Improve marketing results by delivering the right message 在 perfect moment. Read on for our guide to mastering the art of SMS timing.
准备好一睹Bird 的风采了吗？
您的客户都是大忙人。他们要兼顾工作、孩子、差事、约会、烹饪、清洁等等。
这就是您的企业在发送短信时所面临的挑战。别管其他品牌如何争夺客户的注意力：您的营销必须突破客户日常生活中的白色噪音。
On the surface, it may seem like an impossible goal. No amount of marketing foresight can prevent a single SMS message from reaching a particular customer at the worst moment possible. But SMS campaign numbers don’t lie, and they reveal a consistent trend: 短信发送的时机对您的信息投资回报率有直接影响.
SMS open windows, on the other hand, are super short. 低于 20 of marketing emails are opened within the first hour of delivery. Compare that to SMS, which can achieve 70% 的打开率 within the first five minutes of delivery.
由于可以将信息发送时间精确到分钟，您的SMS marketing 可以测试不同的定时策略，并制定内部最佳实践，以最大限度地提高短信回复率和投资回报率。
方法如下
确定短信发送时间的最佳做法
理想的短信定时方法取决于您的业务和受众。每条短信在不同时间窗口的表现都会有所不同，这取决于您的业务和受众：
行业
受众人口统计
活动地域
信息内容
当这些变量中的一个发生变化时--比如信息的 CTA 或目标受众群体--该营销活动的理想时机也会发生变化。
But the road to mastering this timing is long. A period of trial and error is inevitable. One way to speed up these test-and-refine cycles, though, is to create a campaign starting point based on widely accepted best practices for 定时短信.
同时，这些最佳实践将帮助您从 SMScampaigns 中榨取更多价值。以下是您的企业需要做的：
1.确定短信发送的最佳时间窗口
让其他商业短信campaigns 的过往表现成为您的指南。短信发送时间的最大趋势之一是在下午发送信息。从各方面来看，效果都不错。
一项研究表明，在下午 1:00 至 5:00 之间发送的短信会产生以下结果 收入增长 33. Based on these numbers alone, a similar delivery window might be worth testing for your business—assuming you adjust the delivery schedule for local time zones.
ǞǞǞ success of afternoon marketing could be the product of several different factors. In general, consumers seem more inclined to 与品牌进行跨channels in the afternoon, resulting in better ROI for this messaging.
But your industry might make a big difference: since consumers are most engaged with online shopping during the 晚间, e-commerce SMS might be more effective when scheduled for prime-time delivery.
受众也很重要。在上午发送的短信可能会在遵守传统作息时间的成年人中获得不错的参与度，但如果是针对喜欢晚睡的年轻消费者，同样的短信可能会表现不佳。请谨慎对待所有关于短信发送时间的建议，选择适合您企业的发送策略。
2.限制在 "禁区 "时间内发送信息
一天中的某些时段是SMS marketing 的禁飞区。这不仅是对用户的尊重，在很多情况下，这些禁飞时间也是合规问题。
当向全球受众发送信息时，这些法律要求就会变得复杂得多。除了时区差异外，每个国家还制定了自己的规则，规定何时禁止发送商业短信，您的campaigns 需要始终如一地考虑这些差异。
以美国为例、 短信 晚上 9:00 至早上 8:00 期间，禁止在商业场所吸烟。 But more than a dozen states have enacted their own 短信条例, some of which are stricter than federal guidelines. In Florida, Oklahoma, and Washington, for example, quiet hours for SMS messaging begin at 8:00 p.m., and other states plan to follow their lead.
ǞǞǞ timing considerations continue to mount as you move abroad. France doesn’t allow business SMS messages on Sundays. 南非 only permits SMS on Saturdays between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. The list goes on—and it can quickly complicate your efforts to develop a consistent approach to SMS timing.
Beyond these regulations, you’ll also need to account for cultural differences, including religious and cultural holidays where certain segments of your audience may not appreciate receiving a branded SMS message.
专业建议: Use an SMS messaging platform like Bird to keep track of these time considerations for you and keep your campaigns time-compliant.
3.建立 A/B 交货时间测试系统
如果您要向多人发送品牌短信，您就有机会进行试验。您可以了解客户更喜欢上午还是下午的短信，工作日还是周末的参与度，甚至不同类型的短信在特定的发送窗口是否能取得更好的效果。
These insights can only be achieved when you’ve created a reliable, repeatable process for A/B testing your SMS. To conduct an A/B test, you will create two identical versions of your SMS message and deliver them to similar audiences at different times of day, or even different days altogether.
When one message outperforms the other, your business might be able to glean a valuable insight to optimize its message timing for future campaigns.
以下是创建成功 A/B 测试流程的三个要求：
在 A/B 测试中隔离一个元素。 If you want to optimize your timing strategy, keep all other elements of your SMS the same. Changing the message content, delivering to dissimilar audiences, or changing other elements will invalidate your insights because you don’t know whether variances in performance should be attributed to SMS timing or other message differences.
