Tuesday or Sunday? 9am or 9pm? A custom schedule?
As a marketer, you’ve probably asked yourself many times, “When should I send my email campaign?”.
Luckily, many companies have already discovered the best day and time to send marketing emails. Our team has analyzed the latest scientific research, studies, and experiment results to find out once and for all what is the best time to send email according to science.
Weekday or weekend?
In 2013, Experian published their widely covered quarterly email marketing study, according to which:
- the highest number of emails were sent on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays
- the best open rates have been detected on Saturdays and Tuesdays
- the click-through rate was the highest on Sundays
Here’s what their stats looked like:
According to that study, the best days for emails should be Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday. Many have since used the study to build their email sending schedule.
However, 5 years have passed since, and that’s a long stretch of time for the rapidly developing marketing world. So let’s take a look at the freshest study we have – a 2018 study from GetResponse, and compare how things have changed in the last half-decade.
According to these results, things have changed: the weekend is no longer a good time to send your emails (notice the green arrows pointing at the dive in open and click-through rates during the weekend).
However, Tuesday still provides good results, with % of messages sent, as well as open and click-through rates, still at the top. Surprisingly, Friday also seems to be a good option.
This can be explained by the average schedule of any office worker: having dealt with the chaos of Monday, you’d be most ready to actually go through and respond to emails starting Tuesday. Less people now dedicate their weekends to emails.
Verdict: While your individual results may vary, the latest study shows that weekdays beginning with Tuesday provide the best results. Avoid the weekends.
Morning, Lunchtime, Afternoon or Night?
So you’ve chosen the day for your campaign. But what about the time?
This 2018 research by Omnisend shows us what we already know – emails get opened the most when people are most productive. Look at the graph below.
The peak open and click-through times are 8am and 1pm, though hours between 8am and 4pm (the average working hours) are all great for sending your email.
Another study by Campaign Monitor confirms these results, placing peak open time at 10am.
And HubSpot agrees in their 2015 survey, defining 11 am as the time with the greatest number of emails opened:
The numbers say this, but what do the humans think?
Well, Databox have conducted a series of interviews in which they’ve asked 36 marketers about the best time for sending emails: 19 of them have stated that they send their emails in the morning (preferably mid to late morning); 5 preferred daytime; one of the interviewees mentioned late evening. 50%, however, said that there is no perfect time for sending emails as every subscriber is unique and they would need more information to define a perfect time.
Verdict: All studies place the perfect point at 10-11am, with the optimal emailing time between 8am and 4pm. Before you start taking notes and scheduling all emails for 10am, make sure you consult your Perfect Buyer Persona profile. Who is your perfect buyer and when would they be most likely to read and reply to your email? Numbers are great, but nothing will ever beat individual approach.
Conclusion
When it comes to choosing the best day and time to send marketing emails, logic wins: the optimal time is Tuesday to Friday, from 8am till 4pm. But if you’re looking for a specific point in time, most studies identify Tuesday and Friday as the best days, with 10-11am showing the best results when it comes to open and click-through rates.
However, your audience is very specific and needs individual approach. A/B test your timing to find the day and time that’s best for you.
Are your open and click-through rates still low? Your subject line and email body may be to blame. See how to avoid spam filters to always stay on top.
Good luck!