When is the Right Time to Send Marketing Emails?


Anton Shabatov - April 11, 2018 - 0 comments

The mystery of the best time to send email keeps stealing the attention of the email marketers. However, it can be called soled with some minor clauses. All you need is to study the behavior of various audiences in various industries and come up with the perfect schedule. Why is it important? Mainly because this is how you can reach your target reader. Eventually, the open rates will grow and it will have a great positive impact on your campaign results.

What Popular Studies Say about Time to Send Email Campaigns?

As we already said, only analyzing of the various experiences can help in defining perfect timing for emailing. That is why we have collected results of studies of the well-known companies. Here is the list of those researchers:

  • about best day: Customer.io and GetResponse;
  • about best time: MailChimp, WordStream, CampaignMonitor, HubSpot;
  • general: Experian and MailerMailer.

It is important to mention, that all these companies have done a great job, but you need to take into account that in most cases there were no opportunity to text various industries. So before choosing your approach, make sure it fits your business.

Best Day for Your Campaign

According to the results of the mentioned researchers, there are three days that can fit your campaign, in the order of its priority:

  1. Tuesday. Majority of researchers has agreed that this is the best time to send email campaign of all types.
  2. Thursday. This day is perfect for the second newsletter if your subscription means delivering two letters weekly.
  3. Wednesday. It is not the best variant, but it is on the second place in some researchers, so it can be useful sometimes as well.

You may ask about weekends. Sure, they were mentioned in those researchers and there were high open and clickthrough rates. Despite the percentage is big, the actual amount of sent emails are lower than during the working days.

Best Time for Sending Marketing Emails

So now we move to the particular time of the day. There are a few variants as well:

  1. 10-11 a.m. – late morning emailing is the most popular approach in these studies. During this period people get to their working places and start their daily routine from checking mailboxes.
  2. 8 p.m. – midnight – surprising variant, but the evening and before-bedtime are also productive considering open and click rates.
  3. 2 p.m. – during the break, of after a few hours of the hard work people tend to open their mailboxes to free their brain and switch their focus to something less stressful.
  4. 6 a.m. – it works in some cases as many people start their day with checking mailboxes in the bed.

How to React?

As not everyone can have time and opportunity to analyze the market, it is a good idea to use the existing knowledge to plan your own strategy. However, you do not have to limit your options with the mentioned variants. Everything depends on your audience’s specifications. You can use the results of the researchers for start. But then you need to test them to make sure they fit. Also, you will be able to figure out when is the best time to send an email and adjust everything to make your campaign more effective.

Tips for Defining Your Own Timing

In case you figure out that the offered options are not as good for you as you may expect, then you need to try to come up with ideas for your own schedule. The following recommendations will be more useful than just a common “it depends” answer.

  1. Analyze trends. This is what we did in the previous block. It is important to update your approaches as the world changes all the time. Make sure you are collecting relevant data and compare with your results right now. When the new trend occurs, try to send emails according to the new schedule in order to check the effectiveness of the new strategy.
  2. Study your audience. Different industries perform different results. So focus on your audience in order to define the proper timing. What is their usual daily timetable? When will they luckily to open your email? Do they use a computer or check the mailbox in transport from their mobile phone? Think wider to fit the lifestyle of your target audience.
  3. Mind your campaign specifications. Considering the right time, think of the peculiarities of your campaign. What day or time will be suitable for the content of your message? Also, you can highlight that you choose the best time to send email blast via the subject line. You even can make it sound urgent (a bit). It will attract subscribers with the opportunity to get up-to-date info on the relevant topic.
  4. Set expectations. As soon as you figured out what timing is perfect to you, stick to it. Your subscribers will get used to receiving emails from you on the particular day and time. It will make them look forward to your next letter, but only on terms, it will be interesting, relevant and well-tailored. Also, you can inform your potential subscriber about the schedule of your emails in order to set their expectations before they sign up. Follow your promise.
  5. Testing. There is no email marketing without testing activities. It is important especially when you have a large email list. The segmentation can be helpful. Divide the list into a few groups and use the same approaches on the different types of receivers. Or do the opposite, deliver emails on the different days to the groups of the people of the one type.

Best Time to Send Email: Why is Schedule Important?

Email marketing works only when it is consistent. It is a process but not the one-time thing. There are a few reasons why choosing the best time to send marketing emails is important. The list includes educational, marketing, relationship building purposes and so on. Let’s take a closer look at them.

Educational purposes

As a provider of the service or the producer of the product, you are well-aware about its specifications. The consumer requires time to get the idea what you offer and why they need to pay attention to it. Use emails as a tool for explaining what your company does, what your business specifications and the perks of working with you. The well-designed schedule helps to provide the info to the readers and maintain their interest. As soon as they understand your benefits, there are more chances to have a deal.

Sales purposes

You can save some money if you make your email campaign consistent. You need to make people expect emails from you. The more time you build this relationship, the more chances you have that in case of the need for your service or product the person will remember you. If you offer them a coupon on a regular basis, soon they may decide to use it. It will be an encouragement to work with you, as the receiver sees your relevant emails and the financially beneficial element. Receiving messages a few times a year will never bring such results.

Building relationship purposes

With regular emailing, you maintain the connection with your clients and prospects. When you send emails to them, you make an investment in your future mutually beneficial relationships. Scheduled letters help to keep your company in minds of your subscribers. They will be aware of the recent offers or changes. And the more information they will know about you, the more chances for the purchase.

Treating email subscribers

When you keep your campaign consistent, you make your subscribers expect an email from you. They also expect to get the relevant letter, with useful information. They opted for it and you have to fulfill their expectations choosing the best time to send emails. So do not miss a chance to treat them with up-to-date materials, attractive offers, and discounts. Delivering such types of emails on the regular basis, you prevent any cases of disappointment. Also, the receivers will know that your business is still alive and blooming.

Leveling up your trustworthiness

Consistent messages with the expected information on the relevant to the receiver’s interests topic are good at building trust between the company and the subscribers. They see that you know a lot about the field you work in and you can provide them with useful tips. This raises their informative base and they can make a decision to buy your product or order the service due to their own knowledge. You will be considered as a real expert and a trustworthy service or product provider.

Timing Isn’t Everything

It is great to know when is the best time to send an email for your campaign but is it all? No.

What if you did everything right considering choosing the right schedule but still do not have the expected results? This situation can be due to other factors. The following tips will help you to check what else can be wrong and require fixes:

  1. Testing. It is the most common advice in the email marketing. But that is the only way you can check the layout, spam detection and other features without risks of spoil the audience’s impression on your campaign. It includes sending emails to your colleagues and your own addresses, as well as A/B testing to check whether your subject line is proper.
  2. Keep your email list updated. Clean it regularly from the inactive addresses in order to keep deliverability and open rate high. Work on adding new contacts and select effective ones. Verify the email lists regularly to make sure you are working with real people and do not waste your time on the “dead” addresses.
  3. Frequency. Make sure you do not send letters too often or not enough. In the first case, the receivers can get annoyed. In the second one, they will not have a chance to follow the thread of your emails and materials.

Check all these elements despite the results of your best time to send an email choice. Only when you are sure that another aspect of your campaign is all right, then you can work on your timing improvements.

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