When you’re trying to time to send new subscribers Emails, timing is everything.
You don’t want your subscribers opening your emails when they’re checking their inboxes in-between meetings or as soon as they get home and turn on their computers.
You want them to open them when it’s convenient and will be most beneficial. The question then becomes: which day of the week generates more openings? Read on to learn about the best times to send emails for maximum impact.
Key Takeaway
When it comes to email, timing is crucial. No matter your industry or campaign, if you want a big impact, you need to send emails at a time when most people check their inboxes—and that’s between 2 and 3 hours after they’ve woken up in the morning (8 am – 11 am).
After that window, most of your subscribers go about their day and don’t check their inboxes again until later in the evening.
How To Know The Best Time To Send Email
A great way to find out what time of day is best for sending emails is by using an email tracking tool like Boomerang or GetResponse (both are free).
Both tools let you set up auto-responders that track your subscribers’ behavior, including what time they usually read their messages. You can also get a general idea by looking at analytics data from popular email providers like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail.
They provide detailed information about which times of day your emails were opened and clicked on. To see when your subscribers typically check their inboxes, look at these three metrics:
1) Open rate 2) Click-through rate 3) Bounce rate An open rate tells you how many times someone has opened your message; a click-through rate shows you how many times someone has clicked on something in your message, and a bounce rate tells you what percentage of people never even looked at it.
When you compare your open and click-through rates to your bounce rate, you can figure out which times of day bring more value.
If your open rate is high but your click-through rate is low, then maybe you should be sending emails during different hours. On average, there’s no perfect time to send your emails. However, based on stats from major email providers, here are some general guidelines:
- Sending emails between 10 am and 11 am tends to give you higher open rates than any other hour of the day.
- Sending emails between 7 pm and 8 pm tends to give you higher click-through rates than any other hour of the day.
- Sending emails between 4 pm and 5 pm tends to give you lower bounce rates than any other hour of the day.
Based on all these findings, I recommend choosing one of two options:
- Schedule all your emails to go out around 9 am every morning. This will maximize your open rates while minimizing your bounce rate.
- Choose one hour each day: —say between 6 pm and 7 pm—and schedule all your emails to go out during that period. This will maximize your click-through rates while minimizing your bounce rate.
Either option works well because you’re going to be reaching people who are either just waking up or just getting home from work, so it won’t matter much whether you send emails early in the morning or late at night.
No matter what, remember to always test and measure. Make sure you’re not only sending your emails at optimal times but also that you’re keeping your subject lines interesting and relevant. If you do, you’ll be able to reach your audience effectively and build trust over time.
Also, check this out
Best digital marketing tools
What’s An Open Rate
An open rate is simply how many people that received your email opened it. Even if someone reads an email in their inbox but doesn’t open it, it is counted as a read. However, opens are only one of several metrics used to gauge success.
Click-Through Rate
Click-through rate (CTR) is an important email marketing metric that measures how many people open your messages versus how many ignore them. Put simply, click-through rate refers to how effective your subject line and email copy are at convincing recipients to follow a link.
If most of your emails go unopened, then you have a low click-through rate. A good benchmark for CTR is 1%–3%. Anything above 3% is considered excellent; anything below 1% is bad. If you have more than 10,000 subscribers on your list, then 3% would be considered very good. But if you have less than 100 subscribers on your list, then 1% would be poor.
Nevertheless, there isn’t an exact formula for determining what constitutes a good click-through rate. It depends on your industry and other factors like several emails sent per month, etc. So here are some helpful tips to increase your click-through rates:
- Keep Your Subject Lines Interesting – Always write something catchy and attention-grabbing so that users will look forward to opening up your emails every time they get one from you.
Use powerful words that give readers a sense of urgency. Use words such as urgent, hurry, limited period offer, etc. You can also use questions to grab the reader’s attention such as Do you know where I can find…? or Do you know why…? Remember though not to make your subject lines too long since they might end up getting cut off by mail clients.
- Add Social Media Links – Including social media links in your emails will help build trust between you and your customers. It gives customers a way to connect with you via their preferred social network. Social media links may include Facebook Like buttons, Twitter Follow buttons, Google +1 buttons, Pinterest Pin It buttons, and more. They all work differently but they allow visitors to easily share content on their favorite social networks with just one click.
