Best Time to Send SMS for Maximum Impact in 2024

Have you ever read an SMS at 3 a.m.? The answer is probably a big NO. This is what we’re going to talk about in this article.

No matter if you’re sending a personal message or running an SMS marketing campaign, the time of sending an SMS is important.

Please bear in mind that if you send a text message at midnight or repeat the SMS too frequently, your audience will be bothered and this will dent your reputation.

Of course, there is no single formula to determine the exact time in SMS marketing. Fortunately, some stats help us guess the best intervals for getting the best result. 

In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the best time to send SMS for maximum impact in your marketing campaigns.

The good news is that you can use our WordPress SMS plugin to schedule your SMS campaigns. This way, you can send text messages at the best time.

Why Timing Is Important in SMS Marketing?

Timing is a critical factor in marketing, and SMS marketing is no exception. Remember that SMS is different from email and many people try to open their messages soon after receiving them.

In fact, SMS has an immediacy in its nature so if you send your SMS at the wrong time, you might get converse results.

Here are some reasons why you need to send your text messages at the right time:

1# Immediate Open Rates

Surprisingly, SMS has an incredible open rate of 98%. Also, people read around 90% of the messages within 3 minutes of delivery. This is good news but it doesn’t mean that you can send your text message any time you want.

If your user is preoccupied or asleep, the chance of your message being ignored will increase. So you have to find the best time for your SMS campaigns to reach high immediate open rates.

2# Time of SMS Affects Your Consumers’ Behavior

When your audience sees that you’re bothering them by sending messages at times that they want to rest, they might block you or avoid buying from you.

Try to guess your audience’s daily routine to send SMS when they have time to check their personal messages.

3# SMS Timing Impacts Your Conversion Rates

When your audience receives a message with a CTA at the right moment, they’ll highly likely open your link and buy the product if they need it. Conversely, if you send the message at the wrong time, you’ll face lower conversion rates.

Best Time to Send SMS in Your Campaign

Many references have tried to study the best time to send SMS to clients. Let’s summarize their findings:

What Is the Best Day of the Week to Send SMS?

Based on various sources, we can recommend to send your messages on:

• Thursday & Friday: Customers are going to end their working days and are in a good mood to read promotional messages.

• Saturday: On Saturdays, people are willing to read new things and explore if new products have been launched.

What Is the Best Hour of the Day to Send SMS?

Overall, the best hours to send SMS are:

• Noon: Most people like to spend time and see what your message is about.

• 2 p.m.: It’s a little after peak daytime hours so your message stands out.

• 6-8 p.m.: Based on surveys, people are highly likely to be active on their phones. So your CTA has a high chance of being clicked.

What Is the Best Time to Send SMS?

Now that you know the suitable days and hours, it’s good to conclude and say when you have to send text messages:

• Thursday at 2 p.m.
• Friday at noon
• Saturday at 7 p.m.

Of course, there are some other suitable hours you can consider. Here are some of them:

SMS Marketing Timing Best Practices

Here are some tips to optimize your SMS blasts’ timing:

Industry-Specific Considerations for Optimal Scheduling

It’s obvious that the customers of each industry have specific behaviors and this will impact the optimal time for sending SMS to them.

For example, if you have a restaurant close to some business buildings, if you send ads half an hour before the launch time, you’ll probably get the best conversion rate.

The following table will compare several industries in terms of the best time to send SMS:

Timing for Promotional vs Transactional Messages

Remember that the type of your SMS content is important when you want to find the best time to send the message.

Business text messages are usually of two types: Promotional and Transactional.

When it comes to discounted offers, Black Friday reminders, or sales coupons, you’re sending promotional messages.

You have to send a promotional SMS during business hours (8 a.m. to 9 p.m.) to get the best result. 

Also, you have to give your audience enough time to think about the information and make their desired decision. So try to alert them at least 1-2 days before the deadline. For example, send the promotional message for the weekend sales on Thursday or Friday.

On the other hand, any kind of SMS that includes order/payment confirmations, posting alerts, verification codes, and account updates can be considered transactional.

These types of text messages have an immediate nature so you can send them quickly. For example, if your customer has shopped online and you’ve sent it by post, you can alert them immediately without being worried about the time.

Goal-Specific Considerations for SMS Timing

Another factor that affects the optimum time of text messages is your goal. For example, Sundays are good for higher RPS, and Weekends and holidays are better for higher click-through rates.

