Timing can make or break an email marketing campaign’s success. While there’s no universal formula, our experience having sent over 800 million of emails for our clients in multiple industries (E-commerce, healthcare, finance and banking, B2B, B2C) has given us valuable insights into the best days and times to hit send.
Rather than relying on generic best practices, we’ve analyzed engagement trends, tested countless send strategies, and adapted based on real-time data. While every audience and industry is different, these are the key patterns we’ve identified to maximize email open rates and engagement.
The Best Days to Send Emails
Avoid Mondays and Be Cautious with Fridays
Mondays are usually the worst day to send emails. As people kick off their week, their inboxes are probably overflowing with internal messages, project updates, and urgent tasks. Most people are focused on catching up rather than reading marketing emails. If your message isn’t a top priority, it’s likely to get buried in the Monday chaos.
Fridays can be hit or miss. While Q1 and Q4 may see decent engagement, Q2 and Q3 (mostly summer months) typically don’t perform as well. If you’re considering a Friday send, aim for an early morning to around 2 PM email send. As always, look at past campaign performance and test before deciding to send on Fridays.
The Best Window: Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays
Based on our data, the prime days to send emails are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Why?
- Recipients are settled into their workweek.
- There’s less inbox clutter compared to Mondays.
- Prospects have more availability to check emails and respond.
If you want to optimize for higher engagement rates, these midweek days are the best place to start.
The Best Time of Day to Send Emails
Now that we know the best days to send, the next question is: when is the best time to send a marketing email during the day?
Sending emails at the right time increases the probability of your recipients seeing and engaging with your email. Based on our experience sending over 800 million emails, here’s what we’ve found.
Send between 11 AM to 3:30 PM Local Time Zone
Through extensive testing, we’ve found that the best time to send emails falls between 11 AM to 3:30 PM in prospects local time.Why this window?
- Before 11 AM: Your email will most likely get lost in the morning rush of emails, making it more likely to be missed or ignored.
- After 3:30 PM: Recipients start shifting focus to wrapping up the day and leaving work, reducing the likelihood of you receiving a response.
But timing isn’t just about picking the right window, it’s about sending at the right time for your recipient. If you have prospects in different time zones, send emails based on their local time to increase the probability of visibility and engagement. A simple tweak like this can have a big impact.
Key Takeaways
These insights give you a great starting point. But remember, the best send times ultimately depend on your audience, industry, and campaign goals. What works for one group might not work for another. A proposed actionable plan would look as the following:- Break down your audience data base in 2 to 3 buckets.
- For each, you will A/B test different strategies
- Group 1: send from 10 AM to 11:30 AM
- Group 2: sending at 1 PM
- Group 3: send between 3 PM to 4 PM
- Depending on the content (e.g. time sensitive offers, seasonal products, giveaways/raffles, etc.), you may want to send multiple times a day
- This will enable you to maximize reach while still testing your winning formula.
- Track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. After gathering sufficient data, you can evaluate what would be your “ideal” sending time frame.
- We’ve learned that no two audiences are the same, and success comes from continuously optimizing based on real-time data.