- Make Sure To Include a Clear Call to Action – Make sure that you always include a clear call to action in your email campaigns. People who read your emails should always know what action you want them to take after reading your message.
That could mean clicking on a link, filling out a form, or making an online purchase. Without proper calls to action, it’s unlikely that recipients will do what you want them to do when they read your message.
- Don’t Forget About Mobile – With mobile usage skyrocketing, don’t forget about sending mobile-optimized emails. For example, instead of using big images in your email campaigns consider using smaller images optimized for mobile devices.
Avoid using Flash elements in your email campaign since they won’t display properly on most mobile devices.
- Don’t Overwhelm Your Subscribers – Never send more than 2-3 emails per week to avoid overwhelming your subscriber base.
What’s Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is a metric that measures how many people opened your email and then bounced back to their inbox without taking any action. It’s measured as a percentage of total recipients, and tells you how many users found your email so unappealing they chose not to engage with it at all.
If you send an email blast that gets a 20% bounce rate, it means that 80% of recipients are reading your message and engaging with it in some way.
The best practice is to keep your bounce rate below 10%. Anything higher than that suggests you’re sending emails to addresses that don’t exist or aren’t being checked regularly.
But even if you hit 5%, take a look at what may be causing those bounces. Maybe there was something about your subject line that wasn’t compelling enough to draw readers in?
Or maybe there was something wrong with your copy, such as spelling errors or inconsistent formatting? Once you’ve addressed these issues, try another campaign. You’ll likely see a marked improvement in engagement—and hopefully lower bounce rates too!
Best Time to Send Marketing Emails
What’s right for your company depends largely on who you’re sending emails to. In general, send at a time when most of your audience is online, but not too early in the morning or too late at night.
If you have an office job, sending emails during business hours is ideal.
No matter what type of job you have, avoid sending emails first thing in the morning or just before people get off work; these times are typically reserved for family and other personal activities. Don’t forget about weekends!
How Often Should You Send Emails to Subscribers?
The golden rule of time to send new subscribers email says that you should send emails with content at least once per week. But if you want your emails to have a big impact, you should send them when most people check their inboxes. The right timing can largely affect your campaign’s open and click-through rates.
Which day of the week generates the most opens?
According to MailChimp data from 2016, Friday is one of the best days to send an email if you want people to read it. On average, Friday emails have an 18% higher click rate than those sent on Monday.
And while Thursday has a lower click rate than Friday (13%), that number is still higher than any other day during the workweek. What about Saturday and Sunday?
They both have fairly low click rates compared to other days of the week, with only 10% on Saturdays and 8% on Sundays. These numbers are close to what we see for weekday clicks. So, if you want your emails opened, go ahead and hit ‘send’ on Friday afternoon—your message just might get noticed.
But don’t forget: The number of opens doesn’t necessarily mean more clicks or sales—you also need to take into account when your target audience tends to read their mail. If they tend to check it after work on a weekday, then send them an email then.
If they’re checking it during lunch breaks or while commuting home from work, send it then instead. You get the idea!
Also, check this out
How to Troubleshoot a Failed Marketing Campaign
What time of day generates the most opens?
A 2018 study found that email marketers who sent their messages during business hours (9 am–5 pm) received a much higher open rate than those who sent messages outside these hours.
If you want your emails to get noticed, it’s important to send them at times when your audience is most likely to check their inboxes.
Other Things That Affect Your Email Timing
Not only do you have to consider when people tend to check their email, but you also need to think about what else might affect open rates. For example, a lot of studies have shown that people read and respond better on Fridays and Mondays; other research has shown that Tuesdays are one of the best days for delivering email.
Your email marketing goals
When you set your email marketing goals, think about what you want your audience to do when they get the email. Do you want them to read? Do you want them to open and click through to a landing page? If it’s an announcement or a product launch, do you want them to sign up for your newsletter or download an ebook?
Once you decide what your goal is, then figure out the best time to send that email. For example, if you want people to read your email, sending it in the morning might be more effective than sending it in the evening. People are often more likely to have their inboxes packed with work emails during business hours than they are at night after work.
Below are other things that affect your email marketing
- Your content topic
Without a doubt, your content topic affects whether people will open your mail or not. Consider whether your subject line contains something relevant to what people care about at certain times of day (e.g., morning tip vs. evening roundup). You can also use tools like Boomerang and its time-based scheduling feature or ReplyTrack on HubSpot which let you optimize when you send email messages based on past open rates or engagement with particular days and times of the day.
