Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Best Day / Days To Send Email?

Posted by Billd724 on 7/25/2005 at 4:56 AM ET 125 Points
Greetings!

I'm planning on sending out a brief, E-Z-2-read, highly relevant email to an opt-in list of 'invitation-only' recipients.

My plan is to 'drip' these emails out twice a month on the ___ and ___ ______day of each month. e.g. the 2nd and 4th Tuesday or the 1st and 3rd Thursday, etc.

Anyone have some good insights and/or research to justify as to when the OPTIMAL day/time/week is to send emails for maximum view-ability? Also, does the 'time of day' matter? If so, when's the best time to send on any given day?

I'm setting up an auto-drip formula with my email provider and I'd like to get this as 'right' as possible to ensure the best 'open' rate I can.

Thank you kindly, in advance.

Bill
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by adammjw on 7/25/2005 at 5:22 AM Accepted
    Billd724,

    I'm afraid there is no other answer to your question other than : it depends.It depends on:
    - what your product/service is
    -what your target group is
    - is your product/ service valuable to them
    -do they use and trust that communication channel
    -how numerous is your target group
    -do you have processes in place to be able to respond to incoming correspondence for your target group
    -demographics
    -gender
    -do they use the computer at home or in the office
    - do they use it on working days or weekends
    - do they use in the morning, afternoon or late at night
    So you have to do your homework first find out as much as possible about your target groups and basing on their preferences start your operation.

    Hope it helps

    Adam
  • Posted by ReadCopy on 7/25/2005 at 5:22 AM Accepted
    Really difficult question to answer, I usually find that all prospects (or suspects) are different in their email habits.

    As a general rule:
    1. avoid weekends - lots of spam get sent over the weekend period
    2. avoid evenings - again, lots of spam at the weekend and you may get included in a 'mass delete'
    3. avoid fridays and mondays - for individuals these are usually busy days for getting things done.
    4. avoid public holiday periods and summer holiday rushes
    5. Mid -day / mid-week always seem safest.
    6. Invest in a good e-campaign software, as these send our emails to people in the To: field (some SPAM filters assume that if an email is sent to you, and your addy is in the BCC: field, then its SPAM!)
    7. Make the content highly relevant, to obviously improve click through/response

    Good Luck
  • Posted by Billd724 on 7/25/2005 at 8:14 AM Author
    You guys are great. Good advice. Seems like a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday are best.

    Ideal time: I thought 5 AM would be good. But maybe Noon is better.

    Also, the audience is decidedly B2B, not civilians. Does that help clarify the timing or day factor?

    Again, much appreciated . . . will award points directly.
  • Posted by ReadCopy on 7/25/2005 at 9:20 AM Accepted
    B2B, you obviously need to hit during the week and around noon :-)
  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 7/25/2005 at 9:49 AM Accepted
    I concur that with B2B the weekend is bad. I also think that Friday is bad. However, when everyone is saying Tuesday-Thursday, you have to wonder if you should ZIG when everyone else is ZAGGING.

    We have a number of B2B clients who successfully mail on Monday. This was learned only after testing. I'd try different dates of the week and see which works best for you. Once you choose, though, fix it and stick with it. Ideally, you want people expecting that on "this day" they will get their newsletter.

    As for time of day, remember that one person's noon is another person's 9AM, so I suggest that you send when we do (usually), which is around 1PM EST/10AM PST to 2PM EST/11AM PST.

    Good luck.

    Paul
  • Posted by ROIHUNTER on 7/25/2005 at 9:58 AM Accepted
    Billd724,

    Our best luck has been Tuesday through Thursday and depending on the audience, either 5am or early afternoon, but really depends on our client's and their target segment.

    We have had mixed results with some segments (B2C) on Saturdays, but have also seen the emails delivered on Saturday and opened the following Tuesday.

    Plan on doing some testing, make sure your deployment method can be adjusted for your testing.

    Hope that helps...
  • Posted by ReadCopy on 7/25/2005 at 10:04 AM Accepted
    Sound advice from Paul, and really underpins the idea that everyone is different! I persoanlly like to read about special offers at the beginning of the week, but not when busy!

    Its important to learn from your customers ... happy emails :-)
  • Posted by Billd724 on 7/25/2005 at 3:07 PM Author
    As usual, excellent insights . . . gads, you folks are not only good but timely, too! Thank you.


    I'm going to go with the 'zig' vs 'zag' approach . . . 2nd and 4th Mondays at Noon EST.

    I'll see how that works and adjust accordingly. You've all been super and I do appreciate your input.

  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 7/25/2005 at 8:54 PM Member
    To late before the question closwd but thought it worth postinh here for the god of the comunity, anyway...

    I checked with my e-mail provider ConstantContact and got this reply back from them overnight:

    {Quote}
    Tuesday through Thursday have been considered the best performing days for quite some time, however, new surveys indicate Monday may be the new favorite. If you are sending business-to-business emails then my suggestion would be to send it across on second Wednesday. As far as time of day goes, some studies now show that, because the volume of email sent is highest between 10am and 2pm, your emails may have a greater chance of being seen from 8am - 10am or 4pm - 6pm.

    Holidays may diminish the email's effect. Always avoid sending on or immediately around holidays. School vacation days, known long weekends, religious holidays and the like can wreak unexpected havoc on response rates.

    For holiday promotions, determine how far in advance you need to send your campaign. In general, individuals plan for holidays like Christmas, or back to school or tax season much earlier than for holidays such as Father's Day or Valentine's Day. And, if you're promoting a product, always consider your fulfillment and delivery time before you schedule your email campaign to make sure you can deliver.

    We have also written various articles on how best you can increase the visibility of your email; increase the open and click-through rate of your email campaign. Kindly visit the following link to know more about this:

    https://cc.constantcontact.com/emu/hints_tips.shtml
    {Unquote}

    Hope this helps!
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