What Is The Best Time To Send An Email Blast?
Timing your email blast properly can increase the open rate by as much as 50%. From years of successful email marketing experience, I can share what has worked best for me.
1. Day of the week - the best response rates for most businesses are on Tuesday and Wednesday. Why? It all comes down to the weekly routine most people follow, whether they know it or not.
Many people use their work email address for email blast subscriptions so they simply won’t see it on Saturday, Sunday or a holiday. Even those who subscribe with their personal account are less likely to open your email blast on a weekend.
Monday is clean out the email inbox day. An email that is buried in the weekend and Monday morning flood is far more likely to be deleted without a look than any other time of the week. People just don’t have the patience to look at each one closely and they figure that nothing important is sent over the weekend anyway.
Thursdays are getting too close to the weekend so people are in the late week push to get things done. In my experience, the only type of message that does best on Thursday is for restaurants and bars advertising Friday happy hours.
Friday – forget it! Their brains are already focused on the weekend and they probably already know what they want to do.
2. Time of day - yes, it can really make a difference! The best response rates are to email blasts that are sent from 10:00 am to 11:00 am and 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm. Once again it all has to do with habits. People are most likely to open an email if they are there when it pops into their inbox. They will at least look to see what it is. Therefore you want to send when they are most likely to notice it when it first arrives. First thing in the morning people are still trying to map out their days. Messages sent too early are likely to get lost in the junk mail and deleted. Lunch time means they either aren’t there at all, or they aren’t paying attention so chances are slim that they will notice your message. Anytime after 2:00 pm they are either busy getting things wrapped up for the day or their brains have already checked out.
Of course there are always exceptions. If you are running a huge sale with a short window of opportunity, sending a reminder just before it starts may work. The same holds true for really important breaking news types of information where time is of the essence. You may not get as many viewers, but the ones who see it will be highly motivated to open it.
By following these very simple observations, your email marketing effectiveness can be improved at no expense.
