There are many factors which influence the open rate in email marketing, including the right timing. On which day and at what time is the likelihood that a user opens a newsletter the highest? The initially sober-sounding answer is: there is no optimal send time. It depends on the individual case. We will show you how to determine the optimal send time for your email marketing.
Generally, the following applies: a newsletter is more likely to be opened when it reaches a user at a time when his inbox is open, so that he can read the email directly when it arrives and it doesn’t get lost with all the other emails. You should bear in mind that emails are increasingly used on mobile terminal devices, especially smartphones. Users are therefore “always on” and give attention to newsletters. In any case, the quiet period from late evening until early morning (e.g. 10pm – 8am) should be avoided. There are differences between B2B and B2C sending. In B2B, typical working hours of 8am – 6pm Monday – Friday should be observed. An exception is Friday afternoon (weekend is near, attention decreases) as well as Monday morning (the week is planned, the inbox is often full). In B2C however, after work hours are recommended, with high involvement products (e.g. travel), the weekend would offer the highest likelihood for success.

Analysing Website Traffic, Competitors and Email Marketing KPI

Users who have visited your website or online shop to inform themselves about products, have a particularly high interest in your offers at this point, even via email. Furthermore, these users probably have their email inbox open while online. The visiting times on websites can give an important clue about when your users are receptive for newsletters. In addition, you should check out at what times your competitors send their newsletters. Is there a concentration at a specific point in time? This could be an indication that the user is particularly attentive at this time. However, it may be sensible to choose another point in time in order to stand out, in case the user has already subscribed to your competitor’s newsletter. The competitive orientation should always take place with particular caution and never be the sole factor to take into account. You simply cannot know according to which criteria your competitors choose their send time and whether it is sensible.
Perhaps the most important measure to optimise the send time is the analysis of response data of previous newsletter mailings. This allows you to identify at which times newsletters were opened with frequency and if there are differences between the different target groups you need to consider. You should also test the different send times and compare the open rates with each other in order to find the optimal time for sending. Modern email marketing solutions such as ELAINE FIVE can automatically carry out the send optimisation based on response data.

Individualised Send Time

One of the simplest and most efficient – although unfortunately neglected – methods to determine the right send time is to ask users themselves. Effective email marketing nowadays means individualised email marketing and this includes the individualisation of the send time. You can ask users about their preferred send time within the context of the welcome series or at a later point in time via a survey campaign.
What works for the entire mailing list – automated send optimisation – also works on an individual level for individual users. Based on historical response data, modern email marketing solutions can determine the optimal send time for each user in real-time with each sending. Important: In order to collect personal response data, you must adhere to the legal requirements.