It’s no secret that timing is everything when it comes to email marketing. But what many people don’t realize is that there are specific times of the day when your email will have the best chance of being seen and acted on.
According to recent studies, the optimal time to send an email is around 10:00 AM in the recipient’s local time zone. At this time, email inboxes are typically less cluttered and people are more likely to be paying attention to their emails.
So, does that answer the question: when is the best time to send an email?
Well, there’s no one magic answer, that’s for sure.
There are several days and times when audiences are most receptive to emails. You’ve got to follow a little trial-and-error path to get there.
That's why we've discussed the topic at length in this blog post. Here's the breakdown: 1. Best days to send emails 2. Best time to send an email 3. Best day of the month to send emails 4. What happens when you send emails against the mainstream timings
Happy reading!
Table of Contents
What are the Best Days to Send Emails?
Best days of the month to send emails in 2023: (ranked from best to worst) 1. Tuesday 2. Thursday 3. Wednesday 4. Monday 5. Friday 6. Saturday 7. Sunday
Before you go sending out that great content email you’ve been sitting on, make sure you check which day it is.
Email marketers generally agree that there are two great days to send emails: Tuesday and Thursday. These days have the best level of email engagement and may lead to higher open rates. Wednesday is another good option.
Let’s now delve into how your email receptiveness might be for each day of the week.
Sunday
Beginning on Sunday, email receptivity is at its lowest.
The open rate is only a little over 5%.
This is because most people are trying to milk the most out of their weekends at this point. They’re probably already dealing with the phenomenon known as the “Sunday scaries,” where the dread of Monday looms overhead.
Of course, they’re not going to want to look at their inboxes and be reminded that Monday is coming ever closer.
In a nutshell, weekend emails are a big no-no!
Monday
Monday isn’t a great day to send that all-important sales email, either.
On Monday morning, most people walk into the office, wishing it was the weekend again. They’ll go through their emails mechanically but may not be as receptive to product or service offers.
Just think about how you feel on a Monday.
Not so good, right? So Monday is not the best time to send email.
Here’s a video that explains how you can send your cold email campaigns at the right time:
Tuesday
Then we get to Tuesday.
Most people have accepted they’re stuck at work for the week by this point. Their productivity might be higher, which means they’re checking their inboxes more.
They’re not quite at that mid-week hump yet, so maybe they’re not exhausted by several days of working in a row. They’re going to be much more receptive to your digital marketing emails on a Tuesday compared to a Monday.
According to Wordstream, you could see an open rate of well over 15% — meaning Tuesday is an excellent day to send out emails.
Wednesday
Open rates are also good on Wednesday, about 17%. By now, the week is half over.
That’s enough to energize some people and keep them on the ball, checking their inboxes.
This is a great day to send emails — make the most out of Wednesdays!
Thursday
The last good day of the week you have for better email open rates is Thursday.
Some marketers and websites say this is an even better day to send emails than Tuesday; WordStream is one of them.
After all, you could see an open rate of almost 20% — the highest open rate for emails according to the data.
If you were too busy for that content marketing email blast on Tuesday, then don’t miss your chance on this day.
However, according to Venngage, Thursday is probably the worst day to send emails. Why? That’s because most marketers, realizing that Thursday is the best day to send emails, blast out emails on this particular day.
The result? Too many emails in your customers’ inboxes. This’ll overwhelm them, and they might end up glossing over yours.
In a bit of a pickle, aren’t we?
That’s why Venngage suggests sending out emails on a low competition day, such as Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Friday & Saturday
What about sending emails on Friday and Saturday?
By Friday, everyone’s focus is on the weekend.
The open rate doesn’t drop drastically, but it has been the lowest since Tuesday. You’re at a little over 15% at this point. This means Friday is not the best time to send emails.
Once the weekend does arrive, few people want to look at their inbox since it reminds them of work. While your target audience might be more receptive to these emails on Saturday than on Sunday, the email open rate is around 7%.
Not great.
In a nutshell: Try sending out emails on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.
Read also: How to Upsell Using Your Email Marketing Strategy to Increase Your Revenue
What is the Best Time to Send Email?
Best time of the day to send emails in 2023: 1. 10 A.M. 2. 8 P.M. 3. 2 P.M. 4. 6 A.M.
Okay, now you know the best days to send emails are Tuesday through Thursday.
What is the best time to send marketing outreach emails on those days?
Good question!
There are four times marketers agree on: 6 AM, 10 AM, 2 PM, and 8 PM.
Here’s a CoSchedule infographic that corroborates this:
6 AM
Why 6 AM?
Doesn’t that seem a bit early? It is, but according to CoSchedule, it’s when most people are awake. About half of all professionals will begin their workday by grabbing their phones and checking their emails.
They’ll still be in bed when they do it.
That makes 6 AM on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday a good time to send cold emails.
If you want your message to sit at the top of the pile, so to speak, then send it out as early as possible.
It’ll be one of the first emails your audience sees when they open their sleepy eyes and refresh their inboxes.
