When is the best time to send out my emails? It seems like a very simple question and it would be great if it had a single simple answer. In this post, we will share with you what the research says about the best times for emailing. Ultimately, this is important information to know so that you can achieve the most out of your emailing efforts, by ensuring more people are opening your emails and clicking through to your blog or website, and you are getting higher shares and conversion rates.
We will make it as simple as possible by providing clear answers to the following:
- What is the best day of the week to send your emails?
- What is the best time of the day to send your emails?
- Identifying the best time to send an email to your email list.
These studies provide some valuable lessons and point out many important considerations, but they can never be definitive answers which are applicable in all cases. But, to start with reading on and arm yourself with the basic information, so you are not simply guessing and hoping for the best. You don’t need to figure it all out from scratch when others have already researched the best time to send your emails.
Table of Contents
What is the best day of the week to send your emails?
Tuesday is the ultimate winner most often, but Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday recurred in the top-two across various studies. According to Megan Marrs at Word Stream, it is wise to avoid the Monday madness and the Friday itchy-feet.
The HubSpot data showed that Tuesday is the best day to send email, followed by Monday and Wednesday in a tied second.
MailerMailer also found Tuesdays best for opens, with second place going to Wednesday. The Mail Chimp study found Thursdays, and then Tuesdays best. There are mixed results for Saturday and Sunday typically not good for opens, but some studies, including Dan Zarella, do show positive results on the weekend.
The basic rule here is that mid-week is the best.
What is the best time of the day to send your emails?
The overall result here is that 10 am is the simple answer. This was the clear conclusion reached by the analysis at Co-Scheduling and studies by Campaign Monitor, Mail Chimp and MailerMailer.
HubSpot research also supports that emails sent in the late mornings get the most opens. It suggests the best results are achieved by sending emails at 11 am.
Across the various studies are also some afternoon peaks identified, with different data from Mail Chimp cited on Word Stream as suggesting 2 pm as the best time.
The blocks of time which are most consistently pointed to and which you should prioritize are 9 am – 11 am, then 1pm-3pm.
Some studies also showed that opening times for emails in the evening from 8 pm-midnight can be quite high. Campaign Monitor attributes this to people checking their email before bed. Surprisingly, Dan Zarella’s research showed a 6 am peak and also pointed to high opens in the evening.
You will also need to make sure the times you send your emails are for the time zone that most of your customer is situated in. This will be a local time for locally based companies, but most likely you will need to pick the most suitable time zone based on what you know about your subscribers, or where the majority of the general population lives (in the US that is the eastern time zone).
How to know the best time to send an email to your email list
The above information gives the clear starting point for sending your emails at 10 am on Tuesdays. However, as with everything related to your marketing and promotion strategy, you need to know your market and tailor your emailing schedule to suit your own customers’ behavior and preferences. Understanding your own email list is the key to getting the best results you can in your email marketing.
Word Stream points out that the device that your customers read your email on also has an impact. Users on desktop computers are more likely to read their email during business hours, whilst mobile device users often also read their emails late into the evening.
So, the reality is that you will probably need to experiment a little to achieve the best engagement and response. Every email list has different characteristics, and what works brilliantly for one group, may be missing the mark for another list. Younger audiences might be more open to receiving emails in the evening, or your product might be exactly what someone needs to see when planning their weekend, making Friday a good option.
To really get to the bottom of unlocking the best results for your email marketing list you are going to have knuckle down and plan out some testing. Based on the information above plan out a list of possible email times, and go down your list as you send each of your next emails. Most emails are opened within an hour, so you can afford to send your emails about 30 minutes before the peak times.
A list of 10-12 different send times should be a good amount, to begin with. Think through what you know about your audience and there might be some patterns that emerge to base your testing on. Another option is to incorporate some A/B testing and if you can send the same email at different times, to a random half of your list.
Co-Scheduling outlines some steps for using Google Analytics to then look at the results of your testing by analyzing your website or blog traffic. You can also use the data available from your email services provider.
Here is the full list of studies, where you can also see some fancy graphics of the data:
- MailChimp’s insights for send time optimization
- HubSpot’s best time to send a business email report.
- GetResponse’s research on the best day to send an email.
- GetResponse’s data on the best time and day to send an email.
- WordStream’s research on the best time to send email c
- MailerMailer’s report on email marketing metrics.
- GetResponse’s research on the best days to send emails.
- io’s research on the best day to send emails.
- Experian’s email marketing benchmark report.
- CampaignMonitor’s research on the best time to send email campaigns.
