Email Marketing – what is the best time to start our email marketing campaign? Often people ask the small business consultant or marketing strategist about the best time to initiate their email marketing campaigns.
The long-standing advice they get is to start is Tuesday through Thursday morning, between 8AM and 10AM. Every email marketers start their email marketing in the morning. However, times are changing. What are the current email-marketing trend that is able to bring a shift in the open rates and how it will affect the next email?
The email marketing benchmark study by Experian found the most surprising fact – the email recipients are generally active at late night.
- Open rates from 8 PM to 11:59 PM – 21.7%
- Open rates from 12AM to 4AM – 17.6%
This late night group gets the click through with open rates of 4.2% to 3.2% respectively. Even these night crawlers get the highest click through rates throughout the day. Moreover, the revenue earned per email is also the highest during 8PM and 11:59PM.
After the right time comes day. On which day of the week emails gets the highest hits? Monday is the highest ROI gainer, but emails sent on Fridays have a higher click through rates. Saturday and Sunday have the lowest volume of rates, but the rate of click through and open rates are quite high. Recipients who open up emails on the weekend are more likely to click through for purchasing products or services.
Why don’t you initiate your email campaigns at these unconventional times? Carry on the experiment during 11PM or 6PM in the weekend to see your emails yield better results.
Weekend: No More a Holiday but a Revenue Earning Day
On weekends, few promotional emails get forward to the recipients. The following strategy opened up opportunity for some business to scoop up click through rates in weekends since the time is less competitive.
The Experian’s email marketing study suggests, recipients respond more to promotional emails on weekends. The open rate on Saturday and Sunday is 17.8%, the highest percentage in seven days of the week.
Harland Clarke Data supports the data from Experian. In general, 26.9% of the email sent on Wednesdays, but the recipients view only 15.6% of those emails. Whereas on Saturday 5.5% of the emails are sent, but recipients view them 32.5% times.
Before you think to launch your email session in the weekends, do a little bit of an experiment. Open rates are still lower. Try to split the list in two halves and send email to Group A on Sunday and Group B on Tuesday. Repeat these to see how the strategy yields you better results.
Hit the Mobile Users
Litmus is a popular email provider found that the recipients on their Smartphone see 48% of emails. As the mobile click through rates is quite low, so make sure that you convey the right message through your email. Make your link fit in the email body in a manner so that they are clickable (time does not matter in this case).
Email open rates depend on the device people uses. The study says that tablet users open emails outside business hours from 5PM to 8AM, compared to desktop users who prefers to view emails during the business hours. The tablet users stay effective from 8PM to 9PM and desktop or Smartphone users stay active from 3-4PM. Separate the list into two halves directing one-half to target recipients in the morning and other after the business hours.
Time Does Not Always Matter
Even if you hit the conventional or unconventional time module and fail to establish your email campaign, some other popular methods can work:
- Test out the email so that it functions properly in multiple browsers and with email service providers.
- Review your email list from time to time and know old is it. Make sure if any emails needs to be removed. Find out ways on how to grow your email list.
- Do you have an attractive subject line? The subject line is the noticeable constraint and determining factor for your email to get clicked.
- Put a check on your emailing frequency. Segment the lists so that you do not bombard the recipients with unwanted emails and get the most important email spammed.
Well, finding out the right time to send an email to the recipients is difficult. However, if you are looking for improvement in your business, then start with simple email split tests and find out at which times your recipients hits the most.
Images: ”Clock face with focus on center. Time concept/ Shutterstock.com“
__________________________________________________________________________________
Connect with Tweak Your Biz:
Would you like to write for Tweak Your Biz?
An outstanding title can increase tweets, Facebook Likes, and visitor traffic by 50% or more. Generate great titles for your articles and blog posts with the Tweak Your Biz Title Generator.
Get Featured On Tweak Your Biz – #TYBspotlight
