The best time to send emails

barryhynd · #1 (**permalink**) 20-08-08, 20:52

I dont know how many people on here do some form of email marketing but what do you all think is the best time to send both B2B and B2C. You probably all answer emails on a daily basis but what times of the day do you think you give more attention to emails etc.

I've always worked on the premise in B2B that Monday and Friday were not a good idea as people have other priorities at the start and end of each week. It also seems to make sense to me to send B2B emails during business hours and maybe around lunchtime when people do tend to browse the net and catch up on emails.

On the B2C side it relly stumped me for ages until I eventually tested sending over the weekend which was much more successful.

What do you think of the above does it make sense or do you have your own times etc that work for you ?

Brian McIntosh · #2 (**permalink**) 21-08-08, 10:03

That's an interesting point Barry. I don't usually send "cold" emails but I would have thought during the week would have been more successful than at the weekend. I get far more hits on my website during the week, probably because people at work are having a surf, than at weekends. For me weekends are usually dead as far as hits go which would say to me people are doing other things with their time rather than sitting in front of a computer. Maybe it's something else I need to look into? Does it ever end?

TomB · #3 (**permalink**) 21-08-08, 11:14

At my other job we have a mailin glist of arond 1800 people that we send fortnightly bulletins. We've recently been trying them out on Thursday around 2pm ish.

however i've found that a Tuesday is the best day.

A good example was a email we sent out about a trainers forum. It went out about 2pm on the Tuesday to 1800 people. We were thinking we would be lucky to get around 10 responses to it and were looking for 20 people to fill the session.

by the time i had finished work on the thursday we had had over 40 people booked on the course and about another 20 emails.

All in all i think we have had around 75 response that email. Its only a 4.5% return on the email but is not bad return to be honest.

T

Power Lunch Club · #4 (**permalink**) 22-08-08, 00:39

Yes, Tuesday afternoon just after lunchtime is the time I find that people are more repsonsive to my email newsletter.

Brian McIntosh · #5 (**permalink**) 05-09-08, 13:13

I've had 5 marketing emails between 12.10 and 1.45 today. Maybe Friday lunchtime is the correct time?

barryhynd · #6 (**permalink**) 05-09-08, 15:55

There maybe is some truth in this Brian and it's something I may test. If you think about it people are winding down to the weekend and are maybe a bit more receptive to opening a few emails that gets them five minutes closer to finishing for the weekend. On the other hand I bet more than a few people are running around trying to get everything ties up for the weekend (can you tell thats me

).

Brian McIntosh · #7 (**permalink**) 05-09-08, 19:03

I don't know about the psychology behind it but I did open them.

Power Lunch Club · #8 (**permalink**) 06-09-08, 08:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snapper

I don't know about the psychology behind it but I did open them.

Okay, but why did you open them....? What it something in the headline? Or did you know the company fairly well?

Gordon
PLC

Brian McIntosh · #9 (**permalink**) 06-09-08, 19:18

They were from suppliers that I use promoting some of the stuff they sell.

Tirfuir · #10 (**permalink**) 08-09-08, 17:18

I use "Constant Contact" if sending out an email to more than 5 people in the "to" box. I also send them out to be delivered when possible at 3.30pm. Constant Contact is great for checking when someone opened the email, and also if they forwarded it on to someone else - though the forward email is not shown. Downside of Constant Contact is that it shows times opened as "EDT" as it is an American product.