Mid-morning to coincide with a coffee break? Lunchtime? At the end of the afternoon when people are starting to think about going home? When IS the best time to send your marketing emails?
The answer may surprise you
Research has been carried out by a leading email marketing company into what is the best time of day to send out your beautifully crafted HTML emails. The results might surprise you; for example, B2B marketers frequently preferring to open their emails after office hours, and consumers choosing first thing in the morning to check theirs.
Marketing emails are unique to each business
Each company will have a different time than most suits their target audience – for example, a nightclub wouldn’t expect their emails to be opened before lunchtime if they’re sending at the weekend.
General rules
The general rules that were found are below, but make sure you test out for yourself before you commit to a certain time:
- The Abyss – nothing’s getting read (10pm to 9am)
- Consumer AM – a popular time for consumer emails (9am to 10am)
- Do Not Disturb – heads down working so leave alone (10am to Noon)
- The Lunchtime News – only send pure news items during lunch (Noon to 2pm)
- In The Zone – heads down again (2pm to 3pm)
- A Life-changing Afternoon – popular for financial, holiday, moving house emails (3pm to 5pm)
- Working Late – a B2B marketers prime time (5pm to 7pm)
- Last Orders – you can sneak some in here to consumers depending on product (7pm to 10pm)
Another rule of thumb is to send at the time that you gain the most conversions from your site or even better, use a tool like Intelligent Time Sending (ITS) to send to each recipient at the time that is most appropriate to them. ITS will work out when a recipient opens their emails and will then automatically send future campaigns at that time.
Next steps
Of course, this is one factor in your marketing emails’ success. The content and call-to-actions will also influence your customers’ behaviour when engaging with your emails.
We’re always happy to have a chat about any aspect of your digital marketing and online brand, get in touch today to learn more.