What is the Best Day to Send Emails?

If you practice email marketing, you likely know how variable results are. From open-rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribers, it’s important to craft your emails around your results. This is because the results of your email campaigns directly align with your audience’s preferences. So, if one of your campaigns does better than your others, it’s important to take note of the elements of the campaign that made it do so well. This will help you uncover opportunities for greater success with future campaigns. However, one question we’re often asked is in regards to the best day to send emails. In this blog post, we answer that question.

The Best Day to Send Emails, According to Studies

Fortunately, marketers are passionate about numbers and results. With that being said, there are dozens of studies over what the best day to send emails is. Considering there are so many studies, you may initially suspect there are different findings like most heavily researched topics. Surprisingly, the findings are extremely consistent. So, you can trust the results below, as they have been proven time and time again.

Tuesday

Tuesday is overwhelmingly the best day to send emails according to dozens of studies. Emails sent on Tuesdays tend to get the highest open-rates, which means the content is more likely to be read. So, if you want to get the best results with your email campaigns, definitely schedule email blasts on Tuesdays.

Another reason to shoot for Tuesdays is if your email content is high-quality, there is a higher chance of generating leads as the open-rate goes up. So, no matter your goal with your email campaign, Tuesday is a great option. Also, if you send emails multiple times per week, consider sending your sales emails on Tuesdays to ensure as many people as possible will see it.

Thursday

If you send out more than one email blast each week, consider sending the second on Thursdays. Once again, across most studies we found, Thursdays reportedly come in second place for open-rates. As mentioned above, if you have high-quality email content, a high open-rate usually leads to better rates in other areas. Thursdays are great days to send out an email announcing new blog posts, updates to the business, or other announcements.

Friday

Some of the most recent data shows that Fridays are a close second to Thursdays, or can be even more effective when it comes to open-rates. So, you may want to consider experimenting with Thursdays and Fridays. Test out each day by sending similar content on different weeks to see which has the best open-rate. For your audience, Friday may be better than Thursdays because of their schedules or interests.

Another consideration when it comes to Fridays is sending out your bonus content or special content. Really, any content that isn’t the typical marketing email. Fridays are typically seen as one of the best days of the week, as it’s the day before the weekend. So, when scheduling your “fun” content, consider sending it on a Friday. Whether this be a video of you, a guest blog post, or even a coupon, send your special content on this day.

Bonus: The Best Times to Send Emails

If you send emails at an ineffective time, even on the best day, you won’t see the best results possible. When basing your strategy on the day and time alone, you should utilize both of these factors. This way, your audience won’t be sleeping, hard at work, or eating dinner when you send them emails. So, let’s go over the best time of day to send emails.

What Are Your Goals?

When it comes to deciding the best time of day to send emails, you will need to decide on your goals. Do you want a greater open-rate in which people take the time to thoroughly read your emails? Or, do you want people to click on the call-to-action button in your email, boosting your click-through rate? According to GetResponse’s Email Marketing Benchmarks, the effectiveness of each hour depends on your goals.

For a Better Click-Through Rate

As mentioned above, when someone clicks a call-to-action button in your email, it boosts your click-through rate. However, an email’s click-through rate isn’t only calculated by call-to-action buttons. It is the rate of clicks for all links. This could be hyperlinks to a blog post, someone clicking to call your business, and even clicking to view your website. Any link in your email that is clicked counts towards your click-through rate. So, don’t feel as though your call-to-action buttons are the end all be all. You can link to supporting materials and your webpages to get more website traffic. For example, with our emails, we have links on our images [sometimes], in call-to-action buttons, and in our email body as hyperlinks. We have found this generates a higher click-through rate, as well as more website traffic. If these are your goals, we highly recommend doing the same.

You can use any email marketing tactic, but you still won’t get a good click-through rate if you send the email at the wrong time. Hence the great emphasis on strategically scheduling your emails. Thankfully, marketers have put in research to find the best time of day to send emails, specifically for click-through rates. When trying to achieve a great click-through rate, it appears the following times are best for sending emails.

• 3:00 AM
• 6:00 AM
• 12:00 PM
• 1:00 PM
• 6:00 PM
• 7:00 PM

Keep in mind these times are best for your audience’s timezone. So, you will want to find where the majority of your audience resides. If most of your audience is in the Central Standard Time zone, you will want to schedule your email blast for the best time for them. Or, if you have many people from two different timezones, say Central Standard and Eastern Standard Time zones, you should choose 6:00 PM CST and 7:00 PM EST, as both of these times are optimal for them.

For a Better Open-Rate

Some business owners don’t have the goal of generating website traffic. They just want more eyes on their emails and for their list to see what they have to say. This is often the goal for major announcements, annual or semi-annual sales, or newsletters. In all of these cases, the sender is trying to get the audience to read the email, rather than direct them to their website. This goal requires you to send your email at a different time of day than you would when trying to achieve a better click-through rate.

When you are just trying to get your audience to open and read your content, you should schedule your emails for when it’s the best time for your audience to read. Here are the optimal times to send email content according to research on when consumers read emails most.

• 6:00 AM
• 10:00 AM
• 11:00 AM
• 12:00 PM
• 1:00 PM
• 2:00 PM

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The window for getting a higher open-rate is much earlier in the day than it is for generating a good click-through rate. After 2:00 PM, the average open-rate for emails drops significantly, so your window to shoot for is the 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM time frame. You have much more flexibility when scheduling your emails to achieve the goal of a high open-rate. However, you still want to use an intriguing subject line and preview text so people are interested in what you have to say. When you have a great subject line and send your emails during these hours, you will likely get more opens.

Another recommendation we have is to schedule promotional emails on Friday afternoons. This not only is a great day and time to get a good open rate, but it will also keep your business at the top of their minds going into the weekend. Then, when they’re running their Saturday and Sunday errands, they may stop by your location to shop with you.

Can You Achieve Both?

An ultra-successful email campaign is one that has a high open-rate and click-through rate. This shows your email list is interested in your content and wanted to see more of it. So, there’s no harm in aiming for both goals. As you can see above, there is a lot of overlap with the most effective times for each goal. This means you can strategically schedule your emails for these optimized times.

If you are trying to achieve both goals, focus on the overlap of effective times. These are 6:00 AM and between the hours of 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM. During these hours, you are more likely to get great results for both goals. But, don’t forget to use the various tactics above, rather than strictly relying on the time you send emails to achieve your goals.

The Best Day and Time to Send Emails (on Average)

If you want one definite answer that studies support, the best day and time to send emails is Tuesday between 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM. This day and these hours tend to lead to the highest open-rates and click-through rates. But, remember this is all based on studies and these are averages across all industries. Depending on the audience you are trying to target, the results will change. So, be sure you keep track of your outcomes and schedule your email blasts for the optimal days and times. This can easily be done through a Google Spreadsheet or Microsoft Excel. And, feel free to contact us if you need any help scheduling or monitoring your email marketing!

The best day and time to send emails is on Tuesday between 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM. ~ Hailey D. #EmailMarketing #MarketingTips Click To Tweet