Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Best Time To E-mail

Posted by Anonymous on 3/11/2004 at 6:15 PM ET 90 Points
I'm the marketing director for a company that uses e-mail marketing as a tactic to inform our clients and prospects about projects we've completed and news about our company. Our bi-monthly e-newsletter goes out to approximately 3,000 people, most of whom are top-level executives or decision makers at their company. We have a great response, and great name recognition, but since we're still getting our feet wet, so to speak, with our own regularly scheduled e-mail tactic, we're still toying with what the best date and time is to send e-mail to our list. We send on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday on a bi-monthly basis, and have tried mid-morning, afternoon, and early morning, but have not discovered a pattern to open/read rates (mostly because we've sent a limited number of e-mails).

I'm hoping that some of you can provide me with your knowledge on the subject, and point me in the direction of some hard data about this subject.

Thanks!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Pepper Blue on 3/11/2004 at 6:50 PM Member
    Correction, I meant M,T & W.
  • Posted by Pepper Blue on 3/11/2004 at 7:08 PM Accepted
    Excuse the correction missend.

    My advice is to keep doing what you are doing which is try different days and time and put in place the ability (through the use of your software or ASP/third-party) to track these opens. (It appears you are doing this).

    You will find all kinds of information and most of it will say M, T, & W between about 9AM and 3PM.

    But this is what everybody thinks and says, so this is when everybody does it.

    Result - big spikes in delivery at these times.

    Some well-know email experts send their own email marketing pieces on Friday mornings.

    Or, as Amandavega says, weekends can be a good time when execs are catching up on "paperwork".

    I have sent to large list of attorneys after 5:30PM on Thursdays and within an hour have seen open rates of 30%.

    Finally, like you, to answer my own question, I have sent at 10PM and 5:30AM and everywhere in-between, all 7 days of the week, and for the most part, 48 hours later the open rates are the same across all like campaigns.

    So, unless you have to have a certain % open it within an hour or two of sending, it all seems to even out statistically when you are measure the results of the at the end of the campaign.

    Suggestion: I don't think bi-monthly is frequent enough. Once a month is better, unless you have meaningful content that adds value and enhances their ability to save money or make money, then you can look at doing it even more frequently.

    Hope that helps

  • Posted on 3/13/2004 at 1:37 PM Accepted
    Hi
    you're right to ask!

    One of my clients is a digital marketing agency - and they have an email campaign management tool. I've been able to look at the campaign results from several of their clients - so I can tell you, conclusively, that the 'best time to mail out' is different for every client.

    So keep on testing. Try Mondays & Fridays - and Saturdays.

    Always test one big thing - so if you send the majority on Tuesday, over the day, send a statistically valid sample at the best time slot on Wednesday, for comparison.

    And even once you've found the 'ideal' time to mail out, keep on testing. It may change with the seasons!

    hth

    Will Rowan
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