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You’ve probably been told to never message or call customers after 10 PM. But you’ve also learned that it’s really important to contact new leads immediately for higher chances of a successful outreach.
So what if a lead submits interest on your website or ad at 11 PM, or even 1 AM? Is it still okay to contact them immediately if they submitted their details late at night?
It’s absolutely okay to message new leads that come through at night. Even though it’s late, you know that they’re actively browsing your advertisement or website, and that they’re looking for specific information right now.
In this case, you could quickly send them a text or WhatsApp – ideally within 5 minutes of them registering interest. There’s no need to wait until the next morning, when you might forget to do so, or the lead might have already found the information they wanted from another business that responded faster.
HOWEVER, while it’s important to be responsive, you should still try to avoid being disruptive. Here’s what we mean.
❌ Don’t call leads in the middle of the night
You can message leads late at night, but you shouldn’t call them, even though you know that they’re currently online. In fact, this rule also applies to any new leads that you receive during the day.
Remember that this would be your first ever interaction with a prospect. A phone call is noisy, both the initial ringing and vibration, plus the subsequent conversation. It takes more energy to respond to, and is also very easy to ignore.
None of these are good if your lead is tired or browsing their phone in bed with their spouse or kids sleeping soundly beside them.
As a result, the prospect doesn’t pick up the phone. They might even block your number straight away, seeing that the call is coming from an unknown number.
So what should you do instead? Just send them a message – quickly introduce yourself and why you’re messaging them. In fact, you’re more likely to connect with new leads successfully when you text them first instead of calling.
🌃 What if they respond to my message quickly? Should I keep the conversation going, even though it’s late?
Hey, it’s a great thing that they’ve responded to you immediately! They could be super interested in your product or service. You can take cues from how they’re interacting with you, and decide what to do next.
If they’re actively engaging in a conversation with you, you can keep answering their messages. However, if their messages start to slow down, or they stop replying altogether, then you might want to pick up the conversation the next morning instead.
Remember: Be responsive, not disruptive.
🤔 What if I received a lead during the day, but only have time to respond at night?
Do note that the tips we just shared only apply to leads who submit their details late at night. It doesn’t count if you check your leads at night, but they actually submitted their details earlier in the day. Messaging these leads hours later in the middle of the night could be considered super annoying. 🙈
We get it. Sometimes life happens, and for some reason you can only check or respond to your leads at night. If it isn’t too late, say around 9 PM, you can still send that message instead of waiting until the next day.
But if there’s a good chance that they’ve already gone to bed, then it makes sense to wait until first thing in the morning. Not only will you avoid risking waking them up, you’ll also have the best chance of them seeing (and responding) to your message in the morning, since their most recent notifications show up first. 💡
😟 I messaged the lead and they didn’t reply. Should I have contacted them during the day?
If you’re not getting many replies from your leads, it might be useful to take a look at the message you’ve sent them, and make sure that it follows the 10-second rule of messaging.
A simple change to your outreach message can give a huge boost to the number of replies you get from new leads – it doesn’t matter if they submitted interest in the morning, afternoon, or late at night.
