SMS marketing is all about timing! Choosing the right moment to send a text message is just as important as the content - and this is especially true for restaurants. Based on Pongo's experience, here are our tips for texting your customers at just the right time for maximum effectiveness.
In general, in SMS marketing, Monday is considered a weaker day than the others, whatever the sector. On the contrary, Tuesday or Thursday are better days, when the week is well underway, but before the weekend rush.
Experiment and refine your method: the same message can have a multiplied impact depending on the day and time it's sent. More than with emails, the timing of SMS messages needs to be carefully calculated. SMS messages arrive directly in notifications and are opened in real time. They're part of everyday life, and that's why they work: in our experience, 80% of text messages sent via Pongo are read within 2 minutes!
Your text messages are more likely to reach their target after 5:30 p.m. : that's when the peak of text message use begins. Before this time, most people are busy, in class or at work. From 5.30pm onwards, on public transport or already at home, people have more time to relax and read their text messages in peace and quiet.
For a restaurant that sends SMS messages to its customers, the best time is probably before meals. From 11:00 to 11:30 and from 17:30 to 18:00, this is prime time for SMS marketing for restaurants. Then, of course, it's up to you to fine-tune according to the particularities of your restaurant.
Is your table busier at lunchtime or in the evening? Do you specialize in weekend brunches? Do you have a happy hour to promote? Each time, make sure that your SMS messages precede your services by a few hours, so that text message loyalty can make its mark.
The best time to send an SMS also depends on your target and their lifestyle: students or executives ? What age? What are their habits? If your customers are party-goers, opt for text messages on Thursday and Friday, around 6 p.m., when weekend plans are made.
Then it's up to each restaurant to adapt the timing to suit its special services. For example, at Côme, Mondays are always very popular, while at others it's Tuesdays and Thursdays (as is the case with the O'Tacos chain).
On the other hand, whether your customers are night owls or early risers, you need to respect the legal framework: by law, it's forbidden to send promotional SMS messages between 8.30pm and 8am.
Now here's our best advice: an SMS is much more effective when it takes into account individual behavior and preferences. The best time to send a text message also depends on the context and frequency of the visit. For this, you need a good database: it enables you to segment your mailings according to your customers' behavior, and that makes all the difference.
By knowing your customers' habits, SMS loyalty enables you to send a tempting offer to a customer who hasn't been in for 1 month or more, or to reward regulars who come in every Friday. Personalizing the content of the message and the timing of its delivery, all in an automated way thanks to intelligent loyalty, is the best way to ensure that your SMS messages reach your objectives.
It's up to you to adapt these general rules to your own experience: there's no one-size-fits-all method, but advice that can be adapted to the rhythm of your services. Test several methods, select the most effective, and try again! Above all, don't spam: no more than a few messages per month, to communicate with your customers without spamming them.
