When it comes to growing your brand and connecting with your audience, short messaging service (SMS) marketing can be great for improving your reach and engaging with your audience. Texts enjoy a nearly 100% open rate compared to email’s 30%.

In the Philippines, there are nearly 25% more actively-used phones than people, making SMS the ideal way to reach Filipinos. SMS marketing provides an immediate and personal way to engage with your audience. It’s a top-performing channel for promoting sales, announcing products, and sharing exclusive offers.

However, your timing is everything when it comes to SMS marketing. No matter how well-written your offer is, it won’t perform well if it doesn’t land at the right moment. To help you make the most of your SMS campaigns, the infographic below features the best times to send SMS marketing messages and best practice tips.

Best Times to Send SMS Marketing Messages

Noontime may be the most popular time to send SMS marketing texts to coincide with people’s lunch breaks. However, it’s essential to recognize that this popularity also means increased competition for attention. 

Instead, it may benefit you more to target the following time slots and avoid this pitfall and other typical mistakes. It’s also important to note that your target demographic can significantly affect what time they’re most likely to be receptive. Careful research and trial and error are the best ways to determine what works for your company.

When to send SMS marketing communications

On a typical weekday, your best options are sending your texts from either 9 am to 12 pm or 5 pm to 9 pm. The first window is for people gearing up for the work or school day. They’re likely checking their texts for work-related messages, so there’s a higher likelihood that they’re attentive and receptive to your marketing attempts.

On the other hand, 5 pm to 9 pm are the hours when people are winding down at the end of their day. You can catch them before they sleep or start spending their leisure time.

For days to target the above timeslots, Tuesday to Friday may be your best bet, as Monday and the weekend have unique considerations. Friday evenings and Saturday mornings are particularly effective for informing weekend shoppers of flash deals or sales. 

If you have important promotions for the following week, Sunday evenings may be a good time to target because people generally check their messages to prepare for the days ahead. Finally, the time leading up to a major holiday like Christmas can help you catch many individuals actively seeking gifts or planning events.

When NOT to send SMS marketing communications

Texting earlier than 9 am can cause immediate friction and annoyance as recipients might still be sleeping or getting ready for their day. After all, no one wants to wake up to a sales pitch, or even worse, to be woken up by a sales pitch.

Similarly, after 9 pm is a no-go because lifestyle activities and personal time typically dominate later hours. Your SMS may interrupt or intrude upon a person’s relaxation and leisure activities, which immediately puts you at a disadvantage.

For days to avoid, start-of-the-week concerns and work-related priorities fill people’s Monday mornings. Your text will likely get buried amidst the recipient’s hectic schedule and immediate focus on catching up with tasks. 

You’re also likely wasting your marketing efforts if you send promotions on Saturday evenings. This time and day are the peaks of in-person shopping and outings, so eCommerce activity decreases during this time. The holidays are another period where people won’t appreciate your promotions because most people are busy spending time with their loved ones.

Tips to Optimize the Timing of Your SMS Campaigns

1. Send texts at an odd time

Most SMS campaigns send their texts on an hourly or half-hourly basis. While human brains are wired to find these round numbers appealing, it’s best to avoid these slots so your text can dodge the flurry of promotions. Try for offbeat times not ending in 0 or 5 (e.g., 10:22 or 6:47) to stand out in your target’s inbox.

2. Dispatch transactional texts ASAP

Transactional texts trigger via customer action, such as a purchase confirmation or account update. You must send these follow-up texts immediately, no matter the time or day, to avoid making them wait. Customers expect real-time updates, and immediate delivery enhances their experience and improves brand perception.

3. Consider demographic differences

Consider your target audience’s demographic characteristics. Their lifestyle, age, and occupation may cause distinctions for their most receptive times. For example, younger audiences are likely more active in the evening when they’re most free. Conversely, professionals might be more engaging during the morning or after work.

Tailor your SMS campaign timing based on these demographic differences to optimize response rates.

4. Adjust for time zones

Don’t forget to consider your audience’s geographic location as well! If you operate internationally or target audiences across different time zones, adjusting your text timing is essential. Segment your recipient list based on their respective time zones and schedule messages to reach them during their local active hours.

5. Take advantage of paydays

Paydays like the 15th and 30th of every month can be advantageous for your SMS marketing campaigns. Many individuals receive their salaries around these dates, making them more likely to be in a spending mindset. Capitalize on this increased purchasing power by sending targeted offers and exclusive deals during these periods.

6. Look at your historical performance

Last and most critical, you should analyze your past SMS marketing campaigns to gain valuable insights into your audience’s time preferences. Review metrics like open, click-through, and conversion rates to identify behavioral patterns you can use for your next campaign.

