Messaging Best Practices
PHONE & MESSAGING Messaging Best Practices Overview Successful SMS marketing goes beyond compliance.
It's about sending the right message at the right time to the right person.
These best practices help you maximize engagement, avoid unsubscribes, and build lasting customer relationships through text messaging.
Timing and Frequency When to Send Messages Timing dramatically impacts open rates and customer satisfaction.
SMS is most effective when it arrives when the recipient is likely to read and act on it.
• Business Hours: Send transactional and time-sensitive messages during business hours (9am-6pm) • Lunch Hour: Customer service messages often perform well around lunch (11am-1pm) • Evening Promotions: For consumer products, evening messages (6pm-9pm) can drive conversions • Weekend Timing: Weekend messages should align with when customers are shopping or planning • Respect Time Zones: Always send at the recipient's local time, not your business time • Avoid Early Morning and Late Night: Don't send before 8am or after 9pm to prevent annoying your customers Message Frequency The more frequently you message, the higher your unsubscribe rate.
Find the sweet spot where you maintain engagement without overwhelming your audience.
• High-engagement segments: Up to 2-3 messages per week • Standard marketing: 1 message per week or less • Low-engagement segments: 1-2 messages per month • Seasonal campaigns: Increase frequency only during specific periods • Transactional messages: No frequency limits (confirmations, alerts, passwords) • Monitor unsubscribe rates; increase above 3-5% means frequency is too high Message Content and Formatting Keep It Short and Clear SMS has a 160-character limit per message.