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How to optimise delivery time for auto-messaging campaigns

← Automated Messaging
If you're setting up an automated messaging campaign for your clients and wondering which time-slot would be ideal to set as the message-delivery time, this article will guide you through all the parameters that you need to consider to maximise client engagement. 

But before we move on to delivery time optimisation, you need to understand how the auto-messaging mechanism works. Have a look at this diagram below: 

As you can make out from the above diagram, wait-time is a time-window for which the message waits before its sent, while the delivery-time is the exact time at which the message is sent. 

You can read more about the difference between wait time and delivery time in detail, but for now, let's focus on the parameters that you need to consider before setting a delivery time for your campaign:
  • Reactive v/s Proactive messages: The first parameter that you need to consider for message delivery is the type of message you're sending － whether it's reactive or proactive?

    Reactive messages include feedback on workout activity and they should ideally be sent immediately after a client completes an activity (for instance － a workout). 

    Proactive messages are reminders or motivational messages that you send to your clients to increase awareness, engagement or conversion (for instance － inactivity nudges). 



    Depending on whether you want to send reactive or proactive messages, you need to set a delivery time. 

    While it's not a strict guideline to follow, but as a rule of thumb, we recommend NOT setting a delivery time for reactive messages.  

    Wondering why? 

    Think about this. 

    If you set a delivery time to 9:00 AM for a trigger "after 2nd workout", because your online bootcamp clients normally complete their workout by 8:30 AM everyday, there's a possibility that your message would get sent one day late, in case one of your clients complete their workout late.

    That's because the delivery time is evaluated after a conditional trigger is fired (refer the above diagram).

    Therefore, it's always best not to set a delivery time for reactive messages. 

    For proactive messages, like fitness advice or inactivity nudges, wait-time doesn't make any sense, and we recommend only setting a delivery time for the message. 

    ideally, the delivery time for such messages should be configured in the high-availability time-window. For instance, you can configure an inactivity nudge message to be sent after work-hours or during weekends, so that your clients get enough time to react to it. 

    Takeaway

    -     Reactive messages: No need to set the delivery-time. Only configure the wait time. 

    -     Proactive messages: No need to set the wait time. Only configure the delivery time. 

  • Informational v/s Actionable messages: When you're configuring an automated messaging campaign with proactive messaging (like, fitness advice, upgrade prompts or inactivity nudges), you might need to set a delivery time, considering the final call-to-action of your message.



    For example, if you're providing fitness advice (informational messages), you can set the delivery time to be in the morning, as that allows clients to take corrective action and plan their workout or meal plans better.

    However, in case you're looking to send upgrade or inactivity-based messages (actionable messages), you should schedule it in the evening, when they have time to act on it. 

     Takeaway

    - Informational messages: Delivery time set to early part of the day, so that they can plan the next steps better. 

    - Actionable messages: Delivery time set to later part of the day, so that they have time to take the action immediately after reading the message. 

  • Automated v/s personalised messages: When you're sending reactive messages to your clients, there can be two types of messages that you might want to send: 

    - messages that need to be sent immediately (like account information or payment confirmation)

    - messages that should be sent after a time-delay (like workout feedback)



    For automated messages, you don't need to set a wait-time or delivery time, so that they are sent immediately after the trigger condition is met. 

    However, you might want to set a wait-time for personalised messages to simulate the feel that it wasn't sent automatically. You might also want to send those messages at a strategic time to maximise the probability of your clients reading the message and reacting to it. 

     Takeaway

    - Automated messages:     Zero wait-time. No delivery time. 

    - Personalised messages:     30 mins - 2 hour wait time. Delivery time can be adjusted based on the factors mentioned above. 

  • Frequent v/s infrequent messages: Apart from the message's delivery time, frequency also has a direct impact on client engagement.

    You don't want to be sending messages less frequently, as that would give the perception that you don't care about them. However, messaging them too often (for instance, after every workout) might seem too desperate, and you'll have a hard time converting those clients.



The ideal strategy we recommend for messaging frequency is somewhere between the apathy and desperation zone.

We like to call this zone the empathetic sweet spot. 

Instead of sending the same message to everyone every day, we recommend creating a message schedule that adapts to specific training packages of clients. For instance, if you're creating an automated messaging campaign for your fat-loss clients, you can identify all the interaction points, which will have a significant update on their training experience, and craft messages for each of those touch-points. Examples of touch-points: - 1 Day After Account Creation - 30 Minutes After Logging 1st Workout - 3 Days After Joining the Fat-Loss Group - 45 Minutes After Completing 5th Workout - 1 Day Before Their Free Trial Ends

Creating a map of these customer touch-points gives you the opportunity to get your client’s attention towards the most important aspects of their training program. As they move up the ladder in their fitness journey, you can shift them to different training groups, and build up engagement towards different packages & plans that you offer (up-selling or cross-selling).  Takeaway
- Set your message frequency to be in the empathetic zone -- not too frequently, not too less. - Outline different training touch-points based on their plan and deliver value with every message that you send.

👉🏻 IMPORTANT NOTE 👈🏻

No time-zone configuration required: You don't need to optimise the messages based on the client's time-zone, as TrainerFu handles that time-translation implicitly.

For instance, if you're in US time zone, and offering online training to a client in Australia, you don't have to optimise the delivery time, based on the time-deviation. If you want the client to receive a message at 8:00 A.M, just set the time as 8:00 A.M, and our software will handle the rest for you.

Next Steps:

You can find answers to frequently asked questions by visiting our knowledge base at http://support.trainerfu.com/knowledgebase.
 
Please feel free to send us email at support@trainerfu.com with any of your questions.
 
Happy Training,
TrainerFu Team

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