You might wonder why. The reason is that people react to messages based on their mood and the situation. Here are some other recommendations in this regard:

Best Events to Send SMS

Here are some of the events that are good opportunities for sending SMS:

1. Flash Sales 

These times you need to send an SMS to create a sense of urgency and encourage your customers to take quick action.

2. Appointments

If you want to reduce cancellations, send reminders before appointments.

3. Product Launches 

Try to send educational information along with some first-time discounts to generate curiosity about the new product and drive traffic to your website.

4. Shipping Updates

You have to keep your customers informed about their purchases to build trust.

5. Birthday & Anniversary

These are some of the best events for SMS marketing. You can personalize the customer experience by sending greetings and special offers on these significant dates.

6. After Purchase

Sending a Customer Feedback Request is a great way to collect valuable insights. You need to send them shortly after purchase to ask for feedback and increase customer loyalty.

7. Seasonal Discounts & Holidays

People are willing to receive promotional messages on holidays or seasonal discount periods.

8. Service Disruptions

When there is a problem with your services, you need to send timely updates to make your audience feel they’re important to you.

Do Some Tests to Find the Best Time to Send SMS

As said earlier, there is no concrete timing for SMS marketing campaigns and it’s dependent on several factors. 

One of the best means of finding the optimal time for sending text messages is by conducting tests like A/B testing.

In an A/B testing, you change an item in a piece of advertisement and track the results. For example, you send SMS to a specific audience at different times. Then, you’ll track the response of your audience to see at which time you get maximum results.

Use Scheduling Tools for Your SMS Campaigns

You learned when you have to send your text messages to get maximum exposure in your SMS marketing. 

Of course, you might have been busy at that specific time so how to send bulk messages at the exact time. The answer is “Scheduling Tools.”

Here are some SMS tools that can help you schedule your SMS marketing campaigns:

• WP SMS: This is the best SMS plugin for WordPress websites. WP SMS allows you to integrate your SMS marketing campaigns with your digital marketing strategies. If you want to send bulk messages directly from your website’s dashboard and schedule and manage your texts, WP SMS is your best choice.

• TextMagic: TextMagic is one of the best business messaging apps for notifications and reminders. It has a great scheduling feature that simplifies your SMS campaigns. This is a great option for you if you’re managing a small to medium-sized business and need an affordable tool.

• EZ Texting: This is one of the most famous mass SMS services in the world and is located in California. EZ Texting provides a powerful scheduling feature and simplifies one-time or recurring SMS campaigns. If you need an all-in-one tool with a vast range of features, EZ Texting is your best choice.

• Textedly: The last option is one of the simplest SMS platforms that offers scheduling. It has some other useful features like auto-reply and customizable message templates. If you have a limited budget but you want to run an SMS campaign, Textedly is a good option.

Common Mistakes in SMS Timing

Last but not least, let’s review some of the most common mistakes in timing and scheduling text messages that lead to SMS campaign failure.

Sending Messages Too Early or Late

As said earlier, if you send messages too early in the morning or too late at night, you might disturb recipients. This will lead to annoyance and make your users unsubscribe. So choose reasonable hours to reduce the risk of getting banned by your audience.

Ignoring Time Zones

If you’re running a campaign for a large area, you need to account for different time zones. In fact, you need to segment your audience based on their locations and schedule the messages of each location based on its time zone.

Over-Scheduling

Remember that you need to give your audience the time to engage with your brand. If you send too many messages in a short period of time, your recipients might choose to reject your request. It’s recommended to send around 1-2 messages per week or 4-5 messages per month.

Not Analyzing Campaign Performance

To find the best time to send text messages, you need to analyze the performance of your previous campaigns. Do not stick to a strict scheduling plan and try to run A/B testing to find the optimal interval for sending your SMS blasts.

Conclusion

Timing and scheduling are of great importance in SMS marketing. If you don’t send SMS at the right time or repeat SMS too frequently, your customers might unsubscribe you. 

So if you don’t want to bother your audience, you need to pay special attention to SMS timing. 

Overall, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are the best days to send SMS. Also, Transactional texts can be sent at any time of the day. 

For scheduling your messages, you can use our plugin, WP SMS, which is really user-friendly and doesn’t need expertise. Try to target your audience using our plugin to get maximum exposure in your future campaigns.

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