Timing is everything! Or so, that’s what I’ve always thought. When it comes to email marketing, does the time of day that you send your email actually matter? For me, I’ll open any email that has a catchy subject line, an information-filled pre-header, or some great graphic – no matter the time of day. But maybe not everyone is just like me. In today’s blog post, I’m going to share some findings I recently discovered about deciding what time is best to send your next marketing email.

But first you should know what two things qualify a “successful” email:

1. Open rate: An open rate measures the number of recipients that viewed your email. This is the percentage of recipients that actually clicked and opened your email out of the total number of recipients. The average email open rate is 20.94%.
2. Click-through rate: The click-through rate measures the level of engagement of your email. This is the percentage of recipients that actually clicked on at least one link within your email out of the total number of recipients. The average click-through rate is 7.8%.

Here at GAAP Dynamics, we use HubSpot to send our emails which calculates these two metrics for you.

So, keeping these two metrics in mind, what time of day do emails have the best open rates and click rates? Well, in doing my own research the answer is: it depends.

While research according to GetResponse found both the highest open rate and click-through rate to be on Fridays, the lowest unsubscribe rate (the percentage of recipients who unsubscribe to your emails following your email) was on Sundays and Saturdays. However, I also found another article on MailChimp that said Tuesdays and Thursdays were the best performing emails for open rates and click-through rates.

All in all, from reading several different blogs and articles, I could conclude that sometime during the work week is the best time to send an email. Data shows most audiences are reading emails during their “break” periods of the work week – in the morning, during lunch, and at the conclusion of their day.  

In a 2019 email analysis the following was found:

• Morning – Between 9-10 am, open rates increase with an average of 21.35%
• Lunchtime – Between 1-2 pm, open rates are at their peak with an average of 22.09%
• Evening – Between 5-6 pm, open rates increase again with an average of 21.74%

Ultimately, the best time of day to send an email depends on your audience and what you are trying to achieve with your email. Weekdays are usually preferable to weekends, as weekends are usually when people are away from their computers and phones. However, weekends are also when fewer businesses send emails. So, your email may have more potential to stand out from the crowd.

One solid answer I found was that you always have to keep your audience in mind. These stats are not industry specific. So, you ultimately have to understand your audience’s online activity to determine when they are most likely to open an email. Who knows, your audience may be more active on weekends rather than weekdays.

I think the best advice is to try it out – run some A/B tests with some recipients scheduled to receive an email on the weekday and some recipients scheduled to receive an email on the weekend. Then, you can compare the rates to see what resonates most with your audience!

About GAAP Dynamics  

We’re a DIFFERENT type of accounting training firm. We don’t think of training as a “tick the box” exercise, but rather an opportunity to empower your people to help them make the right decisions at the right time. Whether it’s U.S. GAAP training, IFRS training, or audit training, we’ve helped thousands of professionals since 2001. Our clients include some of the largest accounting firms and companies in the world. As lifelong learners, we believe training is important. As CPAs, we believe great training is vital to doing your job well and maintaining the public trust. We want to help you understand complex accounting matters and we believe you deserve the best training in the world, regardless of whether you work for a large, multinational company or a small, regional accounting firm. We passionately create high-quality training that we would want to take. This means it is accurate, relevant, engaging, visually appealing, and fun. That’s our brand promise. Want to learn more about how GAAP Dynamics can help you? Let’s talk!

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