Email marketing is a very effective marketing channel when implemented correctly. Email marketing helps businesses acquire potential customers, build brand awareness, as well as develop relationships and retain customers.
However, to achieve the full benefits of email marketing, you must ensure that you are executing your campaign correctly, including sending emails at ideal times.
Why is the timing of sending marketing emails important?
In email marketing software, timing is an extremely important factor. To make marketing emails have the desired impact, marketers need to send them at the right moments.
Every day, each person receives a certain amount of emails. For office workers, only 65% of the emails received will be interacted with directly, while the rest will be trashed or not opened.
A study shows that the open rate of emails drops to about 1% after 24 hours of being sent to the inbox. This means that if your email recipients do not open your email within the first day of receiving it, they are very likely to never read it in the future. And this rate does not include emails filtered out by spam filters of the email service providers.
The best time to send emails is the time that best suits your specific audience. Each email is targeted at different groups of recipients with different internet usage habits. In short, your perfect marketing email timing may not be the same as another marketer’s best email-sending time for a different target customer group.
What is the best day to send marketing emails?
What do studies say:
- According to Experian, emails sent on Tuesday have an open rate of 18%, and Thursday ranks second. Emails sent on Tuesday achieve the maximum open rate, leading to better CTR and higher website traffic.
- Research conducted by Mailchimp and Customer.io indicates that emails sent on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday have the highest open rates.
- GetResponse shows that sending emails on Friday results in the highest open rate of 20.58%, while emails sent on Tuesday show the best click rates.
- Additionally, research also indicates that weekdays show significantly higher open rates compared to weekends.
The research results show some contradictions. Therefore, to accurately determine the best marketing email sending time that suits your target customers, you should conduct A/B testing to verify which day is the best for achieving the highest open rates.
However, generally speaking, it can be concluded that Tuesday is the best day to send marketing emails, and Thursday is considered the second choice according to most surveys. If you have carefully prepared your marketing emails, you can experiment with these two days to send your messages.
When is the best time of day to send marketing emails?
Once you have determined the ideal day to send emails, the next question is what time is best to send emails.
In the modern marketing world, timing determines whether your campaign succeeds or not. It makes no sense to send an email on the right day but at the wrong hour.
An email sent at an appropriate time can convert subscribers into customers, while an email sent at the wrong time can increase unsubscribe rates.
Studies provide different optimal time frames for sending emails.
- MailChimp indicates that emails have the highest open rates at 10 AM.
- However, HubSpot suggests that the best time is at 11 AM.
- According to WordStream, the best time to send emails is on Thursday, from 8 to 9 AM.
- Research conducted by Campaign Monitor shows that most emails are opened on mobile devices; 47% of emails are opened outside working hours, while 53% of emails are opened during working hours.
- Data from GetResponse indicates that the best results are observed around 1 PM.
- Omnisend has shown that the best open rates are observed around 8 AM, with an average of 20.32%. The best time for promotional emails is at 5 PM.
Overall, data collected from different organizations paints different pictures. However, generally, during working hours from 8 to 11 AM is the most suitable time to send emails to customers.Next, there will be a time frame from noon to 4 PM. This is a time that is neither too early nor too late. However, try to avoid sending emails during lunchtime as they are more likely to be overlooked.
Factors to consider when choosing the time to send marketing emails
Customer behavior and demographics
Understanding your customers and the demographics of your target audience is a crucial step when considering the timing of sending marketing emails. They are different people, with different habits. The perfect time to send an email to one audience group may not be ideal for another audience group.
Therefore, marketers need to closely observe and study customer behaviors in different geographical locations.
The products and services you offer
This is another important factor that determines when to send your emails. If you are a provider of B2B solutions, Tuesday is the best time. On the other hand, if you work in the entertainment industry, Friday or the weekend is a better choice.
The email subject line
The subject line sometimes serves as the deciding factor on whether an email is opened or not.
You should not underestimate this factor if you do not want to be the loser in the marketing game against competitors. An outstanding and engaging subject line will attract readers and make them decide to click to read the email.
The frequency of sending marketing emails
Too many emails can annoy your readers, while too few emails might not create the desired impact.
Research conducted by Marketingsherpa has shown that subscribers want to receive marketing emails at least once a week.
User experience
After users open and read your email, their experience will also determine whether they will open your emails in the future.
Emails must be designed to be user-friendly with attractive graphics and easy-to-understand text. It must also be mobile-friendly as over 42% of emails are opened and read on mobile devices.
From the information provided above, we hope you have found the answer to the best time to send marketing emails. Wishing you success!