What 10 studies say about the best time to send SMS blasts

The best time to send SMS blasts is noon in your audience’s time zone. The best day to send SMS blasts is Thursday.

Whether you’re an SMS marketing veteran or a beginner, the question remains: When is the best time to send a text blast?

There are a lot of opinions on this topic across the Internet, so I decided to skip the speculation and go straight to the data to figure out the best times to send text campaigns.

These are the 10 original research reports I analyzed to gather the following information:

1. EZTexting, When Is the Best Time to Send SMS Marketing Texts?, 5/18/2023
2. OmniSend, The best time to send SMS (2023 research), 2/28/2023
3. Attentive, The Best Times to Send SMS Marketing and Email in 2023, 2/23/2023
4. Avochato, What’s the Best Time to Send an SMS Marketing Campaign?, 12/19/2022
5. Instasent, When Is The Best Time To Send A Text Blast Based On Real Data?, 9/30/2022
6. Mailcharts, When is the Best Time to Send SMS Marketing Messages?, 9/29/22
7. TextSanity, When is the Best Time to Send SMS Marketing Messages?, 6/13/2022
8. SmartrMail, The Best Time to Send SMS Marketing in 2022, 2022
9. SimpleTexting, The Best Times to Schedule a Text Message Campaign (Updated), 12/16/2020
10. Messente, When Is the Best Time to Send a Text Message?, N/A

The best time to send SMS blasts is 12 p.m.

The top three best times to send SMS blasts are noon, 2 p.m., and between 6-8 p.m.

1. Noon: Whether it’s a weekday or a weekend, most people are awake and active at noon and are therefore much easier to reach.
2. 2 p.m.: Similar to noon, you won’t run the risk of catching contacts while they’re asleep. Sending texts a little after peak daytime hours may also help your message stand out rather than getting lost among other marketing messages.
3. 6-8 p.m.: The data says that people are active on their phones during the evening as they relax and browse after work.

Rather than pinpointing a specific “worst” time to send marketing text messages from your SMS software, most of these reports simply advise that you avoid sending texts late at night or early in the morning.

If you send your texts at midnight or 4 a.m., you risk irritating your contacts and encouraging them to unsubscribe.

Personally, there’s no sale on overalls or dog toy discount tempting enough that I’d like to see it before I’m up and caffeinated for the day.

The best day to send SMS blasts is Thursday.

According to these studies, the three best days to send SMS blasts are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

1. Thursday: Your customers will be over the early-week tired phase and looking forward to the weekend, which means they’ll be more able and willing to read and process your message.
2. Friday: Who isn’t in a good mood on Friday? Catching customers on a day when they’re already feeling positive can help them associate those feelings with your brand.
3. Saturday: By Saturday, your contacts are relaxed and clear-headed. They’re also probably not receiving tons of business messages on the weekend, which will help yours stand out.

The best days of the week to send text campaigns, ranked from best to worst:

1. Thursday
2. Friday
3. Saturday
4. Tuesday
5. Wednesday
6. Sunday
7. Monday

According to these studies, the worst day to send text marketing campaigns is Monday. That’s because (you guessed it), most of your contacts will be overwhelmed with the tasks and messages that start their week.

When you text your contacts, you’ll want to make sure (as much as possible) they’re in a relaxed, receptive frame of mind. That’s easiest when you reach out to them on not the most stressful day of the week.

Based on the data for the best times and days of the week to send bulk SMS messages, I suggest testing the following days and times as you build your SMS marketing strategy:

1. Thursday at 2 p.m.
2. Friday at noon
3. Saturday at 7 p.m.

That’s a top three based on my research, but if that seems a little limiting, here are some other time slots to try:

4. Friday between 10-11 a.m.
5. Thursday at 6 a.m.
6. Saturday at noon
7. Tuesday at 2 p.m.
8. Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
9. Thursday between 1-2 p.m.
10. Saturday at 10 a.m.

To this point, you’ve been learning about when you send texts to make sure your customers will see them.

It’s also important, though, to consider which days might yield the most conversions, not just opens.

This is a good way to map out when your texts will give you the most bang for your buck, which will save you some headaches. It looks like Saturday and Tuesday are your best bets for high conversion rates.