- Your Target Audience
You should know your target audience when sending an email. If you are trying to sell high-end products, then avoid sending an email at 4 a.m. on a Sunday when most of your customers are probably sleeping!
At that time, instead of selling your product, you will be waking them up and pissing them off by interrupting their sleep or trying to sell something they don’t need yet.
Tools to Optimize Your Sending Time
Below are tools that you can use to optimize your sending time.
- MailChimp: MailChimp’s Optimize feature gives you data-driven recommendations on when your subscribers are most likely to engage with your email campaigns.
- Klaviyo; Klaviyo use factors like subscribers’ time zones, location, and behavior to tell you when they’re most likely to open your emails.
- Link Triggers: When you link your email to a popular online service or app, it’s considered a link trigger. You can associate an email with action, too. For example, if someone asks you a question on Twitter, you could send them an email after they send their tweet—if they’ve opted-in to receive emails from you. This is known as triggered content. The benefit of using link triggers and triggered content is that you have a better chance of getting your message in front of people who are interested in what you have to say.
You can also use HubSpot’s Social Inbox tool to find out what times of day work best for you, based on your audience’s social media activity.
This information can be used to craft more effective subject lines and send better times in your next campaign.
If your list is big enough, you can run A/B tests to see which times get better results. If your list is small or if you don’t want to bother with testing at different times, simply send it during peak hours according to these tools’ recommendations.
How To Create an Email Template That Converts
Having a template will save you time and effort so that you can concentrate on writing a catchy subject line and email body. Keep in mind that your template is just one part of a well-rounded email campaign, though.
Make sure to practice A/B testing before sending it out—even your most stellar templates won’t convert at optimal rates if they don’t target your audience effectively.
How To Write an Email Subject Line That Converts
The first thing anyone sees when opening an email is its subject line.
It should be clear, concise, and compelling enough to get recipients interested in reading more. Consider personalizing your emails by including a recipient’s name or referencing something you discussed during your last conversation with them.
Use action words like win or save to imply how recipients could benefit from whatever information you are providing.
And always test different versions of your subject lines against each other to see which ones perform best.
A/B Testing: Once you have a few different versions of your email template, create two groups (A and B) based on demographic criteria such as age range, gender, or location. Then send group A version 1 of your template while sending group B version 2 instead.
Check your analytics after 24 hours to compare open and click-through rates between both groups.
If version 2 outperforms version 1, then use it going forward; otherwise, keep testing until you find a winner.
Make Sure You Have a Good Mailing List: Creating good mailing lists is key to effective email marketing campaigns.
Ideally, you want to focus on building up quality rather than quantity, since spam filters are getting smarter all the time.
One way to do that is by keeping your list updated through opt-in forms placed strategically throughout your website or landing pages where visitors provide their names and contact information in exchange for free content or discounts.
Your email marketing goals
When you set your email marketing goals, think about what you want your audience to do when they get the email.
Do you want them to read? Do you want them to open and click through to a landing page? If it’s an announcement or a product launch, do you want them to sign up for your newsletter or download an ebook?
Once you decide what your goal is, then figure out the best time to send that email. For example, if you want people to read your email, sending it in the morning might be more effective than sending it in the evening.
People are often more likely to have their inboxes packed with work emails during business hours than they are at night after work.
Some Things To Keep In Mind…
There are a lot of different factors that go into choosing the time to send new subscribers emails.
The subject line, if relevant, will have a big impact on whether or not your message gets opened.
When you’re sending out a promotional email (like an e-newsletter), it’s best to schedule it around major holidays and events. If you run an e-commerce business, you should be aware of major shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday so you can make sure your deals get in front of customers at just the right time.
You might also want to consider what times people open their inboxes most often—and adjust accordingly. For example, many marketers find that Tuesdays between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., Eastern Standard Time is one of their top-performing times for sending out messages; some say Mondays between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, is another great window as well
Conclusion
Email marketing can be an extremely effective way to build your business, connect with potential customers, and grow your brand. The catch? It only works if people open the emails you send them! If you aren’t sure how to make sure they do that, the above are some tips on the best time to send new subscribers emails for maximum impact
