They say timing is everything in life. While this phrase is an obvious exaggeration, timing is nevertheless critical when sending email to workers or customers. In the age of Smartphones, in which people are constantly connected to the web, communicating with workers/customers via email is quite common. Prior to sending the email to your target audience, you invest much thought in the content, design, mailing list, etc.
These are highly important elements; equally important is when you send said email. Optimal timing will lead to maximal exposure to the content and a more effective call to action.
So, how can we assess when is it best to send the email?
Obviously, there is no precise answer to this question, as it relies on several factors: what your target audience is and its nature (workers? Customers?), geographical location, and the nature of the mailed content (newsletter, organizational message, marketing message) and many more.
Nevertheless, let us try to understand the answer by taking a look at the conclusions of several global studies on the subject.
Global studies consistently show that the following days are the best for sending mail:
Tuesday: most studies show that Tuesday's "good place in the middle" makes it the best day in terms of mailing.
Thursday- studies show that if you send two mails a week, choose Thursday for your second email, since it is the second attention peak of any week.
Wednesday- while no study shows Tuesday to be the most popular, it came in second in many studies.
What do the studies say regarding the best time of day to send email? Is there an optimal hour?
10:00-11:00 AM: following the early morning hours in which mails are usually "cleaned" from the freshly opened inbox while not yet nearing the lunch break hours in which we slightly lose our focus.
14:00 PM: usually, the best timing for mailing since immediately after lunchbreak workers tend to slightly shift out of their "work mode" and are therefore more easily distracted.
20:00-00:00 PM: sounds strange, right? Yet according to global studies, it seems that there is a higher percentage of availability late in the evening in which they review emails they didn't have the chance to read. This is a phenomenon directly derived from most people checking their mails via their cellular phone.
6:00-7:00 AM- another surprising finding! When considered, this makes much sense: many workers start their work day by reading their email via their cellphone while still in bed.
Despite some surprising results, I believe that the results presented above are a good start for understanding when it is best to send email. Nevertheless, the best way is to stop for a second and try to understand what most suits your target audience.
For starters, study your target audience: does the receiving side consist of organization workers or customers? What is their schedule? What type of mail are your sending (newsletter, commercial brochure, organizational message, etc.) and how long will it take them to read its content?
What, in your opinion, is the best possible time to send the email in order to call for the action described in it.
You may better understand what suits your situation best by dividing your mailing list into groups, each receiving the exact same email on different days in different hours (according to the aforementioned studies). You can then analyze the results and review which days and hours provided the best results (percentage of availability, percentage of video viewings, sales, etc.)
You can use the table below to conduct your research:
So, before you click "send"- ask yourself: is now the best time to send this email?
References
MailChimp’s insights for send time optimization. – Customer.io’s research on best day to send emails.
GetResponse’s research on the best day to send email. – WordStream’s research on the very best time to send email newsletters.
GetResponse’s research on the best days to send email newsletters. – Experian’s email marketing benchmark.
CampaignMonitor’s research on the best time to send email campaigns.
GetResponse’s roundup of the best time and day to send email.
Σχόλια