An aspect to mobile marketing that\’s occasionally overlooked is timing. The old adage of \”timing is everything\” rings very true in terms of when you send your marketing messages and how often. More often than not, your timing can even make or break a campaign.
Depending on the nature of your business and the type of campaign you\’re engaged in, there are optimum times to reach your audience. If you\’re a bar advertising Happy Hour promotions, for example, sending your messages at the end of a business day would be far more effective than sending in the morning. Another example would be retailers offering limited-time promotions, mobile coupons, or sales offers. Sending these types of messages at the beginning of the weekend when users are more likely to be available to do some shopping can substantially increase your conversions and chance for success.
The timing of your messages boils down to a delicate balancing act. Send too early and you risk users forgetting your message. Send too late and they won\’t be able to take advantage of your offer. The key to effective timing is rigorously tracking and continuous analysis of your campaign data, results, and statistics to notice trends. Examples of data to evaluate are when you\’ve had the highest open-rates and when users have redeemed your offers the most. Doing so allows you to constantly fine tune your approach for maximum results. Another good idea is to monitor benchmarks for similar campaigns that utilize the same approach. More often than not, other brands have taken a similar approach to yours and already know the best and worst times to send messages. Learn from their mistakes and leverage their research.
Another aspect of timing related to when to send marketing messages is its coordination with other forms of media. For example, if you\’re running a cross-media integrated campaign that leverages traditional media or other mobile channels, it\’s important to time your messages to complement each other. For example, an email notification is a valuable tool for notifying prospects about an upcoming event well before the scheduled date. An SMS message would complement this email by providing a valuable reminder once the event date approaches.
In planning any mobile strategy, place heavy emphasis on timing and do your research. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers or prospects to see when you\’d be most likely to act on the messages you\’re about to distribute. If you receive message A at this time, would you redeem it? What about if you sent message A at this time and followed up with another message two hours later–would it make a difference in your opinion? Ask yourself questions like this to get a better perspective of how users will engage with your messaging. It will undoubtedly pay off in the end.