You’ve heard me say time and time again that a solid email list is one of the most valuable assets your business can have.
That’s because an email list lets you connect with your audience directly, not through a third-party platform. So it puts you in full control of your communication with them. More importantly, though, email converts better than any other online channel, including social media.
But as I’ve said before, it’s not enough to just have an email list (which is too bad, because then we’d all be rolling in a lot more dough).
Instead, you need a list that opens, clicks, and buys from your emails. Because newsflash: that’s how you’ll make money and grow your business.
But what if you don’t have many people opening you emails?
Or what if people are opening your emails but not clicking through to your blog post, opt-in page, or sales page?
There are a few reasons why your open, click, and conversion rates for your emails may not be where you want them to be. But one key reason is that you may not be sending your emails at an optimal time for your audience.
So when should you be sending them?
Keep reading below to learn the best time to send emails to your subscribers.
Need help crafting email subject lines that will make your subscribers actually open your emails?
Download my 63 free email subject line templates.
A caveat
I might be undermining this entire post by starting it off with a caveat. But it wouldn’t be honest of me to dive into the data on best email send times without addressing this issue right off the bat.
Just like when it comes to scheduling social media posts or creating pay-per-click ad campaigns, there’s no universal perfect time to send emails to your subscribers.
That’s because the best time to send emails is the time that gives YOU the best results with your particular audience. And the only way to identify this time is to test different email send times with real emails that you send to YOUR audience.
But this doesn’t mean that data on best email send times from other businesses is useless. In fact, it can actually be quite useful because it gives you information about the times that are most likely to work for your business. This can speed up your testing process by identifying times that are most worth testing first. So instead of having to arbitrarily decide which times will be first on your testing list, email send time data tells you the times that are most strategic to start with.
So what exactly does the data say about the best time to send emails?
Let’s dig into it!
What’s the best day to send emails?
You probably aren’t surprised to hear that different datasets identify different days of the week as the best day to send emails. But there is a day that comes up more often than others: Tuesday. In particular, data from GetResponse, Klayvio, HubSpot, and Intercom shows that Tuesday is the winner when it comes to the best day of the week to send emails.
That said, the data also tells us that Tuesday has only a tiny edge over other weekdays. Email engagement doesn’t change that much from Monday to Friday. But it does drop on Saturday and Sunday.
So that’s the overall “best day to send” data. But what happens when we break things down by opens, clicks, and conversions?
Opens
Data from GetResponse, Klayvio, HubSpot, and Intercom shows that emails sent on Tuesday get the highest open rates. According to Klayvio, HubSpot, and OptinMonster, Wednesday is a close second.
Related: 10 effective ways to increase your email open rate + 63 free email subject line templates
Clicks
The data for clicks is similar to the data for opens. GetResponse and Campaign Monitor found that Tuesday is the best day for clicks. And HubSpot found that emails sent on Wednesday perform well too.
Related: 16 easy ways to get more email subscribers + Free email list builder cheat sheet
Conversions
Although Tuesdays and Wednesdays may be the best days for opens and clicks, data from Klayvio reveals that Thursday is the best day for conversions. In fact, they found that emails sent on Thursday had a 33.5% higher average revenue per email recipient.
Related: 12 effective ways to reduce your email unsubscribe rate + 63 free email subject line templates
What’s the best time to send emails?
Okay, so now you have a starting point to work with when it comes to which day of the week to try sending emails. But what’s the best time of day to send them?
Overall, the times of day that pop up most often in email send time data are 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
But again, let’s break it down by opens, clicks, and conversions.
Opens and clicks
Sendinblue and GetResponse found that 10 a.m. is an optimal time for both opens and clicks. In addition, Omnisend, GetResponse, and OptinMonster found that 1 p.m. is also an optimal time slot for opens and clicks.
Conversions
There isn’t as much data on the best time to send emails for conversions. But Klayvio found that the best-performing times of the day were 12 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m. Omnisend also found that 4 p.m. is an optimal time for conversions.
I know what you’re thinking: “Who’s waiting around for marketing emails at midnight???”
But remember, just because an email is sent at midnight doesn’t mean that that’s when people are actually opening it. However, it does mean that the email is already sitting in people’s inboxes when they check their email in the morning. That’s where the advantage of this time of day might come from.
Related: What to do if you’ve ghosted your email list + free re-engagement email template
Need help crafting email subject lines that will make your subscribers actually open your emails?
Download my 63 free email subject line templates.
Finding YOUR best time
Now that you know which days and times to use as a starting point, it’s time to find YOUR best time to send emails. You can do this by sending your emails at different days and times and seeing which ones work best for your audience.
For example, because data shows that Tuesday is the best day of the week and 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. are the best times, you might spend a few weeks sending emails on Tuesdays at either 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. Once you have enough data for that day and time, you can vary the day or the time to test different combinations. For example, you can compare morning times to afternoon or evening times. And you can compare different weekdays or even weekdays to weekends.
Every time you test, be sure to record your open, click, and conversion rates so that you can keep track of your numbers and, ultimately, find the best day and time for your audience.
And when you’re testing to find the best time for your audience, be sure to change just one variable at a time. For example, across consecutive tests, change the day of the week or the time of the day but not both at the same time. If you change both at the same time, you won’t know if it’s the day of the week or the time of day that’s responsible for the change in results.
Cleaning your email list
If your open and click rates are low, it may also be because you have lots of inactive subscribers on your email list. These are people who haven’t opened your emails in months (e.g., 6 months) and, therefore, probably won’t open them in the future.
Your open rate is the number of people who open your email divided by the number of people who are sent the email. Similarly, your click rate is the number of people who click on your email divided by the number of people who are sent the email.
Inactive subscribers will be sent your email, but they’re very unlikely to open or click on it. They’re essentially ghosts on your email list. So if you have a lot of inactive subscribers on your email list, they could be pulling your open and click rates down. The good news is that if you have lots of inactive subscribers on your email list, you can boost your open and click rates pretty easily by deleting these subscribers.
If list building has been a slow process for you, you might be scared to delete people and watch that subscriber count drop. But remember that inactive subscribers aren’t engaging with your emails (probably because they’re not interested in them to begin with). So there’s really no reason to keep them around on your list.
Even if you have healthy open and click rates, it’s a good idea to clean your email list regularly to keep it in solid shape. Haven’t done this before? Check out my posts on how and when to give your email list a scrub.
Related: Email list cleaning: 5 big risks of NOT doing it + free welcome email series swipe file
It pays to have email data
Existing email send time data may not hand you the best time to email YOUR list on a silver platter. But it’s still worth looking at.
By identifying the times that are most likely to work for your audience, it gives you an informed rather than arbitrary starting point for your own email testing. As a result, it can make pinpointing YOUR best time easier and faster.
Need help crafting email subject lines that will make your subscribers actually open your emails?
Download my 63 free email subject line templates.
