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According to CodeComputerLove, people in the United Kingdom spend around 3 and a half hours on their phones every day. Identifying the best times to send a text to your customers. This is perhaps one of the most crucial aspects of a solid SMS marketing strategy.
With the expansion of digital channels, SMS Marketing is rapidly becoming a norm in the digital marketing world. After all, a text message has an open rate of 98%.
While SMS marketing can seem simple, there are particular strategies to be considered. Your goal should be more than your customers just glancing over your texts. When you send a text to your customers while they’re active on their devices. You increase the possibility of inducing action and advancing your well-crafted campaign.
That said, let’s jump in to discuss the best times for SMS Marketing. And how you can use it to your benefit.
What is SMS Marketing
Remember those random customer benefit texts that pop up on your notification bar every week at a specific time? Those are all results of SMS Marketing. So, what really is it?
SMS marketing refers to a promotional campaign run by businesses. Where they send transactional messages using texts to customers with consent.
In the digital marketing world, marketers are constantly searching for newer ways to develop their relationships with customers. In this scenario, SMS Marketing can be a great vessel to increase the reach of any business. With an average person checking their phones at least 150 times a day, text marketing opens the doorways to evoke emotions and get personal with the customers.
With that in mind, business owners must ensure opt-in before they start reaching out to their customers. Thereupon, the growing number of opt-in members and their active engagement will determine the success of their businesses.
How to Use SMS Marketing
When you plan an automated text message, the first task is to get consent from your customers. Once that is done, you need to find channels to schedule text messages.
Platforms such as Octopush help you find hassle-free solutions and deepen customer relationships by prioritising users first.
Next, you need to tailor your wordings according to the context and targeted customers. And keep the texts as informative and to the point as possible.
With Octopush, you can work with a team at minimum cost to understand the best times to send a text. And the frequency to send consistent SMS to your customers. On top of that, its database of mobile phones helps you evaluate your actions and make informed decisions, and much more.
How Often Should You Send a Text
One of the main issues with SMS Marketing can be over-texting your customers. When texting your customers, you want to land that sweet spot where you’re not crossing the limit but texting enough to keep them informed. However, this creates a dilemma for marketers to go down this lane of digital marketing. So what is the right amount?
The answer is less is more. The recommended amount can vary from twice to six times a month. While some instances may differ, remember that quality comes before quantity. While planning your automated text message, you need to consider the consistent amount your customers expect. It is easier to lose subscribers or customers when they feel that the texts are inconsistent or inadvertently repetitive.
Remember to start with the general rule of thumb and slowly increase your pace after consulting with your customers and finally iterate.
Best Times to Send a Text
If you’re a digital marketer wanting to try out SMS Marketing, then you have most likely stumbled upon articles mentioning ‘that depends.’ What’s more, there is truth to that because the best timing differs according to context.
Retail Outlets
With almost every retail business putting up month-round sales or offers, the retail sector can become highly competitive. Retailers can use SMS Marketing to market the launch of new products, offer sales, and discounts, confirm purchases and inform the whereabouts of deliveries.
With this in mind, the retailers must send a text during peak hours even though the competition is heavy.
The best times to text customers are at 10 AM to 1 PM on Saturdays and 3 to 7 PM on Sundays.
Remember that for most people, payday comes at the end of the month. So it is ideal for you to plan sales, discounts, Black Friday sales, or offer coupons during the end of the month.
During weekdays, the preferred time for sending text messages is between 8 AM and 9 PM.
You could further notify them about weekend sales on weekdays leading up to it. Although, note that these timings may vary due to the current pandemic.
At the same time, be mindful of the state regulations surrounding SMS Marketing.
Restaurants and Takeaways
SMS Marketing can be a safer option for restaurant owners because of its cost-effectiveness. The one advantage for them is that they can send a text on both weekdays and weekends.
The best times for restaurants and takeaways to send SMS are 3 PM to 5 PM on any day of the week.
Nevertheless, note that you do not have the authority to text them every day of the week, only when it’s necessary.
Moreover, if you have an upcoming event planned for your restaurant, such as Valentine’s day, you should inform the customers five days before it.
That will give them enough time to make arrangements and place reservations. Note that a delayed text message is as good as not sending one out in the first place.
Services
Services include dental clinics, parlors, healthcare centers, vets, etc. We are not new to the idea that these service organisations take appointments days, sometimes months leading up to the actual date.
