How to Determine the Best Time to Send Emails

You wouldn't send an important message to that special someone if chances are high they won't even open it. So, why should it be any different for your business?

Email campaigns sent randomly are a hit or miss. Rest assured, it's no coincidence that companies invest in automation tools to ensure their marketing emails are delivered at a specific hour.

That said, there is no single answer to the million-dollar question: When should businesses contact email subscribers?

Research shows that multiple factors influence the best time to send emails. And while 1 pm on a Wednesday might be the right choice for one business, it can be a wasted attempt for another.

Also Read: How to Use Branding in your Email Marketing Strategy

To ensure that your email marketing strategy maximizes open and click-through rates, here's what you need to understand first.

Why is time optimization for marketing emails so important?

Here are a few reasons you need to send emails at a specific hour.

Improve email opens and engagements

Around 22% of email marketing messages get opened within an hour of being delivered. As time passes, the target audience's Inbox becomes more crowded, reducing the probability of your messages getting attention.

That means the best time to send emails is when the subscriber is likely to immediately view them. A quick look at your personal Inbox will reveal that most promotional emails were delivered between 8 am to 10 pm.

This is no coincidence.

Email marketers spend ample time and effort researching their target audience's daily habits - part of which helps them identify the right time to send emails. Most people check their email at these hours - at the beginning of their day.

Enhance email domain reputation

Sender reputation has a direct impact on your domain's deliverability score. The higher this is, the more chances your messages will end up in the recipient's primary Inbox.

While various factors contribute to poor domain reputation, an ill-thought-out sending schedule is often swept under the rug. Sending emails at the wrong time means that your audience is unlikely to open the message, let alone engage with it.

When this turns into a pattern and a majority of email recipients simply ignore your emails, email service providers see it as a red flag. After all, if your emails are worth subscriber time then they should get at least some traction.

Sending consistent emails at the right times is particularly beneficial for budding companies vying to improve their domain reputation, or you can use an email warmup service.

However, you should strive to increase open rates through a customized email schedule tailored to the target market.

Reduce email bounce rate

Key considerations: Email campaigns and target audience

The debate around email send time isn't a complicated one. Professional email marketers recognize that it's all about human psychology. Campaigns are successful when the target audience responds, open rates go up, and click-through rates increase.

Naturally, companies should take into account the day of the week and the time of the day with appealing performance metrics. This selection also depends on the context of the situation as well as the content and design of the message being sent.

Context and content

It's obvious that the recipient will not open every single message they get. Subscribers' inboxes are loaded with hundreds of promotional emails, a portion of which land in the Primary Inbox.

This is where the recipient's mindset comes into play. The decision to interact with an email campaign is directly determined by situational factors.

Working adults and students tend to check their phones first thing in the morning. The human race is conditioned to reach for their smartphone, which is why most of us grab our devices in bed, right after waking up.

Nobody is alert at 8 am, which is why it doesn't make sense to send actionable emails that demand considerable thought. This time is best suited for light content that is tactfully written to boost open rate and reader retention. Smart companies often top such early bird messages with a retargeting campaign delivered in the early evening.

Think about it like this.

A company wants to encourage sales by offering grocery coupons. Seeing as how most people run errands after they're off from work, it makes sense to announce the sale early morning before they leave for the office.

Later, the company can send follow-up marketing emails with more details during lunch hour or the mid-afternoon break when recipients have enough time to plan their shopping duties.

As illustrated by this example, it's clear that the optimal time to send email campaigns relies on the target audience's personal and professional circumstances. For B2B companies aiming to improve their click-through rate, such considerations are even more important.

Device

According to research, around 1.7 billion people view emails on mobile devices whereas 0.9 billion open them on desktops. This statistic is closely tied to a recipient's access and affinity to different types of devices around the clock.

In the example above, we established that most individuals check emails on their phones in the morning. This is because grabbing a handheld device is easy, convenient, and less time-consuming than turning a laptop on when one is groggy under the covers.

On the contrary, email marketing campaigns sent during office hours are likely to be opened on a work computer or laptop.

Inherently, the time to send emails is incredibly important for effective content marketing. Don't forget, the content of your email should be designed to fit on your recipient's screen. If images and text don't even display properly, the click-through rate will most definitely suffer.

The device on which your target market views the message determines the desired impact. So, before you send an email, make sure to predict the whereabouts of your subscriber as accurately as possible.

Key metrics to measure the performance of email timing 

The best time to send emails will vary according to company goals. If marketing teams want to increase open rates, the best time to send email campaigns will be different than the optimum time for maximizing click-through rates.

Each metric is associated with a different stage in the whole journey. To gauge how well an email performed, it is important to know the difference between key metrics.