If 6 AM is a little too early for you or if you’re based in a different time zone, use an automated email scheduler like the one offered by EngageBay.
10 AM
The next best time to send email is a little later in the morning, at 10 am.
By this point, everyone who commutes will have arrived at their office and started their workdays.
Many people are productive at this hour but may be thinking of a distraction like a coffee, a cup of water, or a short break.
Your email could arrive at just the right time.
Try to limit sending emails between 11 AM and 1 PM.
The hour before lunch is pretty much a lost cause. Many people are hungry and waiting until they can take their lunch break. For some employees, that’s noon to 1 PM, and for others, it’s 1 PM to 2 PM.
2 PM
That’s why the next recommended time to send your emails is on Tuesdays through Thursdays at 2 PM.
Lunch break is over, and it’s now time to focus for the next few hours of the afternoon. Most people’s tummies are full, so they’re not thinking of that midafternoon snack yet.
This makes 2 PM one of the best times to send emails, according to Mailchimp.
If you missed the 2 PM slot to send an email, you should wait a few hours.
As mentioned, many people succumb to the mid-afternoon slump at about 3 PM. By 4 PM, your subscribers could be mentally tuned out, especially as the week progresses (it’s that weekend mentality).
Most workers are out the door by 5 PM and on their way home.
8 PM
Commutes can take several hours for some, and then there’s dinnertime.
That’s why 8 PM is your next recommended timeslot for sending your emails. People are home, they’re fed, and they’re relaxing — making it the best time to send email.
An email from you, especially if it’s a tailored one, has a higher chance of being opened at this hour.
Don’t go any later than 8 PM.
Sending emails at 10 PM or later is invasive. Plus, most people are sleeping by then, so your subscribers can wake up the following day and do the same thing all over again.
Read also: 5+ Great Follow Up Email Examples You Need to Know
The Best Time To Send Emails Backed by Data-Driven Charts
We have combed the internet and analyzed numerous data-driven charts to conclude the email send time, from best to worst.
It is interesting to note how different data charts offer us insight on what are the best days and the best times to send emails.
We have put together the sending times of email, ranking from best to worst, backed by some of the most insightful data-driven visuals.
Wednesday: Best click volume
Wednesday tops our list as the best day to send an email, to ensure success.
Open rates are also good on Wednesday, about 17%. By now, the week is half over.
That’s enough to energize some people and keep them on the ball, checking their inboxes.
Based on the chart, you can notice how Wednesday is the most active day of the week.
This is a great day to send emails — make the most out of Wednesdays!
Tuesday: Highest click-through rates
According to Wordstream, you could see an open rate of well over 15% — meaning Tuesday is an excellent day to send out emails.
Most people have accepted they’re stuck at work for the week by this point. Their productivity might be higher, which means they’re checking their inboxes more.
They’re not quite at that mid-week hump yet, so maybe they’re not exhausted by several days of working in a row. They’re going to be much more receptive to your digital marketing emails on a Tuesday compared to a Monday.
Based on this chart, Tuesday has the highest click-through rates. Even if Monday has the highest email open rates, click-through rates are more important to an email marketer.
Here is another chart explaining why Tuesday might be the best week to send promotional emails
According to this chart, Tuesday sees the highest open rates in the entire week.
This might be the best day of the week to end promotional and sales emails.
Monday: Best open rates within the first hours
Monday isn’t a great day to send that all-important sales email, either, but it is sure to grab the attention of the receiver.
On Monday morning, most people go through their emails mechanically — hence the good open rates within the first two hours of the workday.
Here is how the open rates vary across the different days of the week.
Monday early morning is the time you should be focussed on for cold email campaigns.
The 10 AM rush
The best time to send emails is at the beginning of the workday early in the morning, at 10 am.
By this point, everyone who commutes will have arrived at their office and started their workdays.
Many people are productive at this hour but may be thinking of a distraction like a coffee, a cup of water, or a short break.
Here is a chart that shows the email engagement by hour of the day.
10 AM is where the most engagement and activity happens. It is your best bet to send a successful email.
Try to limit sending emails between 11 AM and 1 PM.
The hour before lunch is pretty much a lost cause. Many people are hungry and waiting until they can take their lunch break. For some employees, that’s noon to 1 PM, and for others, it’s 1 PM to 2 PM.
6 AM: Early bird gets the worm
Why 6 AM?
Doesn’t that seem a bit early? It is, but according to CoSchedule, it’s when most people are awake. About half of all professionals will begin their workday by grabbing their phones and checking their emails.
According to this chart by Tidio, bright and early at 6 AM is where the highest click-to-open rate and the click-through rate are seen.
They’ll still be in bed when they do it.
That makes 6 AM on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday a good time to send cold emails.
If you want your message to sit at the top of the pile, so to speak, then send it out as early as possible.
It’ll be one of the first emails your audience sees when they open their sleepy eyes and refresh their inboxes.
If 6 AM is a little too early for you or if you’re based in a different time zone, use an automated email scheduler like the one offered by EngageBay.
Read also: Email Blast Examples From Popular Brands to Inspire You
Can You Ever Go Against the Grain?
