Considering an SMS marketing campaign? SMS marketing tends to be the most sensitive of all marketing channels. For many marketers, it can feel daunting to find the right balance between text marketing frequency and driving value for your business. Some businesses opt to avoid this marketing channel altogether to avoid alienating their existing customer base.
Don't stray away from SMS marketing and leave money on the table. Read on to learn all about SMS frequency, why it matters, and how to find the right balance for your business.
Why SMS frequency matters
While other apps and communication methods require customers to enable push notifications to receive alerts, nearly everyone receives notifications for text messages within minutes of being sent. For this reason, finding the right SMS frequency is of the utmost importance. SMS is a direct and personal communication method and can feel intrusive if overused.
Balance is key when it comes to long term success. It's important to think about both your volume of text messages and the value they deliver, both for your customers and for your business. Sending too many texts can result in high unsubscribe rates and complaint rates. Not enough texts, on the other hand, can lead to missed engagement and low ROI for your SMS marketing.
How often should you send SMS campaigns?
What's the ideal frequency for SMS messages? The answer is, it depends. Read on to learn more about how often you should send SMS marketing messages.
General benchmarks by industry
- Retail & e-commerce: 2–6 texts/month, includes weekly promos and sales alerts
- Food & beverage: 1–2 texts/week, includes menu specials and order reminders
- Health & wellness: 2–4 texts/month, includes appointment reminders and wellness tips
- Services & local businesses: 2–3 texts/month, includes seasonal promos and business updates
Daily, weekly, or monthly?
Striking the right balance is of the utmost importance. Depending on your business, marketing calendar, and goals, you may want to send SMS messages:
- Daily: Daily SMS messages can be considered high risk and are best reserved for flash sales or limited-time alerts. Text messages that deliver significant value for your customers may also be sent daily.
- Weekly: Weekly texts can be a safe middle ground if they offer strong value to your customers, though this frequency may still be too high for some businesses.
- Monthly texts: Monthly texts are good for loyalty check-ins, business news, or product or offering updates. At a minimum, text message marketing should be sent monthly to remain in touch.
- Tie cadence to purpose: Some text messages are better when tied to promos, appointment reminders, education opportunities, or other purposes, rather than tied to a calendar.
Factors that influence ideal SMS frequency
When finding your ideal SMS frequency, it's important to consider a number of different factors. Think about these when creating your marketing calendar.
Audience expectations
When customers opted in to receiving messages from you, did you set expectations in regards to frequency? It can be helpful to inform customers what they can expect from your SMS messages, whether that may be daily updates, occasional promotional messages, or any other combination of things. With the right expectations, customers won't be caught off guard.
Type of message
Varying the type of message you send can prevent your SMS marketing from feeling like too many messages. Send a combination of messages that add value, promotional messages, sales announcements, and more.
No matter the type of message you send, ensure it delivers value for your customers. The more useful a message, the less likelihood it will be interpreted as annoying or intrusive.
Seasonality or urgency
Customers tend to be more forgiving with urgent or highly seasonal messages, for instance flash sale updates or holiday gifting reminders. You may find that you can increase your number of messages for these types of campaigns without causing too many unsubscribes or customer complaints.
Engagement metrics
With every message you send, it's important to carefully track engagement. KPIs like unsubscribe rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, as well as qualitative information like customer complaints, can help you get a pulse on ideal frequency and the types of messages your customers respond to best. Let this performance guide your pacing and inform your SMS marketing strategy.
Best practices for managing SMS frequency
Concerned about message frequency? Follow these best practices to boost customer satisfaction and keep them engaged.
Follow compliance regulations
No matter what kind of text you're sending, you always need to follow SMS compliance regulations like TCPA, as well as local laws and regulations. Customers must opt in to receive messages from you and need clear opt-out instructions with every message.
Offer opt-in frequency preferences
During the text message opt-in process, give your customers a choice between different message cadences. For instance, you can allow customers to choose between weekly and monthly updates. This sets expectations and gives recipients control over their experience.
Think about timing
The time of day you send a text message can also have a significant impact on how it's received. Avoid sending messages when customers are likely to be in the car, like during morning and evening rush hour.
It's also important to be respectful of quiet hours; no one wants to receive a promotional text in the wee hours of the morning or just before they fall asleep. Adjust for time zones, too.
Segment your audience
As with email marketing, segmenting your list can make a big difference in your SMS campaigns. Send more messages to engaged users and frequent purchasers, while new subscribers or occasional purchasers may prefer fewer messages.
It's also a good idea to use behavior triggers to time messages. Cart abandonment text messages or discount codes can make a huge difference when timed correctly.
Combine SMS with other channels
Text message marketing is best when combined with other channels, like email, app push notifications, or in-app messaging. Duplicate content can increase customer complaints, so be sure to establish unique strategies for each of these channels.
Test and adjust your cadence
Once you've developed your initial SMS strategy, it's time to refine to find the ideal frequency. Randomly divide your segments and A/B test different frequencies to find which receives the best response. Monitor your KPIs and engagement metrics and adjust.
You may find that seasonality plays a big role in the way your audience responds to text frequency, or that your audience's response changes over time. By constantly testing and adjusting, you can ensure your marketing strategy is always meeting your customers' needs.
Signs you're sending too many messages
Concerned you may be sending too many messages? Here are a few signs that your SMS marketing frequency may be too high:
- Increased unsubscribe rates: Some attrition is normal, but a dramatic increase in unsubscribe rate may suggest you're sending too many SMS marketing messages.
- Negative replies or complaints: Customers aren't afraid to tell you what they think. Keep an eye out for complaints regarding your SMS marketing and look for trends. While you can't please everyone, your text campaigns should be generally well-received.
- Declining open and click-through rates: In some cases, customers may not unsubscribe from your texts, but may just ignore them. Dramatic declines in open rates and click-through rates can be an indication that you need to send SMS marketing messages less frequently.
- Subscriber burnout or list fatigue: When an SMS marketing list is burnt out, it may simply grind to a halt. In these cases, you'll see a steady decline in customer engagement over the course of time.
Find the optimal mobile messaging frequency
There's no universal "right" SMS marketing frequency. Factors including industry, message content, customer type, seasonality, and more can affect your ideal messaging frequency. By following sms marketing best practices and testing and adjusting cadence according to performance, you can find your best SMS frequency.
Another important factor when it comes to your SMS marketing campaigns? Your marketing platform. For a single software that combines SMS marketing, email marketing, social media, and more all in a single place, meet Mailchimp. This all-in-one solution combines your essential marketing tools under a single roof for campaigns that perform.
Key Takeaways
- Finding the right SMS frequency is essential to keeping customers satisfied and unsubscribes to a minimum.
- Depending on your industry and the type of message you're sending, SMS frequency can vary dramatically.
- To find the right frequency for your business, perform regular A/B testing and monitor engagement metrics.