This step is better than any guide you’ll find because you’re getting information directly from the source. Listen to what your past campaigns tell you to make your next marketing effort more successful.

Bring Time to Your Side with SMS

In the world of SMS marketing, timing can be the difference between capturing your audience’s attention and getting lost in the noise. By understanding the best times to send SMS messages, you can let time work in your favor and bring success to your subsequent campaigns.

Let time be your ally by taking advantage of the tips and data in this guide, and watch your SMS campaigns flourish.

 

If you want to take your SMS efforts to the next level, partner with Semaphore! Our data-driven SMS marketing solutions will surely get your message to the right people.

Despite being a digital technology that’s been around for decades, short messaging service (SMS) remains instrumental in many facets of the business landscape, particularly in marketing.

Marketers and business owners worldwide continue to reap the benefits of SMS marketing to boost their metrics. In fact, this strategy has a projected market size of $12.6 billion by 2025 in the United States alone, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.3%, demonstrating its significant growth.

In the Philippines, SMS continues to appeal to local consumers despite the emergence of free messaging services like Viber, WhatsApp, and Messenger. As a result, many large-scale companies still leverage texts for advertising, content marketing, and security, such as one-time passwords (OTPs) and text alerts.

Staying updated on the latest trends is essential to successfully using text messaging to build a following and foster customer relationships. Let’s discuss some of the most noteworthy SMS marketing statistics to help you understand its value.

20 SMS Marketing Statistics Worth Knowing

• The world sends 23 billion text messages every day (Forbes)

While texting may seem outdated since the emergence of more recent technology, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. Billions of people are still sending out multiple text messages daily, making SMS a continuously proliferating tech, albeit on a much smaller scale than decades ago. As such, texting remains an opportunity to optimize communications and build lasting customer relationships.

 

• There are 153 million mobile subscribers in the Philippines (Statista)

In the Philippines, there are more mobile phones than people, resulting in some companies and reporters dubbing the country the Text Capital of the World. It proves that the Philippines is still a goldmine for companies looking to develop an omnichannel communications strategy and incorporate SMS into their marketing operations.

 

• $89.2 billion is the expected 2030 market size of the business SMS industry (Beyond Market Insights)

The number of enterprises implementing application-to-person (A2P) or business messaging is growing, with a 4.1% CAGR and no signs of slowing down. If the trend continues, we can expect SMS marketing to become a highly competitive industry that’s increasingly difficult to penetrate. As such, joining the movement soon is crucial, or risk facing stricter competition over the next few years.

 

• 77% of consumers reply to a text within 10 minutes, while only 28% manage to reply to an email within the same timeframe. (SimpleTexting)

This underscores the potential for businesses to leverage SMS as a powerful tool for time-sensitive messages, quick customer engagement, and efficient communication. Capitalizing on this high response rate could lead to improved customer satisfaction, enhanced marketing campaign effectiveness, and ultimately, stronger customer relationships.

 

• 12.5% of business SMS are marketing messages (OneSignal)

A small percentage of business SMS is for marketing purposes. The majority are transactional, while the next prominent use case involves both. It indicates a smaller competition for marketing messages and an opportunity to take advantage of it by delivering content and offers via text. It also demonstrates the effectiveness of delivering multi-purpose messages instead of focusing on just one.

 

• Businesses saw a 36% increase in SMS marketing spend during the COVID-19 pandemic (PwC)

The recent COVID-19 pandemic greatly benefited business texting, partly due to the subsequent ecommerce boom. Expenses for marketing campaigns via text increased by 36%, indicating a newly realized appreciation for SMS marketing’s effectiveness. As more enterprises migrate or expand online, you can stay ahead of the curve by emphasizing targeted campaigns via text.

 

• 46% of finance and banking institutions expect to increase their SMS marketing spending by 2024 (PwC)

The finance and banking sectors plan to increase their budget allocation for SMS among other major industries, like IT, retail, and manufacturing. They were also the industry with the highest text spending in the last three years. If your organization is a financial or banking institution, consider investing in SMS marketing to stay competitive in your sector.

 

• 60% of customer service costs can be saved by switching to messaging channels (Freshworks)

Speedy customer service is essential to running a company and maintaining customer support, which also means it’s often a resource-intensive investment. Messaging channels, including texting, slash a significant portion of the cost per customer interaction, especially compared to traditional ones, like phone lines. They also provide a more convenient service accessible from the palms of your customers’ hands.

 

• 68% of marketers believe that a multichannel communication strategy is critical to user experience (OneSignal)

Using multiple channels to communicate with customers allows you to align content with the appropriate segments. Despite their 160-character limit, texts enable better content diversification and targeting to what particular customer segments prefer. In turn, you can resonate with customers more effectively and elevate their experience with your brand.

