The best time to send SMS marketing messages is generally from 10 am to 8 pm, but the optimal timing can vary across brands. Here’s what you need to know.
SMS marketing is quickly becoming a popular method for communicating with customers whenever and wherever they are. Ecommerce brands and small businesses are increasing the number of texts they send customers because SMS marketing delivers strong results.
The effectiveness of your SMS text messaging campaign depends on several factors, such as the content you send and the time you send it. But when is the best time to send SMS blasts?
Knowing the best time to send text blasts can help you convert more customers. It can also attract website visitors while complementing your other marketing initiatives, like email and social media marketing. Your customers may always have their mobile phones with them and check their messages frequently, but won’t necessarily open your texts while at work.
Now, you’re probably wondering, “When is the best time to send SMS marketing messages?” And while you should generally aim for regular business hours, from 10 am to 8 pm, the right timing can vary. Your audience, their time zones, and the type of message all affect when you should hit send. Let’s explore these factors further.
What are SMS marketing messages?
SMS marketing messages are text messages you send to customers after receiving their consent. It’s a marketing strategy similar to email marketing campaigns, allowing you to send targeted messages to customers. With an SMS campaign, you can send offers, reminders, and updates directly to customers wherever they are.
SMS marketing messages differ from other text messages your customers might receive from your business. For example, if you’re a software provider, you might use SMS text verification for customers who have lost their passwords. SMS marketing messages help promote your brand, products, and services. They’re typically sent on a wide scale, allowing you to reach different customer segments simultaneously.
Why are SMS messages important?
SMS marketing is a popular strategy because it allows you to communicate directly with your customers in a way that’s convenient for them. Your customers are probably already texting friends and family, so it’s only natural for them to want to receive promotional texts from your business.
But there are several caveats to text message marketing. Like email marketing, you must obtain your subscribers’ consent before sending them text messages. There are also several regulations to protect consumers from spam texts, so you must follow federal laws.
Once you’ve ensured your text message marketing strategy is compliant, you can begin reaping the following rewards:
- High visibility: Mobilesquared reports that people view 100% of their mobile messages, showing that texts can be an effective way to reach customers. This doesn’t mean you should bombard your subscribers with texts. Instead, focus on sending relevant messages that provide more value to your customers.
- Cost-effectiveness: SMS campaigns are relatively inexpensive compared to other marketing strategies and advertising methods. But because they allow for personalization, they offer the potential for a higher return on investment (ROI).
- Customizability: SMS marketing campaigns allow you to connect with customers based on the data you’ve collected, including their purchase history, communication preferences, and demographics.
- Zero-party data: Consumer privacy is crucial, and SMS campaigns allow you to gather data that the consumer has intentionally shared with you. Zero-party data allows you to personalize your messages with the consumer’s consent. It protects you and your customers from privacy issues while ensuring you have the data necessary to create successful campaigns.
When should you send SMS marketing messages?
Several factors can help you determine the best time for SMS marketing. But generally, you should only send marketing text messages during regular business hours (10 am to 8 pm). Recent research offers more specific benchmarks. Omnisend analyzed about 294 million SMS sends and found Friday at 9 am had the highest conversion rate at 0.238%.
Other research points to later times. Attentive analyzed more than 25 billion messages and found that 4 pm to 7 pm generated the most revenue per send. Engagement reached its peak from 12 pm to 3 pm. The best days? Monday and Tuesday, despite the potential for inbox congestion. These differences show that the best time varies depending on your audience and campaign goals.
Additionally, texting laws prohibit any type of phone-based solicitation, including phone calls and text messages, before 8 am and after 9 pm. Some areas may have additional rules on top of those.
Other than following the state and federal laws for promotional text messages, there is no single best time to send SMS blasts for all brands. All of your customers are different. Some work the night shift and can’t check their messages until the later hours, while others won’t read texts early in the morning.
