Best Time To Send Emails: How To Optimize Your Email Strategy

When you create an email campaign, you want to send them at a time when your audience is most likely to engage. Your goal is to encourage leads to click on your messages, open them, and make a purchase.

So, what is the best time to send emails so they don’t get lost in the inbox? What are the best times for email marketing that ensure campaign success?

On this page, we’ll share the best time to send email campaigns, discuss the importance of timing, and cover tips to create a successful email marketing campaign.

Here’s an overview of what to expect:

• What is the best time to send emails?
• What are the best days to send emails?
• Why does it matter when you send emails?
• 6 tips for creating an email marketing schedule
• Frequently asked questions

Let’s get started!

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What is the best time to send emails?

Most research highlights that the best times to send emails are between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., followed closely by 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

In fact, 58% of adults check their email first thing in the morning.

Despite this research, there is no standard time to send emails. There may be an increase in email engagement at those times, but this isn’t the case for everyone. Your audience determines the optimal time to send emails.

Each audience is unique and may not fit into that standard 9-12 a.m.

block. You may have nurses, doctors, or laborers in your target audience that work third shift, so their optimal email time is at 10 p.m. instead of 10 a.m.

What are the best days to send emails?

Many companies suggest that Tuesday through Thursday are the best days to send emails.

This stems from the idea that many people will check their email before they start working.

Why does it matter when you send emails?

The time of day you send emails maximizes email marketing engagement. If you send them at the right time, your leads are more likely to open it and engage with your message.

For example, let’s say you send an email about an online sale. If you send the email at 10 p.m., half of your audience won’t engage because they are likely asleep or at home relaxing.

That might lead them to value your emails less, causing them to unsubscribe. Keeping your unsubscribe rate low is important for staying within Google’s email sender guidelines.

By understanding the importance of email timing, you can earn more opens, clicks, and conversions from your audience.

6 tips for finding the best time to send email campaigns

There are numerous steps you can take to make sure you’re using the best time to send your email campaigns. Here are six you can use to better your emailing strategy:

1. Analyze your audience
2. Consider sending emails on the weekend
3. Test your content
4. Make your emails mobile-friendly
5. Review your email list
6. Monitor your email frequency

Let’s break down each one below! If you want to deep dive into your email strategy, learn how to perform an email marketing audit to optimize all aspects of your marketing approach.

1. Analyze your audience

First and foremost, you need to analyze your audience. Look at your target audience to get a better understanding of who you are emailing to create a campaign that best suits their needs.

Determine your target audience’s demographics, including:

• Location
• Age
• Occupation

You may have a large chunk of your audience that work the night shift, so it is ideal to send your emails at the start of the night. If you have younger people in your audience, like college students, it may be more effective to send your emails in the late morning or early afternoon.

These factors influence when your target audience is most likely to check their email. When you look in-depth at these factors, you can figure out the best times to send email blasts.

2. Consider sending emails on the weekend

Many businesses only send emails on weekdays to avoid interrupting customers’ weekends. However, since there are far fewer emails sent on the weekend, you can consider sending emails during this time to set yourself apart.

Sending emails over the weekend is beneficial, depending on the email subject. If you know that your online sale ends on Sunday, for example, you can send them a reminder on Friday to encourage them to check out your deals.

By sending your email between Friday and Sunday, you can catch your audience’s attention.

Weekend emails are a great opportunity for you to engage your audience and get them to check out your content.

3. Test your content

Your email content must appeal to your audience. If your message isn’t interesting or relevant, the time that you send it won’t matter.

Testing is vital for finding relevant, appealing content. You can run A/B tests to determine which emails are most likely to pique your audience’s interest.

This process helps you build an email marketing campaign that encourages conversions.

You can schedule email testing every few months to make sure that you only send emails people want to open.

4. Make your emails mobile-friendly

More people open emails on mobile devices than ever before. To ensure your emails succeed, adapt your email campaigns to these devices for a positive user experience that leads to more conversions and revenue.

The mobile experience is far different from the desktop experience. If you want to make your subscribers happy, you need to adapt your emails to all devices.

Desktop emails are formatted differently than mobile ones.

Here is an email from Urban Outfitters on a desktop screen:

Here is the same email on a mobile screen:

The message is the same, but the formatting changes to accommodate the screen size, shape, and touch features.

A person may even use a specific device depending on what time of the day it is. For instance, when people get ready for work or take a lunch break, they may check their email on a cell phone. After work, they may use their personal table or laptop.

Optimizing your emails for any device is crucial to user experience.

Make sure whatever you use to send your emails has a mobile-friendly format to simplify the process.

5. Review your email list

You may try different times of day without seeing an increase in engagement. If this occurs with your email campaign, you need to review your email list.

Go through your email list every couple of months to see if users engage with your materials. If they haven’t opened or interacted with your emails in a while, it may be best to remove them from your list.

Once you clean out your lists, you can start looking for a new audience.

Try different tactics, such as email sign-ups on your website or digital marketing services, to help you regrow it:

Then, you can determine the best time to send email blasts based on your new audience.

6. Monitor your email frequency

Once you find the best times to send emails, you need to mind how often you send them. You may find that the best time to send emails to your audience is between 12-2 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday.

However, this doesn’t mean that you should pack all your emails into those time frames.

If you send too many emails, you may lose subscribers. You must create a balance for the number of emails you send to your audience’s inboxes.

Run tests to see how your audience reacts to different email frequencies — or ask them directly how many emails they like to receive. By doing this, you will figure out the best number of emails to send to your subscribers.

FAQs

Check out some of these common questions surrounding the best times to send marketing emails.

What time are most emails read?

Most emails are read around 10:00 a.m.

(after arriving to work) or 1:00 p.m. (after lunch).

Is it better to send emails in the morning or evening?

In general, emails have higher open rates when sent in the morning. This time aligns best with most people’s schedules.

What is the worst time to send emails?

The worst time to send emails is any time between 7:00 p.m.

to 2:00 a.m. This timeframe is usually outside of people’s active work or emailing hours.

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Pounce on the best times to send emails with WebFX

When you know the right time to send emails, you create an impactful email marketing campaign that earns new subscribers, increases engagements, and entices leads to covert. By strategically timing your emails, you will promote business growth and brand exposure.

At WebFX, we know how to create successful email marketing campaigns.

We have a team of 500 experts that will help you create your customized email marketing plan for more leads and conversions.

If you want to start reaching more leads with your emails, contact us online or call 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist. We look forward to hearing from you!