When integrating email into your marketing strategy, it's important that you get those emails opened and read by your contacts. If you send your email at the wrong time, that isn't likely to happen for you.
Instead, your emails will sit unopened in your buyer's inbox before inevitably getting deleted without being opened. A beautifully crafted email can do nothing for your business unless it is opened. Lead driving email marketing campaigns depend on you getting the timing right.
Ultimately, finding the right time depends on what you want from your email. Determine the objective and why you are sending it.
Do you just want your contacts to open the email? Are you looking for a response? Is the email driving traffic to a landing page where they will fill out a form?
Statistically, Tuesdays are the best day of the week to send an email for the greatest chance of a high open rate. Sending an email at 11 am will offer you the best chance of getting your email opened as well, and will be most likely for you to get a response back.
Generally speaking you will get a higher open rate by sending business emails on a weekday rather than a weekend. However, this is dependent upon your business and the industry that you are in.
If your business focuses on recreation you may find that your content sees a higher open rate on weekends, rather than weekdays. Typically about 15 per cent of business emails are opened on weekends. However, that statistic increases when the email content is based around hobbies or recreational activities, with a 20 per cent open rate.
Content is crucial to your email open and click through rates, but what is equally important is your audience. When you launch your email marketing strategy you need to understand who your buyers are and how to best appeal to them.
How do you do this? Research.
Completing a buyer personas exercise is one step to understanding your audience. Then, start A/B testing your email send times. Go through your email marketing analytics and determine which time works best for your audience, so every email you send is successful and doesn't sit unopened in an inbox.