Maximize Reach - Know When to Send

Most of us have a general idea of the places we are most likely to reach consumers. The next question we need to ask is when? Whether your main focus is social media, email or mobile, here are a few findings as to the best (and worst) times to reach your audience in order to achieve the highest level of engagement.


(Keep in mind these times may vary based on your industry)


Social Media

According to Mashable, Wednesdays (particularly around 3:00 p.m.) are consistently the busiest periods in which consumers are active on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+.

Also, weekdays around 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m., and 8:00 p.m. tend to have the highest levels of engagement.

When NOT to post: As you can see from the chart, on weekends (particularly Sundays), consumers are far less active.

http://mashable.com/2010/10/28/facebook-activity-study/

Adam Ostrow of Mashable stated, 65% of Facebook users only access the site when they're not at work or school - typically early morning or evening. That means if you're making social media only a part of a 9 to 5 workday, you might be missing out on connecting with consumers during the times they're likely to be online."

Email

Email is NOT dead! It is estimated that there will be 3.8 billion email accounts worldwide by 2014 - with 74% of those belonging to consumers. This means that there are still plenty of opportunities to reach consumers via email.

With that said, when is the best time to reach them? According to MailChimp, most people open emails during the day as opposed to the evening, specifically after 12 p.m. (2 p.m. - 5 p.m. being the most active).

Also, more emails are sent during the week (Tuesdays and Thursdays).

 (Source: MailChimp)

Mobile

Americans spend 119 minutes per day on a mobile device, according to Compete. While we check our mobile devices every 6.5 minutes, there are still certain times in which consumers seem to be more likely to engage with businesses.

Gigaom reports that mobile app usage is the highest during prime time (peaking at 9 p.m.). Throughout the day, from 7 a.m. until 11 a.m., mobile apps reach more than 20 million Americans per hour.

As the number of smartphone users continues to rise, we can expect much higher levels of engagement via mobile devices; and as we outlined in a previous article, there are a number of ways to "Attract and Retain Customers via Mobile Technology."




by Samantha Warner
Marketing Extraordinaire