Email Marketing Part I
This is part one of a 3 part series dealing with some of the nuances of email marketing. The first issue I’d like to tackle is the “When”. Right up front I’ll say that there is no universal best day or time, however there are some best practices.
Historically for B2B, Tuesday through Thursday is when most emails are delivered. This is because holidays, summer hours and busy weekend schedules were believed to put a dent in open performance for emails sent Friday through Monday – scaring many marketers away from mailing on non-peak days and leading to three days of crowded inboxes.
Some try to send late at night so as to be at the top of the inbox the following morning, but this can backfire as many people simply delete non-work related emails as soon as they begin their day, so as to focus on the messages they need to sort through.
If email performance slips, send a portion of your list on a non-peak day to test the results. Arriving as one of a few unread messages on Monday might help your message stand out more than arriving with the many the following day.
Weekends aren’t ideal. Your email is likely to get buried under the mass of email that comes in Sunday and early Monday morning. If you send Monday, allow people time to clear their inboxes from the weekend.
Often the consumer is best touched right before the weekend, say Thursday evening so they can be prepared to do their shopping on the weekend. It should also be noted that when a consumer does opt-in to receive your emails, timing may not be as relevant as the rate of consistency. Setting up campaigns that are delivered weekly or bi-weekly at the same day/time will generate anticipation, where the consumer will learn to expect your email.
Because of the lack of agreement on the issue of what day to send your emails out, many instead focus on the email subject, content and database segmentation. This ultimately will ensure you hit your desired audience and that in many cases your email gets read. For example, would it matter what day of the week an email was sent if someone received a free gift on the anniversary of them signing up for your email newsletter or flyer?
Many companies make the mistake of sending out either too many emails or emails that contain nothing relevant except “buy this” or “special that”. The key to successful email marketing is to build awareness by providing relevant information that is compelling and useful. Don’t just try and sell – engage, educate, and enlighten your target audience and 9 times out of 10 they will buy – maybe not today but eventually. Think about the emails you’ve opted-in to receive that you expected to learn something from, and found that all they tried to do was sell you something.
In summary, the best day to send an email is the day that your email performs the best. And you’ll only know that by testing. And then, testing again. Over time it will become clear what the performance difference are for your emails between the days of the week.
The things that will influence what day performs the best for you are:
- Audience/demographics
- Type of product or service
- eMail subject
- Messaging/call to action, and
- Where the recipient accesses your email
Also the makeup of the list, both the size and number of inactive records, can influence your success greatly.
Finally, if you can solicit feedback from your audience directly that will help – either by questioning them when they opt-in to your communications or by calling/emailing them and asking what their delivery preferences are.
What’s the best day to send out an Email Marketing Campaign?
January 23, 2012 by Mike Rusheleau • Digital Marketing, Outbound Marketing Tags: call to action, database segmentation, demographics, email content, email deployment, email inboxes, email marketing, email opt-in, email performance, email subject, emarketing •
Email Marketing Part I
This is part one of a 3 part series dealing with some of the nuances of email marketing. The first issue I’d like to tackle is the “When”. Right up front I’ll say that there is no universal best day or time, however there are some best practices.
Some try to send late at night so as to be at the top of the inbox the following morning, but this can backfire as many people simply delete non-work related emails as soon as they begin their day, so as to focus on the messages they need to sort through.
If email performance slips, send a portion of your list on a non-peak day to test the results. Arriving as one of a few unread messages on Monday might help your message stand out more than arriving with the many the following day.
Weekends aren’t ideal. Your email is likely to get buried under the mass of email that comes in Sunday and early Monday morning. If you send Monday, allow people time to clear their inboxes from the weekend.
Often the consumer is best touched right before the weekend, say Thursday evening so they can be prepared to do their shopping on the weekend. It should also be noted that when a consumer does opt-in to receive your emails, timing may not be as relevant as the rate of consistency. Setting up campaigns that are delivered weekly or bi-weekly at the same day/time will generate anticipation, where the consumer will learn to expect your email.
Because of the lack of agreement on the issue of what day to send your emails out, many instead focus on the email subject, content and database segmentation. This ultimately will ensure you hit your desired audience and that in many cases your email gets read. For example, would it matter what day of the week an email was sent if someone received a free gift on the anniversary of them signing up for your email newsletter or flyer?
Many companies make the mistake of sending out either too many emails or emails that contain nothing relevant except “buy this” or “special that”. The key to successful email marketing is to build awareness by providing relevant information that is compelling and useful. Don’t just try and sell – engage, educate, and enlighten your target audience and 9 times out of 10 they will buy – maybe not today but eventually. Think about the emails you’ve opted-in to receive that you expected to learn something from, and found that all they tried to do was sell you something.
In summary, the best day to send an email is the day that your email performs the best. And you’ll only know that by testing. And then, testing again. Over time it will become clear what the performance difference are for your emails between the days of the week.
The things that will influence what day performs the best for you are:
Also the makeup of the list, both the size and number of inactive records, can influence your success greatly.
Finally, if you can solicit feedback from your audience directly that will help – either by questioning them when they opt-in to your communications or by calling/emailing them and asking what their delivery preferences are.