Open rate

As the name suggests, open rates refer to the number of prospects that click on an email to view what's inside. Typically, welcome emails are more exclusively focused on increasing open rates to set the stage for follow-up communications.

For such an email campaign, the peak time for delivery will be based on situational factors that lead to a mere tap on the screen, rather than those that determine whether the recipient will further interact with the message.

Besides measuring time optimization, this statistic provides insight into the effectiveness of a subject line. A low open rate is often a telltale sign that the subject line is boring or misrepresentative of the content inside it.

Click-through rates

When the goal is email engagement, marketers pay special attention to click-through rates. Email campaigns sent within a time frame that supports recipient action have better click-through rates than others.

This means that the subscriber clicked a link within the email content. Once redirected outside their Inbox, whether the recipient took another action doesn't count.

The click-through rate is calculated as a percentage of the number of emails sent.

Companies sending the weekly newsletter or educational emails schedule campaigns to garner high open rates AND high click-through rates. Needless to say, email campaigns must be opened first and later engaged with.

While improving the open rate isn't the main objective, click-through rates are always derived from the latter. To make an email marketing campaign perform better, go beyond optimizing subject lines.

Focus on crafting valuable content, choosing a responsive template, and selecting the appropriate design according to the device type. Most importantly, come up with a strong call to action.

Regardless, the best time to send marketing emails with promising click-through rates is when the target prospect is willing to go beyond just reading the content. In other words, recipients must be in a setting that allows enough time and liberty to feed their curiosity.

Omnisend's analysis of the optimal time to send emails reveals that 5 pm had the highest click-through rates. If we look closer, it makes perfect sense as to why that is.

People tend to take action when they have retired from work for the day and have more free time on their hands.

Click to open rates

Click to open rates include the percentage of individuals who click on an image, button, or link compared to the total number of people who open the email campaign. Naturally, if the percentage is very low, it may indicate a range of problems, such as those of timing and content creation.

Perhaps those 1 pm email blasts don't convey the right message, or maybe they are simply too demanding for the hour.

Once marketers calculate this metric, they can figure out how relevant their email marketing tactics actually are. The comparison of clicks to opens can also be used to find out the bounce rate.

While there is no set standard, CampaignMonitor suggests that good click-to-open rates lie between 6 to 17%. Bear in mind, this number is just an estimate and can look entirely different depending on your industry.

To know if your emails are raking in a decent click-to-open rate, pay attention to competitor benchmarks. It goes without saying if the industry's majority reported click-to-open rates over 30% last year, don't set the bar as low as 17%.

The best day to send an email

Sending emails every single day of the week is a big NO. When email frequency is too high, messages lose impact.

Just as an email marketer must carefully decide the best time to send business communications, they need to choose the right day too. This is where research comes in to provide data-backed answers.

We analyzed the results of several studies to find the top days of the week that experience maximum traction.

Tuesday

Experiments conducted by CampaignMonitor, GetResponse, and Klaviyo all indicate that emails sent on Tuesdays fare the highest open rates.

Remember, open rates do not suggest that engagement is equally high. But even if the click-to-open rate for Tuesday isn't as appealing, companies can plan lighter content simply aimed at informing the customer.

Also, note that the emails considered in these studies weren't just sent to one type of target audience. Similarly, the types of emails in question were also different.

CampaignMonitor's analysis of 30 billion emails shows that Tuesdays proved especially useful for travel, marketing, and advertising agencies.

If your business operates in one of these markets, schedule emails for Tuesday among other performing days.

Having said that, nothing is set in stone. The design and content of outbound emails significantly determine how they will be perceived which is why testing different campaigns should be prioritized.

Thursday

While four unique studies show that Thursdays have a high open rate, research conducted by Klaviyo indicates the exact opposite. The experiment based on 22,000 email campaigns suggests that despite experiencing the lowest open rate on Thursday, this day generated the most revenue.

Simply put, people delay making a purchase to Thursdays.

This can be due to various reasons, perhaps the weekend drawing closer is one. The start of the week may be spent contemplating the information received, whereby, later weekdays subconsciously get reserved for decision-making.

Regardless, an open rate doesn't promise conversion. It just leads up to it. So, even if a business focuses on Tuesday emails, their earnings might be generated on Thursday.

In any case, it's important to recognize that a marketing email has a cascading effect. When companies manage to intrigue email subscribers and provide valuable information, it can have a positive effect throughout the week.

At the end of the day, audience goals play a big role. The best time to send emails can be derived from behavior patterns and industry dynamics. If you're unsure about these, head over to Google Analytics to do more digging.

