What’s the best time and day of the week to send my newsletter?
One of the biggest email marketing questions has always been “What’s the best day to send email marketing campaigns?” The only valid answer remains, “It depends.”
Luckily, one of email’s strengths is it’s just so testable. You should use the time of day and day of week as variables in your tests. Try splitting your subscribers into 2 separate subscriber lists and sending to one half at one day and time and one half at another. Run a comparison of your results in the Reporting section and learn from what you see.
While the optimal delivery time will depend on what you’re sending and who you’re sending to, there has already been a lot of research in this area that you should also consider. Just keep in mind that this research is conducted across a range of markets, so it might not always be right for you or your recipients.
Delivery consultancy Return Path analysed over 3.4 million email messages in July 2004 and found that email sent on Monday is more likely to get opened, and anytime between 6am and 10am is the best time of the day to send.
Here’s a summary of their findings:
» Email on weekdays, not weekends. Delivery rates on the weekends are generally lower and fluctuate more widely than delivery rates for campaigns sent on weekdays.
» If you have to send on a weekend, do it between 6am and 10am or 10pm and 2am.
» Email campaigns sent between 6am and 10am have higher delivery rates than any other time period no matter which day.
» Monday delivery rates are highest overall, followed by Tuesday, Thursday, and Wednesday.