When it comes to determining the most effective and legal way to communicate with cannabis customers, a dispensary text message marketing program has been proven to be the way to go.
SMS Marketing may seem like an old school marketing strategy that doesn’t spring to mind when brainstorming dispensary marketing ideas. But Dispensary text message marketing is a low-cost method with the highest open and click-through rate compared to all other digital marketing channels and ad networks available to the cannabis industry, especially email marketing.
By keeping an open line of communication with your cannabis dispensary’s customers you increase your brand awareness and loyalty and maintain customer satisfaction.
But the question remains, when should cannabis retailers text their customers to optimize their returns and drive sales? This post examines the most effective time windows to communicate with loyalty program customers through SMS messages and which times to avoid if retailers want to maximize engagement.
Best Weekday and Weekend Times
During a standard workweek, the best times to send out or schedule a dispensary text blast to your subscriber list is between the hours of 8 AM through 12 PM in the morning or 5 PM and 9 PM in the evening. The morning window is a period when more people are on their phones during their commute, getting up to speed on emails or grabbing lunch, and can spare a few moments to read texts from their favorite cannabis brands.
Work tends to pick up in the afternoon and parents are most likely picking up their kids from school or practice before 5 PM, making the early afternoon a window when customers are too preoccupied with their busy lives to read their dispensary texts and respond to digital advertising.
However, as the day winds down after 5 PM and people are eating dinner or spending time with their families, they may have more mental energy to read about the latest deals or even unwind with some quick online shopping. Any text after 9 PM that encroaches on a customer’s bedtime routine may be viewed as crossing a boundary and dissuade the customer from giving the dispensary additional business.
Retailers should also be mindful and respectful of customers’ weekly schedules and time zones before sending a promotional text message. People feel the most overwhelmed on Mondays when they need to catch up on tasks that were not completed over the weekend and may find receiving dispensary texts cumbersome when they are trying to map out the rest of the week. Friday is an ideal day to promote weekend spending and has been reported as the most popular day to send out dispensary text marketing campaigns with a 44% increase compared to all other days of the week.
Retailers also have the option to send texts on weekends, but they need to be especially careful of their customers’ schedules. Early morning weekend messages may irritate customers who want to take the opportunity to sleep in and messages sent after dinner time may not reach customers who are out socializing with friends. As a general rule of thumb, weekend dispensary text marketing campaigns should be sent around noon when people are out and about and have the time to make a quick stop at a dispensary.
Relevant as Well as Timely
Regardless of the time window retailers choose to reach out to customers, the messages communicated in these SMS dispensary marketing campaigns are still the key determinant of whether or not customers engage with the retailers. Dispensaries should still only communicate with their customers if they have important promotions or updates to offer.
The best way to stay at the top of people’s minds and text inboxes is to send messages 24 hours before a deal or event starts. This will create a sense of urgency and prevent retailers from spamming customers with too many reminders.
As is the case with every business decision, retailers should continually track open rates within their customer base to see which times and days have the highest level of engagement and adjust accordingly.