You may be familiar with many email marketing best practices that can help you successfully reach your marketing goals. From creating compelling subject lines to breaking your audiences into market segments, there are techniques you can easily incorporate to improve response rates to your emails.
But what about timing? You may be tempted to simply send out an email between your coffee break and lunch, because that’s when you have a minute. Research shows that there’s more to it than that.
Email marketing best practice studies provide some insight into the ideal timing for your email. One valuable finding shows that sending an email out on a Tuesday is far more likely to be effective than one sent on Monday or Friday. Wednesday and Thursday are the next-best options after Tuesday.
When it comes to the time of day, 10 a.m. is optimal, followed by 8 p.m. You might wonder why an email sent hours after the work day ends would be effective, but experts speculate that people check their emails once more late in the evening before retiring for the night.
While these timing practices may help you get started, it’s important that you learn the best timing for your specific industry, audience and market segments:
Utilize Analytics: You can send an email at 8 p.m. every week, but if your target audience works third shift or if they’re college students, these are two populations that don’t keep typical hours. Examine your previous email analytics to determine when your audience is most likely to respond to your communications.
Run A/B Tests: If your analytics don’t provide enough information, or if you’re new to email marketing, try running split tests in which you send the same email to identical audiences at different times.
Simply Ask: Sending a simple survey or including a question or two on an email opt-in may be all you need to do. If you find out that your audience loves to get emails on the weekends, then that’s when you should send them.
Email marketing best practices provide a lot of considerations, from personalization to clean address lists to timing. If you’re looking for guidance getting started with your emails, our team at SJC Marketing is ready to partner with you.