There is a great deal of research and conventional wisdom about what time of the day or week is best to send emails, as well as how frequently you should send them every month. We’ll take a look at some of that research in a moment, but the best indicators for when and how often you should send out email can be found in your own historical data and testing.
After all, you have the advantage of knowing your customer really well, and the data you’ve collected on their behavior will help you zero in on the best timing for your emails.
Timing your emails
This infographic from KissMetrics does a very good job of explaining norms on email timing. The most interesting note on the data is that email open rates are highest in the morning, but you may gain more traction for actions that lead to purchases by timing emails in the evening. This makes sense – people may want to browse their email in the morning, but they’ll be quickly distracted with getting the kids off to school or getting to work. The early evening may be a much better time to entice them to buy.
The infographic also takes a look at some other key metrics by time of day and day of the week. Abuse rate reporting, it turns out, is highest in the early morning hours and during the weekends, while weekends bring the highest click rates – and the highest bounce rates, so make sure that creative is strong and leads to a relevant landing page.
As for timing – this research shows that sending 1 – 4 emails a month is the sweet spot for pleasing consumers. A study by Blue Hornet found that 35.4% of consumers cite frequency as the main reason for unsubscribing, while almost half of respondents noted they would they would opt-down to get fewer emails rather than unsubscribe if given the option.
How to test for time optimization and frequency
Use a combination of the research you conduct on your email metrics and research norms to create baseline to work from. Pick the segments you want to work with and develop a series of tests that are designed with specific questions in mind. For example:
What time of day are promotional emails getting the best open rate?
What time of day are promotional emails getting the best click-through rate?
What day of the week is best for sending out offers?
Are we timing our emails correctly for various markets or time zones, or should we update our approach?
What is causing a high bounce rate?
How is frequency impacting our unsubscribe rate?
Does our unsubscribe rate improve by changing frequency, or are results better when we offer different subscription terms?
You can see how testing each of these aspects of timing will help you arrive at a sweet spot for sending out various types of emails. You might even see so much success with, for example, offering updated subscription levels that you’ll decide to create an email campaign designed to get your subscribers to update their subscription level – a preemptive move that might win more customer loyalty. While you’re at it, be sure to change your opt-in survey to match your new program.
Pay attention to the metrics
Pay attention to the results you get. Work with your analytics team to develop week-over-week, quarter-over-quarter, and year-over-year scenarios to map trends and make sure that your approach to timing is delivering the desired results. Blend these results with other test analytics to create the right cadence for your campaigns, overall and you’ll find that just as the rising tide lifts all boats, your dedication to metrics across the board will elevate your customer base.
