24 Sep The Best Times to Send Marketing Emails
A successful marketing campaign arrives in the right place, at the right time, with the right message. I know that’s not super helpful, which is why we get asked, “What time should we send marketing emails?”
I wish I had a straightforward answer. It really depends on your audience.
Is your business B2B or B2C?
Let’s zoom out and look at your business type.
If you are a B2B company, you are likely emailing people at their work email. While some people do catch up on emails over the weekend, many people do not. Therefore, weekdays are best.
If you are a B2C company, the answer is a little more complicated. You need take into account the rhythms of your business.
For example, Realtors might want to email new listings as soon as they are available (especially in a tight housing market). A restaurant might email specials and outdoor dining availability mid-day (during the week and on weekends).
One of our clients is a residential Realtor, and we found that it doesn’t matter what day of the week we send her monthly newsletter. Tuesdays work as well as Fridays. (We have never sent her newsletter Saturday through Monday.)
Another client is solidly in the B2B category. He’s a sales consultant who works with mid-size companies, and he wants to reach the C-Suite. We only send his emails out Tuesday through Thursday. (Mondays tend to be roll-up-your-sleeves-and-dive-in days and Fridays tend to be check-out-early days.)
What time do they open your marketing emails?
It’s metrics time! Look at what time you send marketing emails and when/if people open them.
Let’s say you send your August newsletter at noon on a Tuesday. In September, you send it at 7am, also on a Tuesday. Did it affect your open rates?
What’s really cool is that every email marketing platform out there pays attention to this. On MailChimp, you can optimize your send time. MailChimp will then schedule your email to go out based on historical measures of when people are more likely to open your emails. Use this tool!
Back to our Realtor client. We always schedule her newsletter to go out during “work” hours. Her audience is made up of working professionals, and we found that they open her newsletter during work hours.
Naturally, our sales consultant client’s emails go out during work hours, but we are a little more specific in the timing. Mornings work best for his audience.
Here’s your homework: Open your email marketing platform you use and look at the last six months of data. What days and times work best for your marketing emails? Now you have an answer that’s unique to your own business.
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