Best Time to Send WhatsApp Broadcast Messages for Business Marketing

With around 45-60% click-through rate WhatsApp also offers one of the highest open and conversion rates among any other channel. What more does a perfect marketing channel need? In this blog, learn how to find the best time to send WhatsApp broadcast messages for your business promotions. ‍

WhatsApp takes a central role in today’s eCommerce environment, with countless businesses switching to it for running promotions and marketing. Being a channel with one of the largest user bases, while being both accessible and cost-effective, businesses can enjoy a lot of benefits from WhatsApp, when it comes to communication and customer outreach.

But these numbers can only deliver when you know how to tap into the best of features of the WhatsApp Business API and make the most of them with a clear strategy in mind.

While we have spoken about the other key components of a good WhatsApp broadcast strategy before using QuickReply.ai, this article covers another crucial aspect that can make or break your campaign’s success - best time to send your WhatsApp broadcasts.

How to Pick the Best Time to Send WhatsApp Broadcast Messages for Business?

Business texts unlike casual texts between people, won’t receive the best reception from customers unless you time it right.

To identify the best times to send your business’s WhatsApp broadcast messages there are several things that you must consider. Some of them being:

• The type of message: Different kinds of messages can have varying effects based on timing. For example, holiday-related promotions can only have a great effect around several the holiday seasons.
• Your customers’ schedule: Understand what your customer’s schedules might be and work around them to find the best time slots. For example, most customers wouldn’t want to receive text messages during working hours.
• Your customers’ online habits: Look for the timing where the customers are most likely to be active online, on the app.
• Personal Privacy Laws: Obtain consent and base your broadcast message timings with the customer’s privacy laws in mind.

So, What is the Best Time to Send WhatsApp Broadcasts Anyway?

First of all, you should understand that there cannot be a single perfect timing for sending marketing messages on WhatsApp or any other channel for that matter.

Even with WhatsApp’s high open rates, you cannot expect your texts to work at any hour of the day. Though there cannot be a perfect time, there is always good and bad timing when sending marketing messages.

Each of your customers will respond differently to messages sent at different times. This finally comes down to the customer’s personal preferences.

Some customers like to check their messages at the beginning of the day while others might respond better to messages sent around the evening.

Based on our research, these are considered the best times for brands to send marketing messages on WhatsApp:

• Between 9:00 am and 12:00 pm on weekdays. Usually, during weekdays, this is the time when people might check their notifications before beginning their day.
• Between 5:00 pm and 9:00 pm on weekdays. This is the time when most of your customers wrap up their workday and check their phones. Most customers will only check their phones after they get back home and get comfortable, so the window between 7 pm and 9 pm is ideal.
• Between 10:00 am and 12:00 pm on weekends. Saturdays and Sundays are the best time to send bulk messages, as the audience might have more time on their hands.
• Between 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm on Sundays. Before the next workday begins, this is the time when people are most likely to be relaxing. Saturday nights are a bad idea since that’s the time when most people choose to socialize.

While the above times are considered as a safe zone to send WhatsApp broadcasts and other campaigns, here are some WhatsApp marketing best practices we recommend keeping in mind:

• Check the time zones, and research the markets and customer behaviours, before sending.
• Sales and special event promotions are best sent a day before the weekend (Thursday) or on the morning of the special event.
• Try and avoid Mondays for sending bulk messages, as content that people receive over the weekend might be a competition to your messages.
• Messages after 10:00 pm or 11:00 pm might end up being counterproductive.
• Avoid mass messaging at certain calendar times like special holidays. That is, a Christmas-related promotion is best sent a few days before Christmas than on Christmas day.
• Consider the customer’s private time, to avoid getting lower open rates.

Tips to Find the Best Time to Send WhatsApp Broadcast Messages

1. Keep the Message Type in Mind

When planning a sending time for your WhatsApp broadcasts, keep the type of content the message holds, in mind. Usually, eCommerce business messages are either promotional or transactional. Based on the type of message that you are sending you can narrow down the best time slot.

Promotional messages contain discounts, special sale alerts and similar info that tries to improve brand awareness among customers. They are best sent only during business hours, that is between 8 am and 9 pm.

Transactional messages on the other hand contain crucial info like payment confirmation, shipping-related updates, appointments and verification codes. Transactional messages are time-sensitive and have to be sent right away after a customer triggers them, irrespective of what time it is. If a transactional message takes too long to be sent to a customer, they might worry and this would negatively impact your business.

2. Consider the Calendar and Time zones

Knowing when the customer is more active on the phone is one thing, but this won’t be the case every day. Widely celebrated holidays are a big no-no when sending marketing messages.

When selecting the time for sending WhatsApp promotions to customers over large distances, you also have to consider the time zones. If your customer lives in a different time zone, double-check it and make sure you are sending texts at their “right time”, not yours.

3. Experiment with Different days

Experiment with your WhatsApp broadcast messages, by trying different days of the week and monitoring the responses to see when it is that you fetch better results. By trying different days for different types of messages for your campaign, you can identify the best timings as well as the best days to send promotions, with solid metrics like response and open rates to backup your decision-making.

