Creating profitable and effective marketing text messages is a considerable amount of work. We spend time, money, and resources researching your target audience and crafting the best SMS message possible; however, sometimes, the results are not what we initially expected.
The timing may be to blame for this. Establishing a proper schedule for your SMS campaign can be the key to boosting its reach and overall performance; it can mean the difference between failure and success.
📑 In this post you will find:
What is a text blast?
A Text blast is a campaign that works by simultaneously sending an SMS message to multiple mobile users via an automated text messaging system.
Text blasts follow a fairly simple method and are one of the most effective ways for businesses to communicate a concrete message, connect with potential and current customers, or increase engagement.
This service has gained even more popularity in the past few years due to its time and cost-effectiveness and the practically immediate results it brings.
Research shows a nearly 100% open rate for texts that about half of consumers generally respond to within 3 minutes, and almost 90% respond within 30 minutes of receiving it.
Considering that SMS has an average 45% response rate, compared to the 6% of email marketing, it’s easy to understand why such a significant percentage of businesses are implementing a bulk SMS strategy as part of their marketing plans.
Why is timing so important for your text blast campaign?
Timing can be easily often overlooked by businesses, especially those formed by small teams that are trying to get quick and positive results with the limited resources they have.
However, there’s a lot of noise in the market these days, and your customers are constantly receiving offers and information, and if you don’t take into account the time of your communications in your strategy, you may just go unnoticed.
Timing is key to creating a successful text blast campaign, and although it can be difficult at first, there are many benefits that come from taking this point into account.
First, by finding the right time to communicate with your clients you’ll be able to get better results with the same investment. If you learn when are the specific times in which your audience is paying the most attention, you’ll be able to increase your engagement, leads, and sales without having to raise your budget.
In other words: it’s not about how much money you put into your campaign, is about how well you can make use of it.
Good timing can also help you make the most out of current trends and events, by giving you a more risk-free opportunity to launch a campaign on a date when customers are more open to buying something or when there’s and specific trend that your business can also make use of.
By tracking and following a pre-established timing schedule you can also learn and understand your customers better, and use that information to optimize your campaign. This way you can gather information about their habits, trends, and needs, and consequentially align your efforts and actions with your customer’s journey.
All of this will have a clear and direct impact on your engagement and the benefits it will bring to your restaurant.
Best time to send SMS blast
Several sources have analyzed different text marketing data to accurately depict the users’ general behavior and how they act regarding marketing text messages.
The analysis intends to use these findings to optimize the reach and outcome of the SMS Blast campaigns.
One of the most defining factors in the success of these campaigns is timing.
Keep in mind that these are just general observations, and it’s important to remember that not all targets act the same way. It would be interesting for you to observe your general public and draw your own conclusions as well, based on your business’s specific situation and all the actors involved.
That being said, these are the times generally considered best for sending marketing SMS:
Weekdays
Studies show that during all days of the week, the afternoons and nights generally seem to be the most efficient time to send texts since most people use their mobile phones more often right when they are about to go to sleep.
During the weekdays, according to our data, we have been able to clearly distinguish two-time slots where the highest volume of SMS marketing is sent in Western European countries:
- From 9 am to 12 pm.
It’s when most people have already commuted to work and are getting ready to start their workday. This means they have time to check all their notifications before focusing on their job.
- From 6 pm to 8 pm.
It’s when people are more likely to have arrived at their home after business hours and are using their phones for fun or distraction. They are most likely to be in a good mental space, more prone to open SMS messages or checking links and offers with no external pressure urging them to focus on something else.
During the weekdays, we’ve gotten to the conclusion that Mondays seem to be the least favored day for sending these campaigns, most likely because messages on this day compete with the “Monday Blues” as well as the promotional content users receive during the weekends, although this is a general idea and it greatly depends on the business nature and clientele.
Let’s not forget that we are talking about countries in the Western European are (Spain, France, Germany, UK, Italy… ) and that these most suitable time slots change depending on the place you’re sending messages to. For example, we see that in South-American countries these times are slightly earlier.
You also have to take into account the regulations of the country you are acting in since there are different rules on marketing depending on where you are. For example, France does not allow SMS to be sent on Sundays or holidays.
Weekends
The most common practice is to choose between:
- Fridays at noon, between 3 pm and no later than 5 pm.
The end of the working week, more specifically Fridays, is one of the best moments to send your text blasts; however, keep in mind that there’s a massive increase in SMS marketing campaigns being sent out this day, so even though it’s effective, it’s also highly competitive.
Businesses decide to use this time slot as it’s in the later hours of the day and many are already in their weekend mindset. it’s a highly profitable timing for many.
- Saturday morning, from 10 am to 1 pm.
Weekend mornings are more relaxed and slow than the rest of the days of the week. Users wake up a little later and get ready to go on with their plans.
This is one of the best times to send texts to your audience since they are still available to check their phone. They are generally not under any extra pressure that limits their attention and have more opportunities to act on the CTAs.
- Sundays.
Sundays are the days when all plans for the weekend are over, and it’s time to sit down and relax. These days most people are returning to their homes to get ready for the upcoming work week.
Our data shows that it is less common to choose Sunday to send text blasts, and the brands that do so ship late in the evening (around 7 to 8 pm)
Sundays are the least popular days to send SMS marketing messages, but it’s necessary to note that this highly depends on the content of your message, your target audience, and the intention of your text.
Even if you decide to use our recommendations for scheduling your next text campaign, remember always to imagine your Ideal Consumer and how this person goes through their day to adapt and find what works best for you.
Then, what’s the best time of the week to send your text blast?
Well, in conclusion, this depends a lot on each brand and its clientele.
We have seen that children’s clothing and toy brands tend to choose the morning slots, as well as fashion and accessories for women. However, the rest of the textile sector and ecommerce, in general, is divided almost equally between the morning and the afternoon hours.
The ideal, and what we encourage you to do, is to always measure the results of each campaign and test between the options above, or even try different ones, before deciding when to establish a fixed time to send SMS campaigns.
