Email timing and frequency – the million dollar question
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During 2009, 247 billion emails were sent each day – that’s one email every 0.00000035 seconds.
In 2010, B2B email activity hit an all-time record. And in the last five years, commercial email volumes have increased by 63%. Not only is email marketing growing at a meteoric rate, but it is also becoming highly sophisticated: the top players in the industry have developed a host of complex strategies in their attempts to fine-tune their output and outmanoeuvre the competition.
Let’s take as an example one area that continually vexes email marketers – the million dollar question: “When is a recipient most likely to respond to an email?” In an industry where a percentage point in either direction can equate to many thousands of pounds in revenue, it’s a subject that gets taken very seriously.
You can sweat blood crafting the right email message and targeting it at the right person, but how do you know whether you’re sending it at the right time of the day and week? In recent years, the best time to send emails, the best day to send emails and the best frequency to send emails has grown into a science in its own right, albeit an inexact one. White papers get written on the subject, along with numerous articles and blog posts and, not surprisingly, disagreement abounds.
For example, a 2007 study suggests that Tuesday was online marketers’ most popular day to email, followed by Thursday, Monday, Friday, Wednesday, Sunday and Saturday. And while 33% of businesses sent email on Tuesdays, just 8% sent emails on Saturdays. The highest email open rates for the same period were Wednesday (27%), Monday (26%) and Thursday (26%); the highest click through rates were Wednesday and Thursday (5%); 11am and 4pm scored the highest marks for business hours email open rates (30%) and click through rates (5%). B2B prospects were most receptive to commercial emails during the first hour of their working day – 16.5% of emails in a recent study were opened between 9 am and 10 am; whereas 42.6% of financial emails were opened after lunch.
Conversely, another study suggests that Friday is the most popular day of the week to send out commercial emails- 42% of US online marketers sent at least one promotional email on a Friday.
Finally, a word of caution – universal open and conversion rates can be influenced by a whole raft of factors. No two markets are identical and, as the above data demonstrates, results can be contradictory, if not downright confusing. It’s therefore important not to take generalised market stats too literally. By all means use the information as a starting point to identify the optimum broadcast times and frequencies that are most likely to yield results, but in the final event there is no substitute for research. Ask yourself what you’re sending, who you’re sending it to and what you want them to do. Using all the information at your disposal, consider the time and day a recipient is most likely to read and act on your email, and then conduct tests to see which give the best results.
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