Best SMS Send Times by Campaign Goal | ||
Campaign goal | Ideal send window | Potential results |
Engagement | 12 pm to 3 pm | |
Clicks | Saturday | |
Conversions | Friday at 9 am | |
Revenue | 4 pm to 7 pm |
Factors to consider when choosing a time
So, what’s the best time to send SMS marketing blasts? Ultimately, it depends on several factors, such as your target audience, time zones, the purpose of the message, and the industry or business niche. Let’s review these factors to help you find the prime time to send a text blast to your customers.
Target audience
What are your customers doing at any point during the day? If your target audience is young professionals, avoid texting them at 10 am when they’re likely to be at work or in meetings.
However, people who work in an office are likely to check their mobile devices in the morning before beginning their workday and again at lunchtime. They probably won’t check their texts again until they end work and get home. Consider when your subscribers are most likely to be on their phones—in the late morning, during lunch, and in the afternoon/early evening.
But what about weekends? Your customers likely have more free time on the weekend for leisure activities and check their phones throughout the day. This is especially true on Sundays when they’re relaxing at home.
Time zone
Your customers’ locations will also factor into the best time to send an SMS blast. For example, you probably have customers on the East and West Coast. If you send a text blast at 10 am EST, you reach customers on the West Coast at 7 am PST.
Since you reach those customers before 8 am PST, this schedule leaves you non-compliant with text messaging laws. So, you should be conscious of it when devising your campaign. For instance, you can segment customers by location to ensure you send them texts at the appropriate times.
Type of message
The type or purpose of the message may also impact the best time to send your marketing text messages. For example, if you’re sending a promotional message about a great deal you’re offering, you should determine how early in advance to send it. You want to create a sense of urgency without sending it so late that your customers lose the opportunity to take advantage of it.
However, other types of marketing text messages, like order confirmations and two-factor authentication information, should be sent immediately. If your customers opted in for order confirmations and shipping information, they should receive messages once they place their order and after it ships.
Industry or business niche
Many industries and business niches have seasonality factors that can impact the best time to send marketing messages.
For example, if you’re a med spa owner, you might send laser hair removal promotion texts during the fall. If you’re an ecommerce company, you might start sending holiday promotion texts in the weeks before the holidays.
Take into consideration your busy seasons and coordinate your message blasts around them to generate buzz about your business.
“Respect the fact that SMS is interruptive in someone’s day and provide unique value in the channel that they wouldn’t get elsewhere.”
—Scott Cohen, CEO, InboxArmy
When should you not send SMS marketing messages?
While there’s no single best time to send a text blast, there are times when you should never send marketing messages to customers. Some instances when you should avoid sending SMS messages include the following:
- Late night or early in the morning: It’s illegal under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to send text messages to customers during the SMS quiet hours. Additionally, sending early morning or late-night texts can irritate your customers and lead to high opt-out rates.
- Without consent: You must legally obtain written consent, certifying that your customers have permitted you to send marketing texts. It’s not enough for your customers to agree to marketing emails—you must have a separate section designated for text message marketing and the types of texts your business may send them.
- During holidays: It’s never a good idea to send marketing text messages during widely celebrated holidays. While you may have holiday sales your customers won’t want to miss out on, they’re not shopping during the actual holidays. Instead, they spend time with family or relax at home and may not want SMS messages to interrupt them.
Tips for effective SMS blast timing
The best time to send an SMS blast varies by business, target audience, location, and other factors. In most cases, it may take experimentation to determine your business’s best time for sending SMS marketing texts. Here are a few tips to help you send SMS blasts at the right times.
Schedule SMS blasts in advance
When you create a marketing campaign, you should always schedule your texts to help you save time during the planning phase. When you schedule your text blasts using automation tools, you can reach customers with the right message at key moments in the buyer’s journey.
For example, you can schedule appointment reminders for the same day or promote exclusive deals before the upcoming weekend. Planning ahead also helps you avoid inconvenient hours and coordinate SMS with your other marketing efforts.
Personalize your messages
You should always personalize your messages using the data you already collect on your customers. This includes their name, purchase history, gender, location, and any other information that may help persuade them to take immediate action.
Start by crafting compelling messages based on each customer’s interests, preferences, or past behavior. For example, you might recommend products related to a previous purchase or share content based on what they’ve browsed. With the right approach, this level of personalization can boost engagement, create a better customer experience, and drive conversions.
