Timing is everything – right? Well, it may not be everything, but it matters the most, especially when it comes to getting subscribers to notice and open your emails.
The best way to make your emails have a big impact, you need to send them at the right time when most of your customers check their inbox.
The right timing can largely affect your campaign’s opens,click-through rates and sales.
Remember : Keeping your audience in mind is the best strategy to find out the right time to send your emails.
For instance, Optinly is a readymade lead generation tool that helps to capture leads for email marketing by sending the email to the subscribers usually around 7PM that attracts more sales.
Caution : Since every business is different, the same time is not applicable for all. This post will show you new ways to find the right time for unique email sending that works best for your business.
Let’s get rolling.
Stats showing best time to send Emails :
What’s the perfect time to send an email to your customers?” It isn’t an exact science, but still we have some data to tell you.
Hubspot statistics of a survey done with over 300 U.S. email marketers, found that the majority reported the highest engagement for their marketing emails between 9 AM to 12 PM and 12 PM to 3 PM.
And also,they found that the highest engagement during days were 22.6% - Monday, 24.9% - Tuesday, 21.3% - Wednesday.
So, Tuesday was the best day to send an email in terms of open rate with respect to their statistics.
Transition times to send emails :
- 8 AM - capture the people who check your emails first in the morning.
- 1 PM - usually lunch break.
- 4 PM - people who needs a little pick-me-up to get through the last hour of work.
- 6 PM - Usually an evening (end of the day).
These times are when people are more likely to be active online. But Wait, are you going to send your emails on Tuesday with exactly these timings? Don’t do that. There are already tons of businessmen following the same pattern.
Following the same pattern like others makes your subscribers leave your emails unread. With thousands of emails bombarded in their inbox, they may not open your email and read.
Reminder : Every email list is made up of a different set of people with different habits. So, your best sending time may or may not be the same as other businesses.
So what to do?
Make a twist in the usual flow and stand ahead from the row.So you can start your emails from 6 AM / 8 PM.
Ways to send Emails :
What if your audience doesn’t have any transition times in their daily life?
For instance, if your target market is new mothers, the above said optimal times will not make any sense.
So, the best way to send your emails are
- Know your audience.
- Testing and trying.
Know your audience :
You can ask questions that make sense to your business and audience. The more you know about your audience the better your growth will be . Questions like what is the content of your emails, Why did your customers sign up for your emails?
Example : GoZen Growth creates personalized email campaigns and manages audience contact lists in one place and filters them according to their preferences.
Perspectives like this will help you find out when your subscribers are most likely to engage with your brand.
And when you know your audience, you can make your content according to them thereby building your relationship stronger.
Testing and Trying :
Without testing and trying to send your emails you’ll never know where you stand.
Scheduling emails to be sent on different days and times during the week and checking analytics to see which emails saw the highest open and click rates can help you grow your business.
The average open rate across all industries is 17.92%.
Remember, Your Email success is limited by the number of contacts you have irrespective of the time you send. That’s why your ultimate goal should be to fill the list with as many qualified leads as possible.
Optimization of Emails :
Now you know how to find the best times to send emails, we’ll now want to shift your focus towards boosting your email subscribers and getting higher open and conversion rates.
Your customers will sign up for different reasons and have different interests. We want to show you how to target your visitors and segment your subscribers so you can send personalized emails that are bound to get better open and click-through rates.
Email scheduling :
For Email marketing one of the primary goals should be to determine a schedule that suits your audience. Here are some tips,
1. Collect data
Collecting data will help you understand the audience you’re targeting.
What tools can be used to collect data?
- Google Analytics
- Facebook Insights
This information will set you up for success because it’ll allow you to make informed assumptions about their lifestyle and when they’re most likely to engage with your emails.
2. Open rate
If you’ve done email marketing in the past, you should review open rates from previous campaigns.
When you have achieved an open rate you’re satisfied with, there’s no need to redesign your wheel. Look at the times those emails were sent and send your upcoming emails then.
When your open rate was on the low side, you’ll need to change when you send your emails. Don’t forget that it’s not about open rates alone.
Consider other metrics too, such as:
- Click-through rates
- Conversion rates
- Bounce rates
3. Know your competitors
Find out what your competitors are doing with their email marketing strategies.
What to do?
- Look on to their websites.
- Subscribe to their emails.
Realise how your competitors send their emails at a specific time, know the reason why they’re doing so.
Do some research on your industry, audience and digital experiences. Always do testing but consider email scheduling according to your business.
4. A/B test to send your email
After email scheduling it’s necessary for you to do A/B testing email send times to constantly determine the sweet spot for your audience.
You can send an email at one time and another at a different time.
Do this oofen as the ideal time may change and it’s important to keep on adapting and learning what works and what doesn’t.
5. Email Subject lines :
Email subject lines are designed to capture your audience’s imagination and get them to read on.
- Keep them short, punchy and put the key details to the front of the sentence.
- Ensure your audience that they can read your subject lines on different devices.
- Subject lines should be relevant, specific.
- Use keywords and phrases to reach your target audience.
- Be honest with the contents of the email and personalize your subject lines.
- Use email subject lines testers to offer you suggestions on how they can be improved.
6. Sharpen your CTAs :
CTAs are essential to an email. When it comes to writing the CTAs action, benefits are essential.
Your audience should be compelled to sign up, visit the sale in as few seconds as possible.
Make your CTAs stand out with a button or box while writing your email in HTML.
Recent research shows that there is a 371% improvement from single CTAs to multiple calls to action.
7. Format in HTML :
Creating a HTML email is a great way by incorporating graphics, GIFs and video into your email template so that it reaches your audience rightly.
Caution : An email loaded with video and animation may look great, but you might encounter problems with loading and delivering your message.
For simplicity and accessibility, it’s always good to include a plain text version too.
8. Review your Email List
You may feel as though you keep trying different times of day, but don’t see an increase in engagement.
Do review your email list once in a while whether your mails are engaging.
Use an email verifier to remove any non-existent or invalid email address.
If they haven’t engaged with your emails in a while, it may be best to remove them from your list.
Use different tactics, such as email sign-ups on your website or digital marketing services, to help grow your emails.
This will help you gain a more active email list.
Wrapping up
Though you have excellent email content, your sales may go down due to the way you are sending it out on the wrong days or times.
The most popular times for great email open rates are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 6 am, 10 am, 2 pm, and 8 pm.
Knowing the best time to send out an email from this post can help you to strategize your email marketing for tremendous success.
But the optimal times may differ from place to place, company to company. Comment us about your timing to send mail along with queries you have !