The best time to send SMS marketing

Thanks to your customer data, you know exactly the right SMS to send your customers which they’re more likely to engage with. Your message provides them with the answer to a common pain point or problem they face, which means it’ll be impossible for them to ignore it.

But did you know the date and time you send SMS marketing can have a huge impact on engagement? You might assume that sending an email on a Monday, when customers are starting their working week, will produce the best results – however, the reality is, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Even with the greatest possible offer sent to exactly the right segment of your customer base, if you don’t send it at the right time, it might not have the ROI you were expecting.

So, is there a secret formula for working out the best time to send SMS marketing? What’s the best time to send an SMS to ensure you get the highest possible engagement? We’ll answer these questions and more below so you can maximize your SMS marketing endeavors.

Generally, the best time to send SMS marketing messages is between 1pm and 5pm, which sees engagement, clicks and revenue climb by as much as a third compared to messages sent in the morning.

After 5pm there’s another dip in engagement, followed by another increase at 8pm.

Similar data found that the best times to send SMS marketing messages to secure clicks is 5am, 8pm, 10pm, and 11pm.

Of course, this all depends on the industry and your products or service, as well as the expectations and behaviors of your customers. If you’re a plumbing merchant, you might not find any success by sending an SMS after 8pm, whereas if you’re a restaurant that delivers pizzas, a late-night 2for1 offer is more likely to get a high level of engagement. However, this all depends on local regulations, which might prohibit you from sending marketing messages at certain times.

You can try A/B testing to a small segment of customers to see when the best time to reach out to your customers is. Send time optimization is also a highly powerful tool, as it allows you to send communication to specific customers at times when they’re most likely to engage.

For the chance to secure the best conversion rates, Tuesday is considered the best weekday for sending SMS marketing messages, with a conversion rate of 2%. This is followed closely by Friday, at 1.97%, and Thursday at 1.95%.

Again, your industry and customers mean this can vary. If you’re an ecommerce business, sending messages during lunch and after the working day has ended means your customers are more likely to have time to spend considering your offer. Sending an SMS at 9am when they’re traveling or have started work means they’re less likely to engage.

Data shows that Saturday is the best day to send an SMS marketing message, with a 2.17% conversion rate. Combine this with the data we’ve already discussed about the best time of day to send an SMS, and lunchtime on a Saturday should, in theory, yield the greatest return.

You might also want to use a two-step approach for telling your customers about an offer. For example, on a Thursday, when customers might be planning their weekend, you could send an initial SMS letting them know about any discounts or offers they could use on Saturday night. Then, at 12pm on Saturday, you could send a reminder message to make sure they don’t forget.

SMS messages have a 98% open rate, so it’s a hugely effective way to keep in touch with your customers. This also includes inactive customers, who can re-engage with your brand thanks to SMS. When Volpy, a smartphone selling and recycling provider, utilized SMS marketing, they had an increase in active users by 30% in just one month. This demonstrates the power that SMS marketing activity has when sent at the right time for your customers.

Monday is by far the most ineffective day for SMS marketing messages, leading to just 1.53% of conversions. Wednesdays are the second least effective, at 1.72%. However, this isn’t to say that you should never send SMS messages on a Monday or Wednesday. Studies have found that Mondays are also one of the slowest days for restaurant bookings, so even a 1.53% engagement rate can lead to more tables being filled or orders being placed. This can be the difference between profitability and loss in what is a volatile industry.

However, there is a balancing act between increasing your revenue and oversaturating your customers with too many messages. If you send an SMS on Monday to get customers through your doors, you might not want to send them a message on Thursday trying to tempt them back again. But, you can use your data to ensure you only contact customers who didn’t engage the first time to make sure you’re not overcommunicating.

The data from Omnisend found that the 13th of every month is the most successful day for SMS marketing conversions. This is followed by 29th, 30th and 31st, then the first few days of the month. This, presumably, is because the majority of your customers are paid around the end of the month, with some being paid mid-month. This is another consideration to be aware of when it comes to your SMS marketing efforts.

Below, we’ll take a look at specific days and events you should consider when planning your SMS activity.

