I selected 500 emails for this study and recorded the date and time they were sent. After statistical analysis, this will definitely surprise you.
If you’re like me, you’re constantly plugged into your email client unless you’re sleeping. That’s why it drives me a little crazy when people or companies send out their automated email campaigns at the same time. No one wants to have 50 text messages in their inbox and then 10 more on the drive home from get off work.
Gone are the days when you could only check email on your iMac at the beginning and end of the day. But, alas, some companies still seem to be sticking to that timeline.
So their emails go straight to my trash.
Email sending test
I set out to find the best time to send an email newsletter, in the most scientific way ever…by signing up for 100 different newsletters and recording all the times they were sent.
I was subscribing to emails in multiple domains (I have been using Gmail or Outlook emails for a long time , which is similar to me), which caused my inbox to almost explode in the next month. But I persevered, and I picked 500 emails for this study and recorded the date and time they were sent. After statistical analysis, this will definitely surprise you.
Two ways to interpret data
There are two ways to interpret the data we collect.
First, the best time to send emails is when no other business is sending emails. This way of thinking is the basis for all my conclusions.
In this competitive field, why would you choose a busy time to be someone else?
Second, some might argue that the best time to send a newsletter is when all the other companies do.
This may be true because their internal data tells them something important. But if you think about it from the recipient’s perspective, they probably won’t read all five new emails in their inbox.
Those people might pick one out of a bunch to read, or delete them like I did. This means that now is not a successful time to send a newsletter.
That’s why in this article we will use the least busy time
So let’s get started!
When is the best time to send an email?
After going through all the emails I’ve received, I narrowed it down to a few hours.
One of the weirdest things I’ve found is that there’s a huge aversion to sending out email newsletters during the workday. I find this very interesting because a lot of it touches on work-related topics. This avoidance also gives you a great opportunity to take advantage!
Before we get into the results, a note: times in this article are Central Standard Time. But the findings still apply to your time zone or region.
In past research, it was found that the behavior of email recipients remained consistent at the same time regardless of the time zone. Additionally, most email automation tools allow you to schedule emails so they are sent at the same time in different time zones.
Also, remember that sending emails at the optimal time is only part of the process. You should familiarize yourself with the different types of email marketing and take care to follow other email marketing best practices.
Best time to send an email
If you’re looking for the best time to send an email, I’d pick a less popular time. Just like when no email was sent.
I mean, why would you increase the competition for your emails by sending them at other times?
This immediately reduces the likelihood of your email being read. You will quickly see a drop in email open rates.
In this study, there were three time periods when emails were not sent: 11-12 PM, 1-2 PM, and 2-3 PM.
Like we said above, these times are the same in all time zones.
So I would say that now is the best chance for your newsletter to be seen.
As shown in the image below, no emails were received during the time period marked with an asterisk. Now, which of these three time periods is really the best time to send emails?
I think it’s a matter of knowing your customer and running some tests before you start sending. But in my opinion, one of the best times to send an email is 2-3pm.
This time period is well past lunchtime and people are kind of recharging. If they just got back from lunch, the first thing they probably do is check their email.
If you’re looking for the best time to send an email, I’d pick a less popular time. Just like when no email was sent.
I mean, why would you increase the competition for your emails by sending them at other times?
This immediately reduces the likelihood of your email being read. You will quickly see a drop in email open rates.
In this study, there were three time periods when emails were not sent: 11-12 PM, 1-2 PM, and 2-3 PM.
Like we said above, these times are the same in all time zones.
So I would say that now is the best chance for your newsletter to be seen.
As shown in the image below, no emails were received during the time period marked with an asterisk. Now, which of these three time periods is really the best time to send emails?
I think it’s a matter of knowing your customer and running some tests before you start sending. But in my opinion, one of the best times to send an email is 2-3pm.
This time period is well past lunchtime and people are kind of recharging. If they just got back from lunch, the first thing they probably do is check their email.
Boom, your email is the first thing they see.
Most emails are read within an hour of receipt. This means you want to hit someone when they are about to use the computer. Or, if they’ve been sitting at their desk for a while – that email would be a great opportunity to procrastinate.
I know I like to have a mid-afternoon distraction session every once in a while.
I recommend sending your email during the 2-3pm CST window. It even starts at 1-2pm CST, but that can lead to a lunch break for a lot of subscribers as well.
Best time you can try to send email
If you’re afraid of being the only person sending emails for a certain period of time, there are some runners up.
These time blocks are not the best, but still better than most. This means your emails might get some competition, but not a lot.
If your client research shows that these times work best, I’d go for them right away.
Seconds include: 9-10 AM, 10-11 AM, 12-1 PM, and 4-5 PM.
As you can see, there are still very few emails sent during the workday.
However, these other most important time periods do coincide with daily work habits such as arriving and leaving the office.
During that time, I can see your emails getting lost in the shuffle, or getting deleted the next day while doing a massive cleanup of their inbox. So be careful when choosing a time like this.
One of the best runner-up timeslots I’ve seen is 10am to 11am. This is an era fueled by countless data-driven in-depth studies and blog posts.
However, during this time, I only received one sent email.