Consider local holidays and events
Consider holidays and local events when timing your SMS marketing campaigns. Holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, New Year’s, and Labor Day might be busy days for your subscribers, making them less likely to read your texts.
A helpful tip is to schedule texts a day before or after the actual holiday. That way, you can still remind customers of holiday sales and events without bothering them during their celebrations.
Monitor and adjust timing regularly
You won’t know the best time until you monitor key metrics like open rates, read rates, click-through rates, response rates, and conversions from your campaigns. This can help you make better decisions regarding the best time to send messages to customers.
Also, experiment with various times to determine what works best for your audience. Use A/B testing to refine timing strategies and test audience segments separately to account for different behaviors. You can also try send time optimization tools to identify when your audience is most likely to engage.
Go beyond fixed send times for your SMS campaigns
Fixed send times work great for big blasts. But some of the best-timed texts ignore the clock. They follow your customers instead. For example, behavior-triggered texts go out when a customer takes a specific action.
Popular examples include:
- Text-to-join replies: Respond instantly when someone texts your keyword and confirm that they’ve successfully joined your SMS list.
- Welcome texts: Greet new subscribers after they join your SMS list and introduce them to your brand and offers.
- Abandoned cart texts: Remind shoppers about products they left behind and encourage them to finish their online shopping journey.
With Mailchimp’s SMS add-on, you can build these texts into automation flows. Add time delays between actions to control when each message goes out.
You can also use engagement data to guide your timing. Mailchimp’s send time optimization tool analyzes past email engagement to identify when contacts have a higher likelihood of opening your message. While this feature only applies to email, these insights can help you identify when to message your audience. Try sending texts in those windows, then compare results and keep what works.
Increase conversion rates with SMS marketing campaigns
SMS marketing campaigns can help boost sales and increase customer satisfaction by reaching customers on their phones. However, paying attention to when you send your SMS text blasts is just as crucial as the content you include.
Nobody wants a rude wake-up call from your business in the early hours of the day. And beyond being irritating to customers, texts before 8 am or after 9 pm can violate federal laws. So plan accordingly and schedule your blasts for more appropriate times.
Ready to take advantage of SMS marketing and improve your business marketing campaigns? Try Mailchimp text marketing today to start communicating with your valuable customers.
Frequently asked questions
When is the best time to send SMS marketing messages?
The best time to send marketing text messages is generally from 10 am to 8 pm. However, the right moment depends on customer behavior, message type, and time zone differences. Consider your audience’s daily routines and use continuous testing to find the ideal timing.
What are SMS quiet hours?
SMS quiet hours are times when you can’t legally send marketing texts. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) limits commercial texts between 8 am and 9 pm in the recipient’s local time. Some states add stricter rules. To keep message delivery compliant with these rules, segment your list by time zone differences.
What is the worst time to send SMS marketing texts?
The worst time to text customers is during quiet hours and when they’re busy. Early workday hours often flop, since increased competition in crowded inboxes buries your text. Major holidays miss the mark, too, because people want leisure time with family. Mistimed texts feel intrusive and can spark negative reactions, so build your SMS strategy around your customers’ daily routines.
How often should you send texts to your customers?
Consider texting your customers 1-2 times per week. Data from Attentive shows revenue per send peaks at 6-8 messages per month. However, the right frequency depends on your specific audience. Since texts have a 90% open rate within 3 minutes, save SMS for timely or important messages. Then, use email for less urgent communication.
Do ideal SMS send times vary by industry?
Ideal SMS send times can vary based on customer behavior in each industry. Restaurants may perform better around lunch breaks from 12 pm to 2 pm or dinner from 5 pm to 7 pm on weekends. But fashion retailers might see more conversions around payday, with 35% of customers saying brand messages feel particularly relevant right after getting their paycheck.
How can I find the ideal timing for my audience segments?
Experiment with different send times to find what works for each audience segment. You can also use benchmarks from similar businesses as a starting point. You might try midweek days, like Tuesday through Thursday. Or test targeted offers during lunch breaks and typical commuting hours to see if that boosts open rates and conversions.