Business Marketing
As a small to medium-sized enterprise, you will always be looking for ways of expanding your marketing outreach and public relations efforts without too much additional cost to your company. Chances are your budget is tight and you are limited in the extent in which you can advertise too. That's where SMS comes in.
8 Reasons to Use SMS in Your Service Based Business
When the glass ceiling on your annual turnover and profits is governed by the number of hours you have to trade, it's even more important to ensure your marketing strategies are as fruitful and affordable as possible. SMS marketing appears, at first blush, to require a lot in the way of technology, budget and management, but it's incredibly successful for small businesses in service industries - even the ones with small budgets and limited resources...
8 Tips for Creating an Engaged Audience for SMS Marketing
What’s the one thing that every marketing campaign needs? An audience! So, how do you create a database of subscribers? Natural curiosity and the British passion for “bargains” may be strong enough reasons for some to offer up their mobile numbers. However, to get substantial numbers of customers - or potential customers - to opt-in to your SMS campaigns you will need planning and care.