As a marketer I often wonder to myself when is the best time to send out my emails. Is there a day or an hour that would be more successful in terms of clicks and opens than another time or day? Will it make or break my campaign if it is sent at a certain time? Today I am going to discuss whether there really is an answer to that question. I have come to a few conclusions of my own, but that is based on my results through testing.

Do a best time and day really exist?

According to mostly everyone you ask, the answer is it depends because the answer is different for everyone. There are a few things that should factor in to your decision:

Your market – do you sell B2C or B2B?

Those looking to target businesses should send during the week – rather than the weekend – but that is obvious

B2C you might get away with sending on the weekend depending on your offer – is it a special sale? However, I personally would still be wary about sending on a weekend – as not as many people are checking their email in timely fashion

The Time of Year – here are only a few examples

Is it a time where people are looking to buy your specific product? :During the holidays people are more likely to buy – that goes without saying – your results during that time of the year may be completely different than say, sending an email in July. That’s why you need to test throughout the year.

Is it a 3 Day weekend - If there is a 3 day holiday weekend coming up I have found that people are less responsive on the days surrounding that long weekend – so say people have Monday off – it is possible people are taking off that Thursday and Friday to extend their holiday

Time of Week

The middle of the week has proven to be best for me – Tuesdays and Wednesdays typically get better results in terms of opens and clicks. Mondays and Fridays seem like the two extremes as Monday people are busy planning their week and catching up, and Friday people are in a hurry to get to their weekend. That seems to be the norm for many marketers based on my research.

However, this is not true for everyone and should not be made law. I encourage you to test and keep testing to find out what days work for you. Say you are an online retailer who has a sale every Saturday and therefore you send a reminder email on Friday. If your faithful customers come to expect that email on Friday, and you send another day you may get less than optimal results

Time of Day

I have found that my best results come between 8 and 10am. Again, this needs to be tested for you as it definitely depends who you are sending to and your message. Hitting readers right when they are going through their emails may be a positive or negative depending on your call to action.

One thing I really like is creating consistency with your timing. Ruelala sends their email every day at 11am announcing their sales for the day. I find myself waiting for 11am to see that email, and I expect it. They have almost trained me to look for their email to see what they have to offer.

Remember there are different time zones! I forget this myself and then have to remind myself that EST is not that only time zone. Keep in mind that sending at 8am in Boston is 5am in San Jose.

The Answer:

The answer is again, that there is a best time to send for each business, but it takes testing to figure it out. This time may change during the course of the year depending on your market. The best advice I can give is to test,test, and keep testing until you find your winning combination. Keep notes on the results of each email and when it was sent. This will help you get closer to finding out what time works for you. The best time is the send and email when the recipient wants to receive it – the hard part is figuring that out – testing and surveying your audience is a good way to get that wining time. I’ll say it again, you can never test too much!