Honestly, it doesn’t make sense to me, but it does give your live newsletter an opportunity to shine.
Your audience has plenty of time to delete all the emails they’ve piled up from the previous day. Discuss entertainment news with their colleagues. Get their first coffee break. Feel the longing procrastinated for the first time.
Then your newsletter will appear at the perfect time.
When is the worst time to send an email?
Now that I’ve outlined some of the best times to send an email newsletter, let’s take a look at some of the time constraints you should stay away from.
These are the times when you’ll be competing with 20 or more other newsletters for views. Or when your readers choose to bulk delete newsletters because their inboxes are overflowing.
Either way, these are times when your live communications are less likely to be seen.
The Absolute Worst Time to Send an Email
After careful calculation and some complicated calculations, we found the worst time to send an email.
The worst time period accounted for more than 10% of all emails sent in this study.
Companies must think that now is the perfect time to send an email.
Or a thought leader writes an article touting that this is the perfect time, but it quickly becomes oversaturated.
Whatever the reason, I avoid this period of time like the plague.
If you read the chart above, you’ll see that 6-7pm gets the most emails.
Also, the 9-10pm time slot is not very good.
But 6-7pm is still the worst.
I mean, it makes sense why a company would send out a weekly newsletter during this time. People come home from get off work and start to relax.
It’s easy for them to receive emails about their favorite hobbies or activities.
But again, you’re competing for their attention with tons of other emails. Or you might even catch them at a bad time and lose subscribers quickly.
I know I’ve angrily unsubscribed from some of the IMs when they hit me up at dinner or the gym.
So I would advise against sending emails at 6-7pm.
Or you’ll have a bad time.
Avoid sending emails at other times
From what I’ve found, pretty much any time between 9pm and 2am should be avoided. Almost 40% of all emails I receive are sent during this time frame.
You’ll be competing for attention with tons of other live newsletters. I guess people who are up at that time don’t want to read your newsletter at that moment.
Those who fall asleep will see it the next day and delete it when they clear their inbox in the morning.
All your hard work on instant messaging is being ignored. Your original ideas, the time you spent scrolling through dozens of email templates to choose the best one, your great design and of course your great content
Don’t waste your great content because you picked the wrong time to send your email.
Another dubious time to send emails in my opinion is between 8am and 9am. This period probably received the most emails in our research, but I still think it’s a bad idea.
This is when your audience gets ready for work, drives to work or just sits at their desks.
Your live communications will be ignored while they go to respond to the piles of emails and work chats they receive every morning.
Take my advice and don’t send emails at any of the above times.
Is there a best date to send the email?
After looking at all the time blocks, I’m starting to wonder if there’s a best time to send emails too. Because sending it at the right time is only half the battle.
I looked at the data and found that the worst day to send an email easily was Thursday.
Exactly 25% of emails are sent on Thursdays, no other day really comes close. That’s much higher than the 70 or so emails I get on average every day.
I think we can all conclude that Thursday is the worst day, with Tuesday a close second.
This may be due to some thought leaders viewing Tuesday and Thursday as the best days to send a newsletter.
Another bad day to send email is Monday, experts agree. People will be cleaning out their inboxes on Monday. Especially Monday mornings!
You don’t want to get caught up in a lethargic deletion frenzy.
The same can almost be said for Friday. People only think about the weekend, which means your newsletter may be ignored or quickly deleted.
I also avoid those days and choose a safe day like Wednesday. Even Saturday, according to the data we collected.
By sending emails on low-competition days, your content will stand out like a beacon, like Wednesdays.
It’s the middle of the week, people are a little anxious about the weekend, and your newsletter is in their inbox. This is the first email they see. It’s the little diversion they’ve been looking for all day.
They are going to read it. I mean, I would.
In our own messaging tests, we’ve seen Wednesdays perform exceptionally well, sometimes with twice the open rate than other days.
Or go on a Saturday. Your audience will actually have some uninterrupted time reading your content over the weekend.
For what it’s worth, we also see Saturday as a very successful day for sending out our own newsletter.
But be wary of Sundays, unless you know your audience very well. Even if Sunday gets the fewest emails, I don’t pick that day.
It’s traditionally known as a day off, which can cause your audience to get angry or delete it instantly.
You also run the risk of being classified as a Monday morning mass delete.
So stick to Wed. or Sat., and you’ll see better results.
Now that we’ve done this research, I need to unsubscribe from about 100 newsletters. My inbox is a mess.
But it was all worth it because I made some interesting discoveries. These findings will hopefully prevent you from sending emails at the wrong time.
Just remember:
1. Send emails during these three time periods: 11-12 PM, 1-2 PM, and 2-3 PM.
2. Try a few other time slots, such as between 9am and 11am.
3. Engage with people throughout the workday if it’s relevant to their job.
4. Don’t send newsletters during rush hour (such as 8 am and 5 pm).
5. Avoid sending emails at night or early in the morning.
6. The worst day to send a newsletter is Thursday.
7. Monday and Friday are not much better than Thursday.
8. The best days to send the newsletter are Wednesday and Saturday.
Finally, you can count your email usage and your friends’ usage, taking into account the other party’s time zone. These statistics are not absolute, and you can choose according to your actual situation.
