Email marketing is widely considered by many to have the best return on investment out of any marketing strategy. So much so in fact that “three-quarters of companies agree that email offers "excellent" to "good" ROI” (Econsultancy, 2016). If you're currently using email marketing as part of your marketing arsenal then you will more than likely have felt the benefits of it. However, there are still many businesses out there that struggle getting to grips with their email marketing.
Are you up to speed with your email marketing? Do you send emails out at any day or any time based on no solid data?
This can be one of the key areas where many businesses fail with their email marketing. The timing. Timing your email sends is crucial and if you do it right then you'll enjoy a far better return on investment!
What Day Should You Send Your Email?
If you are going to be sending out an email broadcast to a large list then you will want as bigger portion of that list as possible to see your email. However, sending your email on the wrong day could be vastly affecting your email open rates and engagement!
According to 10 different email marketing studies, carried out by companies that include HubSpot, MailChimp and Experian, Tuesday is the “golden” day to send your emails. It is the best day of the week that sees more opens and interactions.
However, it is important to note that every industry is different! There are lots of studies out there on the internet that are well worth a read that look at the best days to send an email. My suggestion is that you do some research across your industry and look at various success rates. You could also look on industry forums or talk to your connections in your industry to see what days they've had success with. Finally, you could even test this yourself by sending out different emails on different days of the week and seeing which gets the best response.
The data shown above is from HubSpot.
What Time Should You Send Your Email?
The day of the week you send your email isn't the single thing you need to consider, the actual time is also very important! It is said that most people tend to open their emails fairly early on in the morning, this can be especially true for the weekdays.
As with the best day to send your email, extensive research and studies have been carried out to discover the best time. According to the majority of these reports, 10 a.m. is the best time to send your email out.
Again, as before this is something you will need to test for your business but across the majority of industries, 10 a.m. is considered the “golden” time.
Avoiding Holidays
We all love a good holiday! Who doesn't? During bank holidays, the 6 weeks summer holiday and other days throughout the year like Easter etc. I would try to avoid sending emails. This is because a lot of people will be spending this time away from their laptop or computer and probably won't be looking through or engaging with their emails. During these periods people tend to relax and enjoy that bit of time off! Some of the lucky few could even be sipping a Pina colada on a tropical white sand beach. That is why it is best to avoid sending emails during these times and get them sent out the following week!
Taking Into Consideration Customer Locations
Customer locations and the time zone they are based in is another key factor in email marketing timing! If you are sending ALL of your emails out at say 9AM GMT and half of your customer base is in the US then you're not going to have as much joy with open rates. You need to segment your email list into time zones and start sending emails at the right time to your customers in those zones. If you can't do this or don't have the data to do this then you just need to pick the time zone where the majority of your list is based.
What's The Best Time For You?
As I have stated previously, the times and days I have mentioned in this article are just based on studies and reports. However, it is important to bear in mind that every industry is different and every business is different! For your email content, there is one primary driver and that is yourself. It all comes down to your content, what industry you're based in and your email contacts. The only true way to discover the right time to send your emails is to test, test and test! It would be a good idea to start testing on the most popular days and times mentioned in this article though. I would advise you do this, record the data from numerous tests on different days and work out what truly is best for you from that data! Then and only then will you have your own “golden” time.
Further Help With Email Marketing And You’re Marketing As A Whole
If you are looking for some more tips and tricks to help overhaul your current email marketing strategy, check out some of the useful articles we have written below:
- Shoestring Email Marketing Ideas For Small Businesses
- 5 Reliable Email Marketing Ideas For 2017
- How To Lower The Cost Of Email Marketing
- Email Marketing Best Practices 2017
Also, if you would like to improve your marketing as a whole, then download a copy of our Free Guide “How To Get Clients Coming To You”. You can get your copy here.
For further information or if you have any questions, please give our expert team a call on 01332 343281.
