Timing is everything when it comes to email marketing. When sending a newsletter, hitting the mark with timing can increase open rates and impressions.
On the other hand, poor timing can result in your newsletter getting lost in the sea of unread emails.
If you send newsletters at the wrong time, you are losing out on the 40% open rates that newsletters offer to email marketers.
When is the best time to send a newsletter? Let’s take a look together.
Before diving into the timings and days, looking into how times can differ for different countries is good practice.
Geography plays a vital role in determining when an email should be sent to consumers.
Time zones, work habits, and cultural norms all influence when people are most likely to check and engage with their inboxes.
For example,
Let’s get into the specifics. We have seen how timings can differ due to geographical locations. Now, let's see what days are the best for sending newsletters and what results they can yield.
Multiple researches have shown that Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are the best days for sending not just newsletters but also marketing emails. Why? Let us explain.
People have settled into their workweeks and no longer have cluttered inboxes. This gives you the chance to land your newsletter in fresh eyes and a fresh mailbox.
This day is also perfect because readers are more focused and ready to engage with work-related content.
Placed right in the middle of the week, gives you an urgency-free reader. Since the week is now halfway through, your potential readers have the time required to enjoy your newsletter.
Engagement rates tend to peak as people settle into their routines.
By Thursday, people are thinking about wrapping up the week and planning for the weekend. They may be more relaxed and open to engaging with newsletters, especially if they contain valuable, actionable content.
Then again, Monday, Saturday, and Sunday are traditionally considered the worst days of the week to mail email newsletters.
However, inboxes are inundated by emails that have accumulated over the weekend. People spend a lot of time and effort catching up on work, replying to important messages, and managing the stack. Therefore, emails sent on Monday are often miserably lost or wholly ignored.
In the B2B market, people disconnect from work-related emails during the weekend. Though B2C open rates are usually higher over weekends, for example, retail promotions, most newsletters would be better off being sent during the workweek. However, there are exceptions to this, depending on your audience. For instance, if you’re marketing content to people who interact with your stuff during off-times or send out promotions regarding weekend sales, things like Saturday or Sunday might be perfect for your use.
Email open rates peak mainly on Tuesdays and Thursdays across industries. Wednesdays usually come in second place, so the middle of the week fits in an email campaign sweet spot. But Mondays, Fridays, and weekends tend to carry lower engagement rates.
While there’s a clear defining line in the sand, don’t be afraid to experiment with other, less mainstream days and times to boost your email campaign’s success.
Even if Monday is not a great day for an email (in general), testing a Monday morning send might help you stand out among the marketers who send them Mondays.
Understanding your audience’s work habits is critical when planning your email send times.
B2B and B2C audiences tend to engage with emails at different times of day, so tailoring your strategy to fit the unique behaviors of each segment can yield higher open rates.
For B2B email campaigns, the best times to send are typically during regular business hours, when your audience is in a work mindset.
Research suggests that B2B email open rates peak during these times:
So, B2C audiences, are more likely to check our emails outside of work hours.
The best times to send B2C emails are often:
When sending to a mix of B2B and B2C audiences, segment your list and tailor send times for the top engagement of each group.
In summary, the best time to send a newsletter depends on a combination of factors:
These are just guidelines. You must test different times and days to understand when your audience is most engaged and then analyze the results.
While general timing best practices are helpful, they won’t always apply perfectly to every business.
Here are a few other factors to consider when determining your email timing strategy:
To ensure that your emails land in your audience’s inbox at the optimal time, consider using the following tools and tactics:
Most email marketing platforms allow you to schedule when your emails are sent. This is particularly useful when your audience is spread over various time zones whether they’re in their inbox or not, schedule emails to land in the recipient’s inbox at the right time.
Auto resend tools can help increase your open rates by sending the email again to people who didn’t open it. On the second try, you can set a new subject line or change the content slightly to encourage engagement.
With A/B testing, you can test out send times, subject lines, email design, whatever you want to experiment with, to figure out what brings the best results for your audience. You can turn the guess work into data-driven decisions by testing two or more variations of an email campaign.
Instead of periodically sending emails, you can send them based on different actions and behaviors. This is useful when creating triggered emails, such as welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, or even post-purchase follow-ups.
Since these are sent based on user activity, they have a much higher open rate and engagement than a regular newsletter. With automation triggers set up, your message will be delivered at the optimal time to your recipient.
The answer to when to send a newsletter is no one size fits all. At the same time, it doesn’t guarantee higher open or engagement rates by any stretch of the imagination.
Adhering to best practices like sending Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday in the late morning to midday for B2B or early afternoon for B2C and late afternoon or evening for B2C targets significantly increases your chances for higher open and engagement rates.
Besides, utilizing tools like email scheduling, auto resend, A/B testing, and automation triggers will also show you how to fine-tune your strategy and ensure these reach your audience at the right time.
Remember to factor in your unique audience, marketing goals, and marketing message when planning your emails.
Testing and analyzing your email campaigns repeatedly will remain the best way to glean the most accurate insights into when your particular audience is most engaged. This will allow you to tweak your email marketing to yield the most significant returns.
Timing your emails is just one way to do it right. Crafting compelling email content, a clear call to action, and a personal touch are integral to successful email marketing.
Considering all these factors, you can increase your newsletter’s open rates and overall efficacy, which results in more views, impressions, and conversions.
M. Usama is an SEO Growth Specialist and Content Marketer at Mailmunch. He is passionate about crafting engaging and informative content on email marketing and lead generation.
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