将受众随机分成两组。 Use an SMS messaging platform to randomize and divide your audience. The larger your audience, the better. For businesses still building up their SMS lists, smaller audience sample sizes may be unavoidable until you can increase your subscriber count.
确定用于评估绩效的指标。 Whether you’re focused on open rates, click-throughs, conversions, or other metrics, choose metrics that reflect the desired marketing outcome of each message you send.
4.分析绩效并实施变革
每次 A/B 测试完成后，都要检查性能指标，并记下两个交付时间之间的任何显著差异。
在某些情况下，你可能无法发现任何值得注意的变化。不过，当两个信息版本实现了不同的结果时，请提出以下问题：
除了交货时间之外，是否还有其他变量可以造成这种差异？
从我们过去的时间测试来看，这些见解有意义吗？
如何利用这些信息改进我们的方法并安排另一次 A/B 测试？
优化短信发送时间的高级策略
一旦建立了测试和改进信息发送时间的流程，您的企业就应将重点放在更专业的策略上，以优化发送时间并最大限度地提高客户参与度。
An emphasis on audience segmentation, personalized content, and 自动短信工具 can help you develop a more sophisticated strategy for timing your brand messages—and build a more complete understanding of the relationship between delivery times and message ROI.
从这些先进的策略开始：
A.细分受众，量身定制信息
As your SMS audience grows, one-size-fits-all A/B testing won’t tell the full story of how your customers are engaging with your messages. Instead, create 不同的受众群体 to separate the unique customer groups your business serves.
Segmentation by age, for example, can help you deliver more relevant messaging content to that audience, which can change SMS engagement rates. Likewise, different consumer groups may have different daily routines that are better served through a tailored approach to timing.
通过在这些受众群体中进行 A/B 测试，您可以更多地了解目标受众，并通过短信提高整体客户参与度。
B.将时区管理和全球合规性外包给短信平台
Time zone-adjusted scheduling is essential. It also gets very complicated very quickly. On top of that, SMS compliance requirements are nothing to sniff at: a violation of the U.S. Telephone Consumer Protection Act, for example, can net a 500 美元的巨额罚款 for each message delivered to a subscriber.
No business can keep up with managing this web of regulations. Instead, your business should find an SMS platform that offers built-in compliance controls for global SMS messaging. Invest in a platform that streamlines 时区调整调度 so your business can focus on crafting compelling messages and refining your SMS timing strategy.
C.在短信策略中考虑环境因素
您对目标受众了解得越多，您的信息就越能考虑到当地合规性之外的外部环境。文化节日、日常生活、宗教仪式、社会规范和其他背景信息不仅对信息的时间安排很重要，对信息的内容也很重要。
错误是测试和改进过程中不可避免的一部分。如果您犯了一个错误，导致性能不佳或客户反弹，请将事件记录在案，并制定一项战略，以便在未来对这种情况进行说明。
D.信息内容多样化和个性化
短信内容应在短信发送时间上发挥重要作用。在测试和完善策略的过程中，您可能会发现某些类型的信息内容特别适合在一天中的特定时间段发送。
Use this deeper understanding of SMS timing to strike a better balance in the types of messaging you deliver. Balance promotional messages with educational content that enriches the customer experience. Develop a timing strategy for 个性化优惠和建议, identifying the best delivery windows and the ideal frequency of messages.
更多样化的短信策略还能增加企业可同时进行的不同类型的 A/B 测试。随着您的短信战略起飞，您的迭代和优化能力也会呈指数级增长。
E.永远不要认为 A/B 测试是理所当然的
没有所谓的 "最后一次 A/B 测试"。您从 A/B 测试中获得的洞察力会不断累积。测试次数越多，您的 SMS 策略就会变得越智能、越完善。
No matter how strong your SMS performance may be, there’s always an opportunity to learn and grow. Think beyond times of day and days of the week and evaluate the performance of different messaging content and marketing goals across different times of day.
Put message sentiment under the microscope: is positive messaging more valuable at certain times than others? As your subscriber base grows or simply gets older, does your timing strategy need to adapt to changing life patterns or stages?
将 A/B 测试作为一个不可或缺的过程进行投资，您的短信时机就能保持灵活性，满足企业和客户不断变化的需求。
让时间为您服务Bird
When you control message delivery, you control your SMS fate. Businesses that run their SMS marketing 通过Bird can optimize every aspect of SMS campaigns to deliver the best customer experience possible.
从起草信息到确定发送时间，Bird平台可为您的企业提供所需的工具，以建立自定义受众、安排短信发送时间并对策略进行 A/B 测试，同时考虑时区变化和全球合规要求。
没有发送品牌短信的最佳时机。但总有办法让您的短信策略变得更好。这正是我们的强项。
立即利用Bird 的功能 to supercharge your SMS campaigns.