Text marketing is a powerful tool for engaging customers and increasing customer loyalty. Unlike the impersonal blasts of traditional marketing channels, text messages deliver personal, relevant, and timely information directly to your customers’ fingertips. But in the world of text marketing, timing is everything. A message sent at the wrong moment can be more than just ineffective—it can damage your carefully cultivated customer relationships.
Think Strategically About Text Marketing Timing
While many articles discuss the best days and times to send text messages, our team at textLIVING recognizes that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. After supporting over 10,000 businesses, we’ve learned that true text marketing magic lies not in rigid schedules but in strategic timing tailored to your specific context and goals.
Forget generic “Thursdays at 11 AM” advice. Instead, consider this: the best time to text your customers is when it matters most to them. You need to understand your customers’ buying habits, engagement patterns, and preferences to determine the best timing for the unique message you want to deliver.
So how do you crack the code to strategic text marketing timing? Here’s the key: ditch the calendar and embrace context. Instead of focusing on arbitrary days and times, think about the specific actions your customers take and tailor your messages accordingly. This way, you ensure your texts are timely, personal, and relevant.
From Meh to Woah: Scheduling Your Texts to Maximize Results
At textLIVING, we’ve built our platform to help businesses set up a variety of automated text marketing campaigns based on the individual actions of their customers. Here are a few best practices when it comes to scheduling text marketing for maximum customer loyalty:
1. Welcome them with a bang (and a discount) a few hours after signing up.
Forget the generic confirmation text. Instead, send a warm welcome message a couple of hours after they sign up for your loyalty program. Throw in an exclusive offer or valuable insight to show your appreciation and leave a lasting impression. This “surprise and delight” moment reinforces their decision to join and sets the stage for a loyal relationship.
2. Celebrate birthdays and anniversaries before everyone else.
Recognizing special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries is a popular text marketing tactic. However, the timing of such messages is crucial. Instead of bombarding customers on the day of their birthday, consider sending these texts a few days before. This approach ensures that your message stands out among the numerous notifications they receive. It also allows them to proactively plan to stop by your location or make a purchase on their special day.
3. Send “We Miss You” offers based on your average return frequency.
Another valuable feature of the textLIVING platform is its capability to send “We Miss You” offers to lapsed customers. The success of this tactic, however, hinges on understanding the return frequency specific to your business or industry. For instance, an ice cream shop might choose to deploy such offers after 20 or 30 days, while a high-end restaurant may opt for a different time frame. Tailoring the timing to align with your business’s return frequency maximizes the effectiveness of this re-engagement strategy.
4. Deepen connections after the second visit.
A common way to deepen connections with customers involves inviting them to connect on social media or leave online reviews. To seamlessly integrate this into your text marketing strategy, consider sending such invitations after a customer’s second check-in. By this point, they have demonstrated an interest in your business, making it a natural next step for them to take.
Send last-minute reminders or same-day offers before 11 a.m.
Finally, for time-sensitive promotions like last-minute reminders or same-day offers, it’s advisable to send texts before 11 a.m. While text messages boast a remarkable 95% read rate within three minutes, sending these reminders earlier in the day provides customers with ample time to consider their schedules and potentially share the information with others. This is particularly useful for promotions like a “rainy day” discount or a happy hour, allowing customers to make plans for the day or weekend ahead of time.
textLIVING: Igniting Customer Loyalty Through Text Marketing
Remember, timing is just one ingredient in the text marketing recipe. Combine it with compelling offers, personalized content, and a deep understanding of your customers to create a dish that delights and builds lasting loyalty.
textLIVING is dedicated to helping businesses unlock the hidden potential of customer loyalty and text marketing. We equip our white-label partners and their customers with powerful insights to create text marketing campaigns that resonate, build trust, and generate revenue.