Email marketing has an exceptional ROI. For every $1 spent on email marketing, you can make $42. In order to achieve such an amazing ROI, you need to make sure your emails are opened and clicked by the subscribers. And this requires that you know when is the best time to send a marketing email that will lead to a high open and click rate.
It doesn’t matter whether you are new to email marketing or have been using it for years, if you don’t know the best time to send a marketing email, this article is for you. It covers data from different studies to help you send emails at the right time every time.
When is the Best Time to Send a Marketing Email?
Several studies tracked and analyzed the best time to send a marketing email. The results are interesting and give you a nice idea of the best day and time to send emails to your subscribers.
So, what do these studies conclude?
Let’s find out:
The Best Day to Send a Marketing Email
The best day to send a marketing email is Tuesday followed by Thursday and then Wednesday. This is based on open rates. If you want your email to be opened, send it on Tuesday.
According to HubSpot, however, Wednesday is the second best day of the week to send an email:
And GetResponse found (based on 4 billion emails) that all the weekdays are best in terms of email open rates:
However, it shows that Tuesday has a slightly higher open rate as compared to other days of the week.
Why Tuesday?
Why is Tuesday the best day to send a marketing email?
Here is why:
Monday is the first day of the week. People usually receive a lot of emails when they get back to their office and they don’t get the time to check and open all the emails. They tend to open the most important emails on Monday and this doesn’t include marketing emails.
Ask yourself: Would you open an email from your boss first or a marketing email from a brand you recently started following?
If your email lands in your subscriber’s inbox on Monday or even on Sunday or Saturday, the probability of it being skipped or not opened is very high.
Enter Tuesday.
It is the day when the dust usually settles. People are back in the routine. Most of the people have addressed urgent emails, tasks, and issues that were piled over the weekend. This is the time when your marketing email will be opened.
Why Thursday and Wednesday?
Wednesday and Thursdays have received mixed responses from different studies. All the studies, however, reported that these two are the other two best days to send a marketing email. The majority of studies favor Thursday to be the second most favorable day to send an email.
This is mainly because by Thursday, people are usually done with the current week’s tasks and preparing for the next week. They’re least burdened on Thursday.
The reason why Wednesday is the third best day to send an email is that a lot of people are still trying to deal with the current week’s tasks. If you have lots of work to do, you are least likely to open a marketing email.
The Best Time to Send a Marketing Email
While Tuesday is the best day to send a marketing email, you have to send it at the best time so it is opened and clicked.
What’s the best time to send an email?
Here is what research says:
- 10 am is the best time of the day (be it Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday, or any other day of the week) to send/schedule your emails. This is the time when your email will be received when your subscriber is at the and most probably has his/her email opened. For better results, schedule your campaigns between 10-11 am
- 8 pm is the second most suitable time to send an email if you want it to be opened. This is this time when people are back from their office and have the time to check emails
- 2 pm is another ideal time to send an email. It is the time when people are out of the office for lunch and they have already cleared their day’s inbox. Your email is most likely to be opened instantly if it lands around 2 pm
- 6 am is the fourth best time to schedule your email. This is the time when a lot of people start their day. And your email will be the first they see when they check their inbox early in the morning.
Here is how email open rates fluctuate throughout the day, according to Campaign Monitor’s study:
Clearly, 10-11 am is the peak time when your email is most likely to be opened. This is confirmed by HubSpot’s study as well:
Don’t Ignore the Time Zone
If you want the best results, send emails at 10 am. And this should be the local time of your subscribers, not yours.
If your subscribers are in a different time zone, make sure you schedule emails based on their time zones. All the leading email marketing tools let you select time zones and schedule email campaigns.
A Little Testing Can Reveal More Insights
Do you have to stick with these days and timings?
Yes, but…
You can send emails on Tuesday at all the best timings (as discussed above) but this doesn’t mean you have to always send all emails at this exact day and timing.
Mix things a little bit.
It doesn’t hurt to test different days and timings and see if you see any different results.
For example, if your subscribers are mostly teens, it won’t be a nice idea to send them emails on Tuesday at 10 am. Similarly, if your audience is home-stay moms, you have to try different days and timings.
Keep your subscribers, target audience, and their preferences in mind when creating and scheduling an email campaign. And yes, don’t forget to test different days and timings.
Featured Image: Pexels
