You put so much time and effort into creating a valuable newsletter for your audience, from the timely tips and inspiring images to carefully curated links and tutorials. The entire goal is to get as many eyes on that newsletter as possible, so choosing when to send it is a vital step in this process. Let’s take a look at optimal times to let that newsletter fly into inboxes before you hit that send button.
Open Rates for Emails
Before we dive into exact days and times to send, we want to underscore how important this decision is. Let’s say you have a goal of a 30% open rate. If you send at the wrong time for your audience, that open rate likely drops 8% after just four hours. And if they haven’t opened it up by the next day? Chances are less than 2% that they ever will.
Eek.
Now, these percentages will vary depending upon which study you’re looking at, but let’s just agree that we want to do everything humanly possible to get people to open that dang newsletter as soon as possible after you send it.
The Best Times to Send Your Newsletter
We need to state from the beginning that there is not one hard and fast time (Wednesdays at precisely 2:51pm). Optimal send times vary by your particular audience, and there are always variations and ranges of best times.
That being said, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are historically the best times to send your newsletter, with Tuesday slightly edging out the other two days. Makes sense, doesn’t it? On Mondays, people are getting back into the work groove and are super focused on tasks at hand. Fridays? Pfffft, they’re already mentally out the door to their weekend. And, of course, weekends are the weekends, when most folks aren’t glued to their email inboxes at all.
Okay, that covers the days. What about the specific time of day? Logic tells you that, just because you’re a night owl and you finished writing your newsletter at 2:00am, that 2:00am isn’t likely to be when most people are eagerly searching their inbox for anything. The same applies for rush hour on the way home from work, or the dinner hour for almost anyone (but especially families with kids).
We (and countless studies) suggest scheduling that newsletter to go out between 9:00am – 11:00am. The majority of people by that time have started their day, gotten to work, and are checking their email for the day.
Tips for Honing in on the Best Time for Your Audience
Every newsletter operates within a particular industry, and each business has a demographic within the industry. Know your audience! Try these tips to determine which send time is best for them.
- Run an A/B test in your email marketing platform. This is easy to do. Simply send one email at one time, and another email at a different time. Which one performs better? Stick to that time.
- Closely monitor your open rates. Get a baseline for your open rates, then if they’re not performing up to par, experiment and keep an eye on what moves the needle toward your goal.
- Keep your audience demographic in mind. If your demographic is senior citizens, avoid sending newsletters later in the evening. If your demographic is young families, avoid anything from 5pm until the next morning. Know your audience’s likes/dislikes, habits, and routines and adjust your marketing to them accordingly.
