Is it time for brands to embrace marketing activities during the weekend?

For online businesses and brands, the world of e-commerce never sleeps. It’s a 24/7 environment and brands looking to get a leg up on their competition can ill-afford to take their foot off the gas and risk someone else taking their place.

That’s why a growing number of digital marketers believe that brands can no longer focus their marketing efforts from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

There are two strands of digital marketing that growing brands should particularly focus on over the weekend hours, putting them on the radar of prospects and existing customers alike.

First and foremost, social media marketing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Facebook or Twitter account or an image-heavy Instagram or Pinterest page, there will always be potential customers active on social platforms over the weekend.

In fact, the chances are most social platforms are busiest at the weekends as opposed to during the week.

Consumers with hectic work-life balances may wait until the weekend to contact brands about their orders or purchases. In which case, e-commerce brands need to adopt a seven-days-a-week mentality to social media marketing, utilizing social channels as a next-generation form of customer support.

It offers more immediacy for consumers and businesses alike and is arguably more cost-effective, reducing the need for a vast team of telephone operators.

There are so many industries that have already acknowledged the need for maintaining services and contact during weekend hours. Financial investors can now place speculative short and long positions within Sunday trading markets before the actual stock markets reopen on Monday mornings.

Online sportsbooks accepted that the peak of live sporting events are staged over the weekend so operate real-time streams and betting markets of live games from Saturday morning to Sunday night.

In the food industry, consumer appetite for weekend takeaways was one of the main factors behind the creation of online takeaway delivery services, giving some restaurants much-needed additional income streams.

It’s not just social media marketing activity that online brands need to step up their game with. Email marketing strategies also need to increasingly take a seven-day approach rather than a Monday to Friday view. Depending on your brand’s target demographic, sending emails and e-newsletters to prospects over the weekend isn’t the waste of time that many email marketers believe it to be.

Millennials and Gen Z consumers increasingly have their mobile devices on them wherever they go. Tech-savvy users will often be tempted into checking emails from brands they have previously engaged with or are interested in.

According to data from ReachMail, three-quarters of American workers check their work email accounts during the weekends. These email viewing habits mean that the B2C market should take note of the changing habits in the B2B world.

The ability to check email accounts at the touch of a button means that the barriers for brands to reach sustainable open rates are greatly reduced at the weekend with consumers as well as entrepreneurs.

In today’s always active, always connected world, marketing activities are having to increase their agility and flexibility to help brands stay relevant and part of meaningful conversations.