With an average of four billion daily email users, email is one of the most basic ways to communicate with your audience. Unfortunately, the process is not as simple as writing a quick email and sending it off. Since 64 percent of all small businesses use email marketing to reach their customers, you need to stand out in those email inboxes, and that includes being strategic about when you send your emails.
Timing Is So Important
Even if you’ve only been in business a short time, you’ve probably noticed ebbs and flows in your traffic for your business and all other forms of communication, whether it be for your inbound calls, emails, or other inquiries. Those timing trends give you insights into your audience demographics and habits, which you can use to create a schedule. The golden rule/objective to picking a time is being at the top of an inbox when a user is most likely looking through their inbox, but it can also be reaching that person just before they have a need. Email in a lot of ways is like direct mail (snail mail), meaning you can get it in their mailbox but doing so when they have a need works so much better.
Email Marketing Trends
The schedule of your customers will depend on the product and services that you’re promoting. You’ll also see variations on schedules around holidays and big public events. A big local election is not usually the best time to send out an email campaign, because your customers are probably already inundated with more promotional material than they can handle. Second, it is generally best to have your message focus on no more than three things. Sure you can have more items or messages in your email, but generally, more isn’t better it’s distracting.
When you have more than one item in your email can the user find those other items when they land on your website? Oftentimes customers if they can’t find that next item will leave your website and go back to the email to click through again. This not only pulls the person out of the sales funnel but also can inflate email marketing stats.
Best Days & Times
Based on studies and research into email marketing, Tuesdays are the best day to send emails, with Thursdays ranked as the second-best day and Wednesdays ranked as the third-best day. Some data suggests that Saturdays and Sundays are good days for sending emails, but that may depend on your audience. Your customers may receive fewer emails, so they may be more open to reading your message. But, you should also continue to track results.
It’s always important to listen to your customers and follow their lead, though. So, the best time to send an email campaign may vary based on the needs of your customers. Track your results to see when your customers are actually opening your emails. Then, be ready to adjust your distribution schedule as your audience demonstrates their preferences.