Data shows that one in five people spend half their expendable income within two days of being paid. This is why sending an SMS to your customers around payday is crucial to maximize conversions. During the time when they have the most money to spend, it’s always worth reminding your customers that you’re still here and have a personalized offer based on their data. It’s one thing to send a customer a tempting offer, but it’s another thing entirely to send it when they have funds to spare.

You might even tailor offers specifically to payday, with a discount code that reminds them when to use it. For example ‘PAYDAY20’ tells your customers when to use it and how much they’ll save.

Your customers’ spending patterns will increase and decrease throughout the year and will generally follow a similar pattern annually. So, it’s up to you to utilize this, along with the data you have for each customer, to send personalized SMS messages at the right time.

Depending on your industry, you may want to message your customers during the lead-up to Christmas, Halloween, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, and more. You should already have data related to your customers’ browsing habits, including abandonment rates, which should give you all the information you need to put an effective SMS campaign together. This should increase revenue, reduce churn, and ensure inactive customers log in and make a purchase.

There are also periods throughout the year when customers expect to receive discounts from their favorite brands, so it’s also important to keep on top of those. Black Friday, Summer, and post-Christmas are all times when your customers will be keen to make a purchase but will be just as keen to make a saving. During sale season, make sure your customers know your offers and what they have to do to spend and save money with you.

Travel provider EaseMyTrip uses SMS to send targeted offers and discounts during times when customers are most likely to book trips. As a result, they increased their conversion rate by 2.7%, which demonstrates just how effective well-timed SMS marketing messages can be.

Another time your customers are likely to increase their spending is during major events. This could be anything from the Oscars to something sports-related like the Olympics, the World Cup, or the Super Bowl. It may even be a major cinema release that ties into your product or service, or a convention that takes place nearby. SMS marketing is a great way to let customers know that, if they’re going to spend money during the build-up to these events, they should consider spending it with you.

SMS marketing is about finding the right balance between providing your customers with the information they need to build loyalty and trust, while respecting that they might not want to hear from you all the time.

It’s recommended that you avoid sending SMS messages at rush hour, during the morning, and, of course, throughout the night. You won’t increase customer loyalty if you’re waking them up. Nor will you if you send messages on a Sunday or during holidays or religious events. By all means, send messages during the build-up, but on the day itself, it’s best to let customers enjoy their time off.

You can improve your send time optimization by utilizing the data your organization already holds for your customers. If you don’t yet have this data, customer data management platforms can use AI to collate and analyze data to offer you valuable insights. That way, you can create a personalized and relevant customer experience that further increases your ROI.

For example, if you find that 20% of your customers abandon their shopping carts between 3pm and 5pm, why not send an offer, such as free shipping, that’s valid for 24 hours, at 2pm?

You also need to make sure you send messages based on your customers’ local time zones. Sending a text blast when it’s 12pm on the East Coast means it’s only 9am on the West Coast, which means far fewer customers will engage than if you were to send it just a few hours later.

Of course, this all depends on your business and when your customers are likely to spend money with you. People CDP, Infobip’s customer data platform, can help you analyze your customers’ data so you can send personalized, relevant SMS messages through Moments at exactly the right time, to boost revenue and brand loyalty.

SMS marketing is a great way to reach your customers in a convenient way that suits them. However, when combined with other channels including social media, email, your website, and more, it can build trust and loyalty, and increase the average value of your customers.

However, in order to have a seamless and positive customer experience, you should consider an all-in-one omnichannel solution so you can engage your customers across various channels and collate and analyze data in real-time. This helps your customers feel listened to which helps them feel more valued.

For more information, read about how Moments can provide an all-round customer engagement solution or our guide to how to optimize omnichannel marketing automation with a customer data platform.

By using the information we’ve highlighted, it’s clear that SMS marketing can be an effective way to increase customer engagement – especially if you send your messages on the right day and at the right time.

In a perfect world, the best time to send SMS marketing is at 12pm on Saturday 13th of every month – but that isn’t always possible or ideal. However, with an omnichannel approach, SMS can complement your overall marketing strategy to increase customer engagement and loyalty. Download our complete guide to SMS for more information.