by Mark
3. June 2010 02:54
One of the most-often repeated questions I get is “ What is the prime sending time for my email newsletters; Monday? Wednesday? Friday? ”
I suppose the REAL question is………… is there a ‘BEST’ time ?
One of the most important components in your email marketing campaign is controlled by your subscribers – the part where they DO or DON’T open your email. So much of your time and effort has been put into the creation of your a newsletter – the images, text, layout, the research for information and yet, all of that could be valueless if the recipient just simply deletes it, or dismisses it as junk.
This is the time to consider timing your sends! Give some thought to what your subscribers would be doing on your scheduled send days. Will they be have the time to open and read your email?
Many studies have shown that the most beneficial days to send are the middle of the week, mainly because this tends to be the busiest, so it would follow that your email has the most possibility of being opened and reacted to on those days. This is an observation but not a rule.
Monday and Friday should also be in your thoughts. As far as Monday goes, with plenty of week-ahead planning meetings, colleague catch-ups etc., it’s best to plan your email to arrive in the afternoon so that your subscribers have more time to read it.
Friday being a day when business people receive less email and, if they are able, they may invoke the ‘Poet’s Day’ rule (Push Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday) so send your message earlier in the day – or later if your mailings are B2C and you expect them to read it at home in the evening or over the weekend. So, what about the weekend? This is a bit more risky and you should only send if your stats have shown that sending (maybe to selected segments) at this time gives you a good response. If they do not show as active, it may be that they have been received and not checked and then lost in the Monday Mass of emails and possibly consigned, along with most of them, into the recycle bin.
As you can see from this, each day has its own benefits and disadvantages. The rule here is Research and feedback (check reports & statistics). Experimentation is acceptable and could be considered part of the research. It’s important that you send to suit your subscribers in preference to your own preferred schedule.