In such instances, they can schedule a text message to remind the customers before the appointments.
That will provide the customers enough time to make cancellations if needed. That is crucial because a delayed text message will waste time and energy for both the service providers and the customers.
The service providers can use a text scheduler like the one Octopush offers, to help them plan for each customer individually. The reason being, a bulk message will not cater to every customer.
Moreover, they can schedule an automated text message on the day of the appointment. The text must incorporate all information regarding the consultation.
What other times to send a text inside the EU?
Be mindful of the state regulations surrounding SMS Marketing. For example, if you want to send promotional text messages to France, they do not allow businesses to text customers on Sundays, public holidays. Also, any time after 10 PM is not acceptable.
In the case of Spain, restaurants and takeaways should accommodate to their customs.
Most people take long late-afternoon lunches thus, reading the emails from 9 AM to 10 AM and 1 PM to 3 PM.
After that, they are also active from 4 PM to 5 PM when most people get off work which works the best for takeaways if there is any match or television program later that night.
Thus, the peak hours are to text before their lunchtime or dinner time. Furthermore, most promotional messages are well-received from 8 PM to 9 PM on weekdays.
Planning Around the Schedule of Your Target Audience
While you need to consider sectors while planning your SMS sent time, you must understand that everyone reacts to marketing text messages differently. And that is because there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ rule for text marketing.
That is why your texts need to get altered according to the specified demographic, with occupation and time zone being the most prominent variables.
Time Zone
If you’re a company that works globally or has international clients, you must be aware of time zones. Instead of sending bulk texts, you need to divide the time zones and send texts incorporating the best times.
For example, you might send a text to your customer in Washington, DC at 2:00 AM. However, the ones residing in London, United Kingdom, will receive it at 7:00 AM, which might not be a pleasant experience.
Additionally, according to CoSchedule most engagements in Social Media happen from 9 AM to 12 PM and 3 PM to 6 PM. Regardless, it is suitable to avoid Mondays when people have the most pending emails and texts to respond to due to weekend breaks.
And instead, Tuesdays to Thursdays is the best time to get responses from your clients over text messages.
With that said Covid-19, caused a change to subscriber behavior. For example, people in the United Kingdom are most prone to opening their text at 9 AM with a steady open rate during work hours.
Occupation
Students
Apart from that, low-income students are more likely to be on their cell phones instead of laptops. Thus, connecting with students is less complicated.
According to recent studies, around 84% of teenagers use smartphones. When you work as a marketer or business owner, you need to cater each text to each demographic. You cannot send a mass text to every client because those texts go unread the most.
If you are targeting customers are teenagers, you need to cater the texts to feel more personal by addressing their names. Furthermore, you need to schedule text messages when they are most active on their mobile phones to increase engagement.
The best days to text are on weekdays during the time they’re most active on social media. It doesn’t matter the time, 47% users say that they are constantly on the internet.
Moreover 72% of teenagers say they check their phones as soon as they wake up.
So the most engagement you can get with student customers is scheduling SMS sent time in the morning on weekdays.
Employees / Workers
You need to schedule a text message around your clients’ preferred time according to their profession.
For instance, a homemaker will probably not be thrilled to receive a sale offer from the local market on a school morning. Again, an officer or employee will most likely not get amused by a buy one get one free offer on a weekday morning.
However, if the offer sent on Friday morning is for Saturday night, then you might get the most engagement and action. You need to understand the service you are offering and the timing it fits the best.
With Octopush’s SMS service, you can not only send bulk messages but also schedule your messages according to the right time zone. This ensures maximum engagement with your customers at appropriate times of the day.
Final Words
Think of this, what is one of the staple things you must carry whenever you head out? Some might say cash and keys. But the majority would say a mobile phone. And SMS Marketing provides you the opportunity to connect with your customers on the device they carry with them everywhere.
Among the many benefits of SMS Marketing, the most prominent ones include flexibility, infinite reach among customers old and new, adaptability with other marketing channels, a vessel for increasing customer relationships, etc. Although using a text scheduler might not be as popular as social media, it is proven effective.
Remember not to sweat too much over it. If not anything, follow the general rule of thumb and maintain basic text etiquettes, and you will be all set for the most part.
However, when you schedule texts, you’re more prone to induce customer involvement than randomly texting your customer.
So the question remains, why NOT use SMS Marketing to gain that edge from your competitors?
