When is the best time to send an email?

Sending email at the right date and time is essential to getting decent open rates when the average open rate is 22.13%. When is the right time to send emails campaigns? Research has show that the best day for sending email is Tuesday. If your emails aren’t being opened or they were sent at the less appropriate time, make sure to design your campaign to take time zones and targeted audiences within the selected time zone into account. For example, it could be 10AM here in Nova Scotia, Canada when you send an email and if you are sending an email campaign aimed at a Russian target audience, it would be 2AM.

Understand the demographics that comprise your target audiences. This will help shape the content and direction of work on your email campaigns. This will also be a factor in determining the best time to send emails. For instance, sending an email on Saturday evening will be less effective with the younger crowd, who tend to stay out all night and typically head home without checking their phones or emails.

Research taken from 10 studies have determined that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days to be sending out marketing emails. These three days were identified as having consistent open rates. Care should be taken not to overload your subscribers inboxes on those days however, for this will create the opposite effect of what is desired. The two worst days identified for open rates are, not surprisingly, Saturday and Sunday.

Over 50% of people open their personal email around between 6AM and 9AM or at the start of the work day, a study from Buzzstream found. However the most popular times for professional and marketing emails to be opened were between 9AM and 10AM - or around the start of the average work day. Another peak time for email opening is around 2PM and 3PM in the afternoon when most people have finished their lunch breaks and are looking forward to finishing the work day. If your targeted demographics are office workers, the times mentioned are the best times to send emails to them. There is a peak time in the evening for email opening between 7PM and 10PM when people are winding down their day. During this time, recipients are more likely to respond to promotional messages.