When Should You Send Email Campaigns?

Do you ever wonder what are the best days and times to send email?

If you do, you’re not alone.

I can’t tell you when and how often to send messages to your customers or subscribers — there is no “best” time or day to send email. However, I can tell you that if you capture the right data, you won’t need one.

The timing of your email depends on the actions of your subscribers. Subscribers that read your emails, click on links, and convert to customers are the ones you can send emails to more frequently, but only if the emails contain relevant information that is anticipated and/or will be viewed favorably by the recipients.

To determine your optimal frequency, you should analyze your data and carefully monitor the results of each send, not just the emails that get the highest opens and clicks. Also, look for trends in your open and click-through metrics as well as the number of unsubscribes and complaints, as this could be a sign of fatigue. While emails that are relevant to the recipient have fewer unsubscribes and complaints, an increase in your sending frequency could bump up the numbers if the emails aren’t relevant.

What are the best times to send?

The “ideal sending time” is complex and depends on many factors such as your industry, audience demographics and message. Considering that more people check email on mobile devices numerous times throughout the day, it is questionable whether there is a single best time to reach them. Some subscribers may view your email on their mobile device while at work or on the road, but may not act on it until later that evening, or the next day.

How often should you send email?

It’s best not to focus so much on the optimal frequency; instead, focus on how often you can send more relevant content. Frequency isn’t just about how often you want to send your messages, but how often your subscribers want to hear from you. Each marketer will find that different rules apply for their prospects and customers. As your approach becomes more targeted, and your emails more relevant, you will begin to establish the right frequency for each customer segment.

Econsultancy reported that the average frequency in 2009 for US e-retailers was 2.5 emails per week and 11 emails per month, an average of 132 emails per year.

It’s important to find the right balance when it comes to sending email. Although you don’t want to abuse the privilege by sending too frequently, it’s also possible to send too infrequently. If you go for long periods of time without sending any email communications, and then you start sending regular blasts around a holiday, specific event or season, you may once again trigger unsubscribes or spam reports.

Although you must decide the right frequency for your particular business, try not to let more than a month go by without contacting subscribers, either with regular content relevant to your subscribers, transactional email, or with administrative requests, such as an invitation to update their preferences, product updates, scheduled training courses, new data sheets, and other service-related materials. Watch for trends. Declining response, open and clickthrough rates can be signs of list fatigue.