Never before has timing been as important in launching a marketing campaign and maintaining customer communications as the here and NOW. With today’s flood of communications and endless messages, maybe what is said matters less than WHEN it’s said.

Consider the significance of this for a moment. Much of the focus as writers, promoters and marketers tends to be on the messaging, but how much attention is currently paid to things like time of day when messages are sent – and more importantly, when they are received?

As real time communication tools like Twitter and status updates on Facebook and LinkedIn and mobile messaging take top priority in fully integrated communication campaigns, the question of WHEN is obviously going to continue becoming more and more significant.

With these real time platforms, readers rarely give a second glance – most blasts, updates or texts are skimmed right away or junked. Given this, you want your message to hit when your audience is the most receptive – including the right day and the right time.

Is it possible to determine this information or is it too dynamic? It depends. Studies exist with benchmarks for best days of the week produce the best open or click rates. These are aggregate numbers across thousands of senders, however, so be leery of the data, because data alone doesn’t take into account your particular call to action, target audience, or recipient behavior.

So…maybe what’s best is conducting your own study. Start with your best guesses based on what you know of your audience, emails and organization and then test to find best days and time combinations from there. Don’t forget to weigh those options against your call to action.

For instance, if your call to action is related to a purchase, obviously you want to consider your audience’s pay periods. If your call is time sensitive, then calendaring is imperative.

Keeping detailed records is what’s going to make or break this methodology. You must have a good system for tracking your end results and then USE the data for future decision-making.

Remember, real-time communications is intended to help messaging be more relevant to your customer. If you’re able to graph and predict more successful times for sending out various pieces of your campaign, obviously you’ll be more successful and ahead of the competition.

Image: stefanomaggi