The short answer: send when the customer can act right after reading: during business hours, preferably on weekdays, a few hours before the moment they would use the offer. Never at night or very early. If you prepare a campaign out of hours, schedule it for the next morning or early afternoon.
The rule that applies to everyone
An SMS is read within minutes. If it arrives when the customer cannot do anything with it (asleep, driving, at the end of the working day), it is wasted. If it arrives shortly before they decide (before lunch, before weekend shopping), it works. The right time depends on what you sell.
By type of business
| Business |
When to send |
Why |
| Retail and markets |
Thursday or Friday morning |
Before weekend shopping. |
| Restaurants and cafés |
Late morning; mid-afternoon for dinner |
When customers think about their next meal. |
| Pharmacies and health |
Weekday mornings |
Leaves time to drop in the same day. |
| Gyms |
Early afternoon |
Before the usual workout time, which tends to be after work. |
| Salons and appointment-based services |
Early in the week, in the morning |
To fill the diary for the days ahead. |
| Business customers |
Tuesday to Thursday, mid-morning |
Away from the Monday rush and the Friday wind-down. |
| Last-minute offer |
Early afternoon |
Leaves a few hours to take it up before closing time. |
| Birthdays |
On the day, in the morning |
The customer can use the offer that day. |
These are starting points. The best time for your list is found by measuring: send the same campaign to two groups at different times and compare. See the A/B test with groups.
Schedule instead of sending straight away
| 1 |
Prepare the campaign when you have time, even at night or at the weekend.
|
|
| 2 |
In the last step, choose "Schedule", plus the date and time the messages should go out.
|
|
| 3 |
Check in the History that the campaign is scheduled. A date that has already passed makes it go out straight away.
|
|
| 4 |
If you change your mind, scheduled messages still in the queue can be cancelled in the History.
|
|
Two things to watch
Angola is one hour behind Mozambique. A campaign that goes out at 8am Mozambique time arrives at 7am Angola time. If you send to both countries, split the numbers into two groups and schedule each for its own time. Public holidays and festive days change people's habits: a holiday morning is not a weekday morning.
|
Never at night. A promotional SMS at eleven at night wakes the customer up and is the fastest way to get an opt-out request. If your account's campaigns have a sending window, messages you confirm outside it wait until it next opens.
|
|
Do not send on the hour. At 9:00 lots of messages from lots of companies arrive. At 9:20 or 10:40, yours has the screen to itself.
|
RECOMMENDED PRODUCT Web hosting with cPanel Domain and SSL included, daily backups and the panel you already know. from 396,00 MT/mo (3-year plan, with coupon) See plans |
Português
English
