Best Times to Send a Marketing Email

So you have a marketing email designed and ready to go. The graphics look great and the content is on point. But when is the right time to send it to your email list? Morning, afternoon or evening? Which day of the week? In this blog, we’ll dig into the analytics and provide you with some insight on the best times to send marketing emails to your new or existing customers.

Ideally, you’ve been collecting data on your audience during previous ad campaigns. The information that you personally gather will help define your target audience further and further. If you’re just starting out and have little or no reference data, that’s where these guidelines should have the most impact.

Time Zones

The first thing to consider is the time zone where most of your customers reside. If they are mostly in one specific time zone, then that can make your job a lot easier, as you don’t have to find a happy median. Instead you can focus on one optimal time for these customers. But if they are located in different time zones, you’ll need to give careful consideration to your East and West Coast customers who may not appreciate an email too early in the morning.

Time of Day

Most email marketing strategists will say that 10AM EST is the optimal time to send emails. East Coast customers have already begun their day and are probably on their second glass of coffee at work, while West Coast customers are just getting up and checking their emails in bed on their mobile phones. Central Time Zone customers are right in the middle here, so they may be on their way to work or already arrived at the office, checking their morning emails. Having said all that, some studies have shown that an afternoon or evening email blast can also be very effective (somewhere around 2PM EST and 8PM EST). People are in the midst of their work day, probably at lunch (afternoon email), or they are unwinding at home from a long day’s work (evening email).

Day of Week

So now you have your time figured out. But which day of the week do you send it? Most strategists and studies agree on this one – middle of the week. Tuesday through Thursday have proven to be very effective days to send your marketing email as people are in the middle of their work week and looking for distractions to get them through it. But which of these three days is the most effective? Tuesdays. Countless studies have shown that Tuesdays are by far the best day to send an email.

Final Verdict

If you want to be aligned with the majority of studies and follow most email marketing strategists best advice, then Tuesdays at 10AM is probably your best bet. Having said that, we strongly recommend testing different times and days of the week to see how your customers respond. No two customers are alike, so it’s very possible that you get more traction and engagement on an afternoon email campaign that goes out on a Friday. But you’ll need to test and analyze the data before you can really determine the right schedule for your customers and your business.