 

• 71% of organizations agree that message personalization is critical to maximizing SMS marketing strategies (Forrester)

Personalization is vital to any marketing strategy, with 76% of consumers becoming frustrated without it. The same goes with SMS campaigns, especially with many marketers agreeing that it’s critical to success. Text personalization involves producing content tailored to each recipient’s demographic information and purchasing behavior to improve their engagement with your company.

 

• Philippine businesses spend roughly ₱0.50 per SMS marketing message (Semaphore)

SMS is considerably cheaper than other digital marketing options. The average cost for non-SMS services in the Philippines can reach upwards of ₱100,000 per month for every project, which can quickly become expensive for small to medium enterprises. Meanwhile, sending an SMS to 10,000 people would only cost ₱5000, significantly reducing expenses.

 

• 25% of business leverage SMS due to its efficiency and effectiveness (PwC)

One of SMS marketing’s advantages is that it doesn’t require an internet connection, which is beneficial in a country with inconsistent and unstable connections like the Philippines. Texts are short and to the point, given their character limit. As such, it’s an efficient way to deliver marketing campaigns, alerts, and other content to your customers without spending valuable time and resources crafting longer pieces.

 

• 56% of organizations claim that text messaging improves customer engagement (Harvard Business Review)

Given its benefits, there’s no wonder why business texting has become instrumental to engagement, so much so that more than half of companies claim it’s more beneficial than mobile apps. Besides engagement, the Harvard Business Review report considers SMS critical in improving brand recognition and customer loyalty, among other metrics.

 

• 97% of SMS messages are opened and read within 15 minutes of delivery (Red Eye)

SMS marketing messages have a staggering 99% open rate, with customers opening 97% of messages within 15 minutes of receipt. By contrast, email marketing campaigns have an open rate of 20.94%. It may be because texts feel more personal, like messages from loved ones, so recipients are more inclined to open messages. This assumption emphasizes personalization’s significance in your mass texts.

 

• 45% response rate is about average for SMS marketing (Gartner)

An SMS campaign’s response rate determines the number of people who followed through with your call-to-action via text, indicating your efforts’ success. The average response rate for business texts is 45%, compared to 6% for email, proving that texts are a more effective communication channel than others.

 

• 63% of companies experienced better conversion rates and acquisition from SMS marketing (Forrester)

Shoppers are more likely to purchase when they receive texts from a brand, enabling enterprises to drive conversions and acquire new customers efficiently. Also, 57% of Forrester’s respondents attribute higher first-time and repeat purchase metrics to SMS marketing, partly due to increased customer satisfaction. Finally, 87% believe this marketing strategy is critical to their future.

 

• 12.8% of online revenue is attributed to SMS marketing (Forrester)

Business texting generates significant profits. In fact, leaders attribute a substantial portion of their online revenue to SMS marketing, which they expect to grow by 7.4% in 2023. According to the same Forrester report, SMS is also the fourth most-used channel to communicate with customers. Despite having existed for decades, texting is still competitive amid its fellow marketing strategies.

 

• Only 16% of messages are SMS (Salesforce)

Despite its benefits, texts comprise less than a fifth of all messages by type, compared to email, which takes up 84%, possibly due to fewer marketers leveraging SMS marketing than other strategies. You could tap into this relatively relaxed competition to grow your brand rapidly using SMS. 

 

• 76% of millennials prefer texting (Post Bulletin)

Rieva Lesonsky, GrowBiz Media’s founder, president, and CEO, claims that most millennials prefer texting over phone calls due to its convenience. It’s an opportunity for telemarketers and cold callers to consider reaching out to customers via SMS instead of calls to drive high-quality leads from a younger market. 

 

• 42.2% of millennial and Gen Z customers like to receive relevant offers and promotions via text (LivePerson)

Data shows millennial and Gen Z buyers are open to receiving marketing campaigns via text, with a significant population preferring messages from brands they’ve already converted with. However, more people prefer relevant texts than otherwise, so it’s essential to leverage customer data to enable SMS marketing targeting and personalization.

 

• 80% of customers want to receive delivery updates, primarily via text (DispatchTrack)

DispatchTrack’s survey found that customers who wish to receive delivery updates prefer to do so through text over any other communication method, including email, phone, and social media. We may attribute this preference to SMS’ convenience and non-reliance on an Internet connection, which makes updates more accessible for people constantly on the go.

 

Jumping on the SMS Marketing Trend

There’s no denying that SMS messages deliver significant open and conversion rates compared to other marketing channels. Despite this, only a small percentage of companies reach out to customers via text, so consider taking advantage of the low competition before it starts picking up speed in 2023 and beyond.

SMS is here to stay and bring value to your operations and Semaphore is an expert at integrating SMS marketing for businesses.

 

Contact us today to start driving your metrics to greater heights!