Not sure if you have found the best time to send your WhatsApp broadcasts? Speak to our WhatsApp marketing experts today.

Top 10 Times you Can Try Sending WhatsApp Business Messages On

1. After Receiving Customer Consent

Any organization that wants to reach customers over the phone, including WhatsApp messages, needs to follow specific rules and codes set out by the TCPA. This includes getting consent from customers before sending WhatsApp broadcasts, full disclosure on what you plan to send (promotional content, payment confirmations etc.) and providing an easy opt-out option for your broadcast subscriptions.

To ask consent from customers, you can simply add a “Receive updates on WhatsApp” button on other interactions like your registration page, or purchase confirmation page. This way you can build your list and start sending out messages after customers have opted-in for your WhatsApp updates.

2. When Customers are Shopping

Send messages when people are browsing and buying from eCommerce stores and websites. You can connect with people with business promotions when they are already in the mood for purchasing, and stand a better chance of succeeding.

Based on a review by SaleCycle, Monday seems to be the busiest day in the week, for eCommerce stores, while Saturdays saw lesser traffic. Sending your WhatsApp broadcasts on Sundays and Mondays when people are more active on online stores, could improve the results you see.

3. When People Get Paid

The last week of the month usually is when most people get paid, and hence can be an ideal time to send in promotions.  SaleCycle's analysis of shopping patterns revealed that even if online sales were comparatively less throughout a month, the sales volume saw an increase on 26th, that is, around the last week of the month.

Customers are more likely to be browsing on site, for the things they want to buy, and with cash in hand or with the prospect of payments happening soon, the last week of the month is the best time to send marketing messages. Customers are also more likely to go for impulse purchases right after getting paid, so a simple WhatsApp message offering the right value could be the perfect nudge they need for a sale.

4. When Shoppers are in Need of You

Studying customer shopping habits can reveal a lot in WhatsApp marketing. Through a careful analysis of the small trends and customer behaviours, you will have a better understanding of when a customer needs your solution. Anticipating when they need your solution can help you perfectly time your promotion to provide them with it.

When it comes to consumable products or products that are of special demand during a specific time of the year, alert customers about them. This not only makes your promotions extra relevant but makes your outreach more in tune with the customer’s needs and interests.

5. Transactional Messages Should be Sent ASAP

Transactional messages convey crucial information like payment confirmations, shipping alerts and order updates. These messages are triggered by the customer’s action, so there is no set time frame to send these. Any delay in sending info of such importance might create anxiety in customers and reflect poorly on your business.

So transactional messages are to be sent immediately after the customer action that triggered it. For example, a message like “Item Shipped.” should be sent right after the item gets shipped. Any delay would make the message grossly inconsistent.

6. Within 24 Hours of Cart Abandonment

The instances where a customer leaves behind items in their shopping cart without completing the purchase are what we call cart abandonment. Each cart that’s abandoned costs your business a potential sale.

Sending a well-timed abandoned cart alert to your customer within 24 hours can help recover some of the revenue that otherwise would be lost. You can sweeten the deal even more with incentives like free shipping, gift vouchers or discounts, to tempt them to return to their shopping carts.

7. When People Visit Your Website

Another ideal time to send WhatsApp broadcast promotions is when customers browse through your website. There is no way of knowing when a customer is browsing through your website, but you can access the busiest days and hours of your website and select the ideal time to send high-value promotional messages. If the odds are in your favour and a customer is already in the store, a promotion with discounts might do the trick.

8. Before Anyone Else Gets a Deal

Each customer expects value from your brand, and conveying that they are special, with exclusive early deals, is a great way to establish that your business is ready to offer that expected value. Provide exclusive deals that other shoppers are yet to receive, give access to limited edition products, exclusive discounts and helpful tips for your subscribers. This will help retain your subscribers and improve conversion.

9. Off the Hour

Leave the hour mark behind and try sending at odd times (within the ideal time windows) like 5:41 instead of strictly sending at 5:00 pm or 6:00 pm. One of the things that any marketer wants to achieve is to stand out from the competition. So, sending advertisements at the same time as every other business sends theirs, will do the exact opposite of standing out. By choosing a unique minute, you could be the only message they receive at that particular moment.

10. In the Morning

The beginning of the day is when most people are super open to new things. So, a message sent between 8:00 am and 10:00 am has a better chance of getting opened and responded to. It is true that most people check their phones within 10 minutes of waking up, but try not to send messages too early. Waking times can vary with different age groups so that is also something to consider.

Time Your WhatsApp Broadcast Messages Better for Better Results!

Ultimately, the best time to send messages to customers on WhatsApp varies greatly based on who your target audience is. Each customer responds differently to different timings, while these can also vary based on the kind of business that you do or the products that you sell. This makes singling down a universal best time impossible.

But understanding who your audiences are monitoring their responses to your WhatsApp messages can help you find the right times. To do this you can use a WhatsApp Business API app that lets you leverage automation to remain timely and personalized.

QuickReply.ai lets you use the WhatsApp Business API to enable smart automation and offer a personalized customer experience.

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