Wednesday

The middle of the week serves as a settling point for many, and might just be the best day to send emails to your customers.

As work adults find familiarity in their routine, they are more likely to check emails. While this logic may be slightly different for the unemployed demographic, research supports marketing professionals who schedule emails for delivery on a Wednesday.

Open rates are decent, although not the best in comparison to Tuesday and Thursday.

Interestingly, Wednesdays are great for the food and beverage industry. Maybe because people are more open to the idea of going out when half the working week has passed.

The worst day of the week

One would think that people check promotional emails on the weekend when there are no work responsibilities. In reality, that's not true.

Several experiments rank Saturday and Sunday at the bottom of the barrel. These days report the lowest open rates. Possibly because people tend to remove themselves from formal engagements during times of leisure.

And yet, GetResponse's research results show that the weekend has the best click-to-open rate. Considering that businesses have access to the same studies discussed here, it makes sense why that is.

Saturdays and Sundays aren't high-volume days of the week which means there's less competition. So, when the recipient's inbox isn't nearly as loaded, open rates for companies trying their luck on the weekend automatically go up.

The best time to send emails for B2C companies

According to a HubSpot survey, nearly 31% of email campaigns sent between 9 am to 12 pm get the highest engagement. This statistic is strictly based on an examination of B2C companies.

Another study by Omnisend concludes that when companies send an email during the workday, campaign performance is higher.

8 AM

The number of marketing emails sent during the morning is evidently higher than at any other time during the day. However, this is also the hour when competition is at its peak.

Companies understand that humans have become accustomed to checking their phones before the workday starts. In fact, 8 am after a good night's sleep might as well be the best time to send emails in order to benefit from maximum reader retention.

Also, note that one person's 8 am can be another's 9. With the increase in remote and flexible work opportunities, employees in 2023 start their day at unconventional hours.

Let's say your target audience is Gen Z who reports to work from home in the afternoon. In this instance, do anything BUT send an email at 8 am.

10 AM

While 10 am might not enjoy as much spotlight as 8 AM, it's still one of the best times for sending emails. At this hour, most people are already at work, slowly settling into their onsite/desk responsibilities.

So while they might not be able to pay too much attention to the details of promotional emails, open rates are still high. This is exactly why research shows that recipients aren't proactive to click through an email at 10 AM, but they will still tap on one to view its content.

1 PM

People with a no phone policy at work truly know how to cherish the lunch break which usually starts at 1. Naturally, the first thing people do after hours of crunching at the desk is check their phone which is why you might want to send an email at this time.

Omnisend's analysis of 2 billion marketing emails shows that 1 pm doesn't boast the highest open rate. However, overall, it is still a decent time to send emails.

5 PM

At 5 pm people are tired of work and desperate for distractions. This time of the day experiences the highest click-through rates suggesting increased email engagement.

This is one reason why promotional communications from the entertainment industry often land in subscriber inboxes around the evening. Individuals are eager to reward themselves for working when they are in a mindset that accommodates leisure activities.

The worst time to send an email

Whenever your audience can't or won't access their emails is the worst time for contact. In most cases, this is the night since people are asleep and unaware of the notifications on their phones.

International companies targeting customers across the globe must pay attention to time zones. If subscribers are receiving emails at 3 AM, it's no wonder conversions are slow. Fortunately, email scheduling software helps curb this problem when marketers specify the audience's country or region.

The best time to send emails for B2B companies

B2B companies must play by different rules to satisfy their client base. Since even one conversion holds a lot of weight, the stakes are higher.

Naturally, timing is everything and playing it safe is the most common option. Since research consensus favors 10 am as the optimal time to send emails, plenty of B2B companies roll out their drip campaigns at this exact hour.

Stick to standard business hours

The right time to send emails shouldn't fall beyond 5 or 6 pm. Don't forget, working professionals are the core decision-makers here and you need to contact them during office hours.

Think about it this way. A bottling company wants to partner up with a food and beverage organization. In this case, the former needs to send emails to the other party when the latter is near a screen and available to consider email proposals.

Bottom line

The best time to send emails remains a hot topic among marketers. Despite the abundance of research out there, evolving human habits and technological dynamics are revolutionizing when and how customers interact with company messages.

Getting the time right is absolutely essential but marketers are human, after all. As a company eager to reach its prospects at the right hour, every single time, you must deploy scheduling software to ensure seamless results.

With GoCustomer, you get that and more. As an all-in-one email marketing solution, users have access to A/B testing to measure campaign performance, a drag-and-drop feature to navigate the dashboard, and an exclusive AI writing assistant to create email marketing content.

Sign up today to make sure your campaigns are always well received!