The data-driven charts we presented above are backed by marketers and are true for most B2B emails.
But an important point to note is that the best time to send an email depends on our target audience and customer behavior patterns.
For instance, as backed by studies, 10 AM on a Tuesday might be the most successful time to send emails.
But what if your target clientele has a 9 AM start of the workday or even 8 AM for that matter?
What might be the case for most businesses might not work the best for you.
Here is a chart that shows different parameters when compared to different sectors of the eCommerce industry.
Logically, it makes sense to follow the data and use it in your own practice.
While the results will be close to accurate, it is important to test your own data and figure out the best time for yourself.
Similarly, here is a chart depicting how sending an email at odd hours during the day can yield a similarly successful result.
So, what happened? Their open and click-through rates were in flux. When Omnisend emailed their audience at two in the morning, they had a click-through rate of 0.78%. That was their lowest recorded click-through rate.
Emailing two hours after that at four o’clock in the morning netted Omnisend a much lower open rate than usual. They had better success emailing at more conventional hours.
For example, when they sent out an email at 8 AM to their subscribers, they had a 21.66% open rate. They also enjoyed a 4.52% click-through rate, which is not bad.
Reaching out later in the day, such as at 1 PM, also netted good results. Again, there was a high open rate of 21.68%. The click-through rate also went up ever so slightly to 4.52%.
What these numbers prove is there is some wiggle room.
If you miss that 8 AM, 9 AM, or 10 AM email blast, you don’t necessarily have to wait until 2 PM to hit send.
But will it work for you the way it did for Omnisend? That’s up to you to find out.
Read also: 20 Actionable Email Marketing Tips That Drive Results
Testing Your Email Marketing Campaign — Best Practices
Our pro tip? We suggest A/B testing your email marketing campaign before sending it at weird hours of the night (or day).
This is where Engageby can help with A/B testing of your email marketing campaign and with our scheduler you can ensure your campaign is successful.
Here are some important email metrics that you should test and analyze.
#1. Review your traffic inflow and outflow
Reviewing your traffic is understanding how much your emails contribute to your website.
The easiest way to understand the performance of your email test is by analyzing how much additional traffic is brought to your website based on the number of emails sent.
While looking at open and click-through rates can help you track the overall performance, the additional referral traffic that you receive is the deciding number of the success of your email campaign.
Google Analytics combined with Engagebay’s testing tool can help you analyze and track performance to better measure the best time to send your emails.
#2. Click through rates
Click-through rate is another important email metric to gauge engagement on each email sent.
By calculating the click-through rates, you can understand what time of the day or the week your emails and the pertaining links and attachments perform the best.
Based on this, you can schedule your email to achieve the highest email success rate.
Use Google Analytics to generate a performance report for this particular metric and schedule your emails accordingly.
#3. Open rates
Email Open rates help us measure how many emails sent were opened by the receiver.
This important email metric helps us understand the effectiveness of the email.
Open rates essentially help us determine how compelling our email is.
Based on analyzing the open rates, you can understand which time of the day had the most open emails.
Individually these three important metrics will help you track the performance of your emails and help you gauge the best time of the day and the best day of the week to send emails.
Lathguh, these can work individually well, they are often influenced by one another and should be analyzed together for best results.
Read also: Avoiding the Spam Folder: An Intro to Email Deliverability
A Quick Note on Content…
You could send your emails at the exact days and times we listed in this article down to the minute.
However, you won’t see the kinds of open and click-through rates you want if your emails aren’t worth reading.
Just because you figured out the formula of when to send emails doesn’t mean you can get lax on content. You still need to brainstorm and write awesome, compelling newsletters and email copy.
More importantly, you need to nail the first impression using an eye-catching and engaging email subject line. The best emails combine timing with copy, visuals, and data.
That’s why the phrase “Content is king” exists!
Looking for a good laugh? Check out these 11 hilarious email memes for marketers!
Read also: 7 Free Email Trackers You Didn’t Know Existed
Conclusion
Are your open and click-through rates lower than you wish they were?
If you’re already writing excellent email content, it could be that you’re sending it out on the wrong days or times.
The most popular times for great email open rates are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 6 AM, 10 AM, 2 PM, and 8 PM.
Now that you know the perfect time to send out an email blast, you can strategize your email outreach campaigns for tremendous success.
But the optimal times may differ from place to place, company to company.
That’s why it’s important to A/B test your email campaign so that you can find out what works best for your own business.
EngageBay is an excellent marketing automation software with tools to design visually appealing email newsletters, personalize them through segmentation and predictive scoring, and test them out through A/B testing for send-time optimization.
You can also track vital email metrics, including clickthrough rates, bounces, email engagement, and smart insights. Social media management, personalized emails, multichannel marketing, marketing automation, and other features all come together to convert your readers into paying customers.
The best part?
EngageBay is one of the most affordable marketing automation software in the market, making it an ideal platform for small businesses, startups, and solopreneurs.
Sign up now for free and find out your audience’s optimal times!
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