Jimmy KimCEO & Founder, Commerce Roundtable · Marketer of 17+ Years, 4x Founder. Former DTC/Retailer & SaaS Founder. Newsletter. Host of ASOM & Send it! Podcast. DTC Event: Commerce Roundtable

SMS timing is crucial... this is why

17 Feb 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:45

In this brief YouTube segment, speakers A and B discuss how SMS messages are opened far more quickly than email. They cite data showing that the majority of SMS opens occur within the first few minutes to about two hours after delivery, creating a highly compressed engagement window. By contrast, email opens are spread over 24–48 hours. The speakers highlight that this rapid response leads to higher open rates for SMS, but also means marketers must act within a short timeframe to capitalize on the audience’s attention. The conversation ends with a call to subscribe to the podcast.

So not only are people opening in high quantities and high proportion, but they're also opening very quickly. It's a very timely channel. The data shows that these messages are typically being opened within the first 3 minutes, right? So maybe within the first hour, maybe like all of the opens are going to happen, maybe first 4 hours.
It's about 2 hours, Chase. That's what we've seen in the data on ESP side as an SMS provider. About 2 hours is when like most of the activity happens and then it almost falls flat on its face where email kind of carries for 24 to 48 hours. It's quite a great Pretty different.
Which is insane. So it's like you get this compressed window of time where all of your opens are happening and you're getting way more opens than email, where email's gonna take you, like you mentioned, upwards of a day or 2 potentially to have all of the opens done. Subscribe to the pod.