Email marketing is a phenomenal opportunity to reach out to millions of people in a matter of seconds, for a very small investment. A question that businesses have agonised over since the inception of email marketing is the optimal time and day of the week to send out mass emails to receive maximum engagement. There are no guarantees that everyone on your list will open and read the email, BUT there are a number of guidelines you can apply to improve your chances.Below we provide a little insight to a few general trends on what day of the week and time of day is best to send an email campaign.
It depends a lot on whether your email campaign is directed at consumers or businesses. It makes sense to say more people will open work emails during the work hours Monday to Friday, even with the introduction of mobile and tablet devices. It’s been widely known that email campaigns launched on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday generally have more success and achieve a higher open rate.[caption id="attachment_3117" align="alignnone" width="300"]
Graph 1. Courtesy of Mailchimp[/caption]
The exception to this is industries like the arts, eCommerce, and retail, these businesses can achieve a higher open rate over the weekend.
The highest promotional email open rates tend to be seen from the beginning of a typical work day from 8am, generally peaking at mid-morning. The drop off in open rate is slow and steady after about 11:30am through to 7pm when almost everyone has clocked off for the evening and are looking to relax with family.Research across various industries has revealed that over half of emails are still opened between 9am and 5pm, not including the time between 1pm and 2pm for lunch. Aside from these peak work hours, more Australians open emails during or after work hours as opposed to before arriving at work.[caption id="attachment_3119" align="alignnone" width="300"]
Graph 2. Courtesy of Mailchimp[/caption]With any marketing communication it is important to consider the local time where the majority of your customers are. A business that operates Australia-wide needs to consider whether an email sent at 9am AEST will arrive too early for those on the west coast. A handy way to avoid these time differences is to use an emailing system that allows scheduling so emails are deployed automatically at the appropriate time.
It’s time to put yourself in the shoes of your customers and think about who they are and what their email reading habits are like. Honing in on your target market for your email marketing will reap major benefits with audience engagement and click through rates. A few questions to ask about are about your customers and prospects:
When sending business emails it is important to know who you are wanting to reach and what information is relevant to them. Demographics make a huge difference to how people interact with your email.Finding the right the time and day you send emails can improve your results, but it is only a small piece of the pie when it comes to optimising an email campaign. The best way to determine the right day and time to send a campaign is by constant testing.There are many other factors that will influence the success of your campaign, including:
For greater insight to your specific industry or to learn more about how you can benefit from email marketing get in touch with Bang Digital today on 9328 7000 or drop us a line.
