Email marketing can be a highly affordable and effective strategy to boost your brand's visibility, attract potential customers, and drive more revenue, no matter the size or nature of your business.
Email marketing still provides a decent ROI when utilized the right way.
But, to fully leverage the advantages of email marketing, it's crucial to execute your campaign with care and attention to detail. This includes figuring out the best time to send email campaigns.
Finding the best time to send email campaigns can greatly impact open rates, click-through rates, and overall engagement.
Let’s take a better look and figure out why optimal timing plays a pivotal role in every email campaign you launch.
When Is The Best Time To Send Marketing Emails?
To come up with the best time to send email campaigns for your business, it's essential to understand the behaviors and preferences of your audience.
Each email list comprises individuals with their daily routines and habits, which can vary greatly depending on your target market.
For instance, if your email list consists of stay-at-home mothers for your baby toy company who tend to check their emails in the evenings and weekends, sending an email on a Tuesday at 9 am may not be effective.
On the other hand, if your email list is comprised of young professionals who are active on their emails during work week mornings, a 9 am email could be ideal for your career coaching company.
By carefully examining the personas of your target audience, you can uncover the perfect day and the best time to send your email campaigns. Through trial and error and continuous testing, you can develop the best email schedule for your business over time.
According To Studies
Based on the analysis of 30 billion emails sent through Moosend and the data collected from each, the optimal time to send an email campaign is between 8 and 9 am.
This data is supported by Hubspot's claims about email marketing. A statistical report indicated that nearly 35 percent of marketers they contacted in the United States believed that between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m., their email marketing campaigns had the highest open rate and, consequently, the most engagement.
Sendinblue concurs, citing 10 am as the best time to send marketing emails. In the same breath, they mention that the hours of 3 pm and 4 pm also recorded high engagement rates comparable to those of the 10 am time slot.
Moosend indicates that 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. are still optimal times to send an email campaign, noting that engagement with email campaigns typically declines after 6 p.m., which is typically the end of the workday.
However, despite the fact that the information presented above has been published by reputable brands, each company emphasizes that these general facts must be weighed against the specific behavioral traits and characteristics of your industry and intended audience.
The Best Time To Send Email Campaigns: Top Factors
When determining the best timing for your email campaigns, it's crucial to take into account several key factors that can greatly impact the effectiveness of your emails.
These factors include:
- Understanding your target audience and their preferences - Each audience is unique. Knowing when they will most likely be receptive and engaged can significantly impact your email campaign's success.
- Considering the industry and nature of your business is also important - Different industries may have varying trends and patterns for email engagement, so understanding the specific dynamics of your industry can help you tailor your timing accordingly.
- Time zones and location as your audience may be spread across different regions, and sending emails at the right time for their local time zone can ensure maximum impact.
Testing - Why It Is Crucial For Success
A crucial aspect of improving your email campaign timing is through A/B testing, where you can compare different variations of your emails, such as send times, days of the week, or subject lines, to see which resonates better with your audience.
Analyzing the results of these tests provides valuable insights that can inform your decisions about when to send your emails for maximum impact.
Monitoring and analyzing the performance of your email campaigns is also vital in evaluating the effectiveness of your timing strategy.
Keeping a close eye on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as:
- Open rates;
- Click-through rates;
- Conversion rates.
These can offer valuable feedback on how well your emails are performing. Regularly analyzing these metrics allows you to identify patterns, trends, and areas for improvement in your email campaigns.
Making data-driven decisions is essential in optimizing your email timing strategy. Instead of relying solely on assumptions or guesses, using data and analytics to guide your decisions empowers you to choose the best days, times, and frequency to send your emails.
Leveraging data allows you to adjust your email campaign timing based on concrete evidence, leading to more effective and successful email campaigns.
Key Tips When Sending Marketing Emails
You need to craft a schedule that is a good fit for your audience. That should be the main goal you need to work toward if you want to figure out the best time to send email campaigns.
Let’s take a look.
Rely on data
Fortunately, collecting data to understand your target audience is easy.
Tools like Google Analytics and Facebook Insights can provide insights into your audience's demographics, locations, and interests.
This information lets you make informed assumptions about their lifestyle and when they're most likely to engage with your emails, setting you up for success.
Open rates
Reviewing open rates from previous campaigns can also be helpful. While the ideal open rate varies by industry, the average is around 21%.
If you've arrived at the point where you were happy with the open rate in the past, there's no need to reinvent the wheel. Simply look at the times those emails were sent and schedule your upcoming emails accordingly.
Rivals
Checking out what your competitors are doing with their email marketing strategies can provide valuable insights.
You can subscribe to their emails and see when and how frequently they send. This detective work can tell you what may work best for your industry and audience.
Tests
Refrain from switching things up once you lay down your first schedule. A/B testing your email send times is crucial to determine the sweet spot for your audience constantly.
Sending one email at one time and another at a different time and then comparing open rates, conversions, and other metrics, can help you identify the most successful time.
It's important to do this regularly as the ideal time may change, and it's crucial to keep adapting and learning what works and what doesn't for your specific audience.
The Worst Time To Send Marketing Emails
According to multiple studies, Saturday and Sunday are considered unfavorable days for sending emails, with Sunday being the least preferable.
In five out of ten studies, Saturday ranked sixth, and in four out of ten studies, it ranked seventh. Similarly, Sunday ranked sixth in four out of ten studies and seventh in five out of ten studies.
Based on these studies, marketing email messages sent on Saturdays are likelier to do better than emails sent on Sundays.
Some studies may show higher open and click-through rates on Saturdays and Sundays. However, it's also worth considering that these days tend to have the lowest email volume.
It’s important to remember that while the open rates may appear higher in general, the actual number of emails being opened is significantly lower these days.
Final Thoughts
What works for one business may not work for another, so it's essential to carefully analyze data and insights to determine the optimal timing for your particular audience.
Experimentation and iteration are key in optimizing email campaign timing. It's important to be proactive and willing to test different days, times, and frequencies to find what resonates best with your audience.
By continually monitoring and analyzing campaign performance and making data-driven decisions, you can continuously improve and optimize your email campaign timing to achieve better engagement, open rates, and conversions.
That is the only way to truly figure out the best time to send email campaigns and make an impact with your efforts.