Is there a best/most effective time to send an email? It’s debatable, that’s for sure! Many will say that ‘it depends’, and, technically, they’re right. That’s not to say, however, that we don’t have a few top tips to get you started.
Which days are best, really?
Multiple studies show that the BEST day to send an email is Tuesday, closely followed by Thursday. If you think about it, these results make a lot of sense (although, not to be taken as gospel). Fewer people are going to pay close attention to non-urgent emails on Monday as they are busy catching up after the weekend. Then, Thursday is the perfect day to check your emails to close everything off for the weekend ahead.
The most effective time to send an email
Did you know, 23.8% of all opens happen within the first hour of delivery? So, what’s the most effective time to send an email to optimize these open rates?
The top times to send are:
10 am – Late morning is by far was the most popular time to send an email; 10 am being the clear winner.
8 pm – Late evening is also a popular time as many people check their emails before going to bed. As you can imagine, it’ll help a lot of people wind down; they are reassured and know that nothing has been missed/ anything urgent has come in.
2 pm – Then, we have the afternoon slot. People are on their lunch breaks or in ‘out-of-work’ mode after a busy morning; they are looking for a quick distraction.
6 am – According to recent studies, 50% of people start their day by reading emails in bed. As we found out in our post on “The History of Email: Best Bits!“, before social media, people were and remain emailaholics. They are addicted to checking their emails every day and at all hours. Great for you email marketers out there, not so great for our society! 😢
Finally, do your own testing
Don’t rely on these studies alone! You’ll need to carry out A/B testing on your own mailing list. Each company provides a different product/service, so each mailing list is going to have a different demographic with different habits, right? For example, an 18-year-old female is not going to have the same “email reading time” as an 80-year-old male. Therefore, if you want to get this right, there is no way you are going to get out of testing on your own list. We’d recommend starting with the days and times mentioned above; they were the clear winners, so it’s a good place to start. You’ll then want to test them against a random day/time of your choice. As your list grows, seasons change, products change and so on, you may want to carry out further testing to ensure that the day and time you chose continues to be the most effective time to send an email.
If you have any recommendations on the most effective time to send an email, feel free to comment below, we’d love to hear from you.
