You’ve Got Mail: The Best Time to Send Emails to Your Clients
While creating quality and relevant content is essential to email marketing, another vital aspect that one must consider before clicking that send button is time. Optimizing the day and time of sending your email campaign will help improve your click-throughs, open rates, and conversions. Marketers and email automation platforms have conducted several studies to answer the question, “When is the best time to send an email?” That answer varies depending on the industry, type of email, audience demographics, and more.
In general, data shows certain days of the week and times of the day when emails get higher engagements. But it is clear that there is no specific timing that is one-size-fits-all. What worked for these marketers and businesses may not necessarily work for you. This is why the ideal action is to use these findings as a guide and test the timings yourself to see which times have the best traffic and conversion.
Day of the Week
Marketers collectively agree that Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are the best days of the week to send your emails. This is because people are more likely to check their emails in the middle of the workweek.
We have found that more business-oriented emails have the best engagement on Mondays and Tuesday as people browse through emails at the start of the workweek to see any pressing matters that might affect that week’s schedule. On the other hand, by Thursday and Friday, people are starting to think about more social, leisure-based activities. For restaurants, hotels, and community newsletters, later in the week might be a more optimal time to send emails. Not surprisingly, emails sent on the weekends perform poorly compared to those sent on the weekdays. Still, if it’s necessary for your campaign, sending one on a Saturday rather than a Sunday is more advisable.
While these are the general findings, it is still worth a shot to test sending emails on days considered less favorable. Considering that most businesses will probably send emails between Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, people would be bombarded by tons of emails, which means lower chances of them viewing your emails. By strategically sending your emails on Monday or Friday with less competition, your email might have a better chance of getting noticed and receiving engagements.
Time of the Day
While several studies suggest different time frames, most campaigns found the highest audience engagements between 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM. This means that sending your emails at regular business hours is still ideal. People are likely to check their inboxes at work or during breaks and lunchtimes. Emails sent between 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM are also effective as this puts your emails at the top of their inboxes before they start their days.
Another useful tip is to send your emails a few minutes after the start of the hour. For example, instead of sending an email at exactly 10:00 in the morning, you should schedule your emails to be sent out at 10:10 AM since other marketers are likely to schedule their emails right at that hour.
When testing the best time to send an email, look at both open rates and click through rates. If you send your email at the same time as other emails, your recipient may scroll through and delete several emails at once. This can register as an open, but isn’t a strong engagement. If you get a slightly lower open rate, but much higher click through rate at another time of day that demonstrates higher overall engagement.
Tips for Testing Your Email Timings
The rule of thumb is always to know your audience first. Understanding your audience demographics, habits, interests, and common practices and catering to them is key to an effective email marketing campaign. Aside from relying on the data provided by your email service provider based on your previous campaigns, make sure to check your data, including website traffic, social media engagements, and Google Analytics. By gauging your business’s performance and conversions, you can better understand whether your campaigns and timings are effective.
As mentioned earlier, results may vary depending on several factors, such as your target audience, industry, and type of emails. For the younger and more tech-savvy audience, sending emails even at night is still viable as their generation tends to check their emails on their phones. If you’re a business in the tourism or entertainment industry, emailing on a Friday afternoon might be more effective as people plan things to do over the weekends.
Testing which days and times work the best for your email campaign might seem complicated, but this is an essential aspect of leveraging your business and reaching your customers. If you’re a new business looking to implement emails in your marketing plan or a company seeking to optimize your email marketing potential fully, contact C2 Communications to learn more. We offer expertise in analyzing your audience, creating relevant content, and enhancing your digital marketing strategies to improve your business.