Narrowing it down a little further, Textedly’s data offers a good look at the best time to send your text messages (mostly) regardless of the day.

Use these popular times as a guide for scheduling out messages ahead of their send times, and you’ll have perfectly timed texts without much work from you. This data suggests the best times and days to send texts are just before noon and between 7-9 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

💡 Pro tip: Most texts go out on the hour or half-hour marks. To avoid getting lost in the shuffle, send your messages at times like 10:18 a.m. or 12:43 p.m.

Although by this point you’ve learned a lot of concrete days and times that work well for your SMS blasts, there’s really no one-size-fits-all answer as to when you, the owner of your unique business, should send out SMS marketing messages.

That’s because every business has a different target audience with individual habits, needs, and locations.

There are a few ways to narrow down the best possible time to send marketing texts to your audience:

• You can look at the analytics on texts you’ve already sent to figure out which messages they engage with most. Review when you sent those texts and repeat.
• You can send out a poll to ask when they’d most like to hear from you.
• You can simply A/B test your messages at different times on different days to see what works well.

Run a test. Week 1. Try sending it only in the am Week 2. Send mid-day Week 3. Send in the evening. (Doesn’t have to be every week. Just how often or frequently you want to send the promotions). We just want to test different time intervals to see if it increases sales/foot traffic to your business). Compare the results after and then make that choice of when to send. –James, Senior Art Director, source: reddit

🔖 Related Reading: SMS Marketing Best Practices

Send SMS blasts after getting subscribers’ permission

Compliance is vitally important in the world of text marketing, so make sure you have your subscribers’ consent before you text them.

The easiest way to set this up is to use a compliant opt-in method like a keyword or web form.

Avoid sending marketing text messages during rush hours

Going back to my earlier point about catching your customers in a relaxed state of mind, make sure you avoid common rush hours like 4-6 p.m. and 7-9 a.m.

After all, your contacts won’t be paying a lot of attention to your messages if they’re trying to navigate traffic at the same time.

Be respectful of your subscribers’ mornings and evenings

Your customers need a little time at the beginning and the end of their day to decompress, spend time with family, or just relax without worrying about reading or answering a message from a business.

Take time zones and personalization into consideration

When we talk about timing, we also have to take different time zones into account. You may send out a text at 2 p.m. Pacific Time, which is perfect, but keep in mind that your contacts on the East Coast will get that message at 5 p.m., right in time for rush hour.

You’ll also see a world of difference when you start personalizing your texts with relevant details like names, locations, or birthdays that your subscribers have shared with you. You can then use locations to segment your text sends to the best times for each time zone.

“When sending text messages, be smart about when you send them. Think about your customers’ availability and time zones. Use data analytics tools to determine peak engagement times and adjust your messaging schedule accordingly. This way, you show you care about what your customers want, and that makes them like you more and stay with you longer.” – Campbell Tourgis, Executive VP & Chief Operating Officer at Wainbee

Text subscribers when they expect it

Start your marketing messages off on the right foot by letting subscribers know how many texts they can expect to receive from you in a given week or month.

That way, you can be sure they want to hear from you exactly as often as you plan to reach out, and you can comfortably send your messages without worrying that you’ll catch them off guard.

Send texts immediately after transactions

Take advantage of the momentum you have when someone buys from you by sending out a text immediately following their purchase (you can even automate the messages to make it a little easier).

You can include a thank you for their purchase, offer to help them personally with any concerns, or just wish them well.

Remind subscribers of abandoned carts within 24 hours

On the same note, don’t let too much time pass after a customer fails to complete their purchase.

When you notice an abandoned cart, send out a message within the following day (using my recommended times as a guide) to remind them to come back and snag their items.

Avoid sending texts on holidays (potentially)

This one requires some discretion on your part. Sending a sweet text to wish your subscribers a happy Thanksgiving might be okay, but avoid sending a sales pitch on Christmas Day.

Instead, if you’re running holiday-specific deals or content, plan to send them out a week or a few days in advance of the holiday.

Pivot with shifts in the state of the world

It’s not just holidays that require a little restraint. You should also avoid sending marketing texts to your customers when important, distressing current events go down.

When there’s a major tragedy in the news, it’s a good time to take a day off from texting out of respect.

Drew Wilkinson contributed to this piece.