31 March 2022

The Best Time To Send SMS Marketing Texts (By Industry)

Sending marketing texts at the right time increases customer engagement and sales. But what exactly is this right time?

Saqlain Mushtaq

Content Writer

Reading time: 5 minutes

To communicate and connect better with customers, 39% of businesses already use some form of text messaging, while 53% of marketers use mobile messaging as part of their marketing strategy.

We’ve already established the pros far outweigh the cons of SMS marketing — that’s why it’s no surprise that SMS marketing is now taking over the way businesses communicate with their customers.

But even though SMS marketing boasts a 98% open rate, you still have to make sure that you send your messages to customers at the right time to capture their attention and get them to take action.

With that said, let’s dive deeper into the best times and days to send marketing SMS messages!

Best time to send texts

Since there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to the best time to send a marketing text, it becomes a lot trickier. Also, SMS marketing campaigns can have varying optimum times depending on the nature of the campaign.

The following are some examples of time-specific campaigns and the optimal times to send messages for them:

Retail

Retail owners can use SMS campaigns in a number of ways ranging from announcing new products and exclusive promotional deals to confirming order deliveries and abandoned cart reminders.

According to a study, the best time for retail establishments to send SMS campaigns is between 10 am and 1 pm on Saturdays, or 3 pm to 7 pm on Sundays. This makes sense because customers are naturally more relaxed and would spend more money than they would during weekdays.

Furthermore, the most effective retail promotions are usually issued at the end of the month (ie. 26th to 31st). Sending SMSes during this time guarantees that your offers correspond to the majority of paydays, which may be the decisive factor for customers on the fence.

Services

Service providers often use SMS campaigns to send reminders to their customers. This reduces the number of no-shows, saves money, and promotes outstanding customer service.

For such businesses, it’s recommended that you send two reminders to customers who have upcoming meetings or schedules:

As soon as the appointment is confirmed, ideally within the first minute, to ensure that the appointment was made accurately
24 hours before the scheduled appointment, to give your customers enough time to contact you if they need to reschedule

Restaurants and F&B establishments

Restaurant and F&B establishments usually use SMS campaigns to promote seasonal items, offer discounts, collect feedback, and confirm reservations and orders.

According to Textlocal, the best time to send a marketing text message is between 3 pm and 5 pm on any weekday, with a focus on weekends. This is because people are preparing for dinner time, and a timely offer can certainly fuel their appetite.

Furthermore, in case of an important broadcast, such as a sporting event or reality television, takeaway owners can significantly increase orders by sending out a campaign around 7 pm.

Other businesses

If your business doesn’t fall under any of the categories mentioned above, fret not.

To determine the optimal time to send a marketing text campaign for your business, look at the periods when your product or service gets the most engagement. This might be a good indication that your customers like to get notifications from you or are browsing your site.

Let’s take a look at when you should send SMSes, depending on your offer, target audience, and what action you want them to take:

8 am to 10 am: Some people might scroll their phones on their commute to work, or use their mobile phones to check emails and messages.
10 am to 12 pm: As this window leads up to lunchtime, this would be more effective if you have lunchtime deals.
12 pm to 3 pm: This is the preferred time to receive business SMSes for 33% of mobile uses, so you can consider sending your text message during this window.
5 pm to 9 pm: This is usually when people prepare to wrap up their days, so they would be more inclined to check out their phones as they’ve cleared their tasks.

The general rule of thumb is to contact people within business working hours. Anything before 8 am and after 9 pm or 10 pm is a surefire way to get your customer to unsubscribe from your contact list.

The weekends can be a little more tricky as Saturdays and Sundays have slightly different ‘rules’:

10 am to 12 pm: Works for both weekends, as people tend to start their days later.
Sundays, 4 pm to 7 pm: Although Sunday is the least popular day to send SMSes, if you’re adamant, this window would be a good time to send a marketing message as people are winding down from their weekend.

Best day to send texts

Let’s see what various software companies have to say about the optimal time to send marketing SMS.

According to SimpleTexting, the ideal days to send marketing text messages are Monday and Thursday. Sunday is the least popular day for sending a marketing text.

Once again, it depends on the type of business you are and the purpose of the SMS campaign. Thursday is optimal to send a promotional message for an event happening on Saturday. On the other hand, Friday is best for restaurant owners to promote their weekend offers through text marketing.

Deciding on the best time to send a marketing text message

In the end, the decision is yours to make, but there are three questions you should ask yourself to help you figure out when is the best time to send a marketing text.

What type of message are you sending?

Are you sending the message to promote your business, confirm a transaction, or remind someone of their upcoming appointment?

If you’re sending a discount or promo code that expires, you’ll want to strike a balance between sending it too early, which creates a sense of urgency, and sending it too late, which means that not everyone will get a chance to use it.

If you decide to use texts as a confirmation method for purchases or payments, the best practice is to send a text as soon as possible, ideally within the first minute.

If you’re utilizing text messages to remind people of appointments, try to send them as close to 24 hours ahead of time as possible so that it is most effective while the client has enough time to ask for a postponement if they’re busy.

What action do you want your customers to take?

Determining when you’re most interested in your consumers taking action is the most effective tip for knowing when to send SMS campaigns.

If you’re a restaurant that offers a lunchtime discount, consider sending out messages in the middle of the day so that your offers are fresh in your customers’ thoughts while considering what to eat for lunch.

It may be preferable to send your communications ahead of time in some circumstances, such as with event promotions. Thursday is an excellent day to promote Saturday events since people prefer to plan their weekends.

If you’re a retail business sending out notifications for abandoned carts, you should send messages right after a customer leaves your site. Sending abandoned cart reminders as soon as possible (or within a few hours) will encourage them to return to proceed with the checkout process.

What is your industry?

Considering your industry is very important when deciding upon the best time to send marketing texts.

As mentioned above, if you’re part of the service industry and want to use SMS campaigns as reminders, it is best to send the message 24 hours prior to the appointment time.

Similarly, if you are a retail business, try sending messages towards the end of the month.

Key takeaways

We hope that this article answers your question about when the best time to send marketing text messages is.

Although these timings aren’t set in stone and can change depending on numerous factors, here’s what we’ve established so far:

9 am to 12 pm and 5 pm to 9 pm on weekdays.
10 am to 12 pm on weekends, and 4 pm to 7 pm on Sundays.
Monday and Thursday are the best days to send marketing text messages, while Sunday is the worst.

For more tips and advice, check out our blog!