What’s the best time to send an email?
Whenever there’s less competition.
According to Yesware’s analysis of over 500,000 sales emails sent in Q1 2014, email open and reply rates are higher on the weekends. Why? It could be because there’s significantly less email being sent on weekends.
Think of it as the Late Night Infomercial Effect
Have you ever watched an infomercial at 3am?
It’s the time period known as the “Graveyard Slot” – when TV networks sign off and give up. But for certain companies (think Snuggie and ShamWow), the Graveyard is prime time and highly lucrative. That’s because when there’s nothing else on, night owls are more likely to watch an infomercial.
Similarly, when there’s little else being emailed, your emails are more likely to stand out and get noticed. This in turn could lead to greater open and reply rates.
We see this same line of thinking when we look at email reply rates over 24 hours.
Send emails in the early morning or evening
Emails sent in the early morning (between 6 and 7 am) and evening (around 8 pm) were the most effective at getting a response, with reply rates hovering around 45%. The graph above also reveals that much fewer emails were sent during these time slots.
Last but not least: There is no “best day” to send email
If you’re saving Friday emails for Monday, you’re doing it wrong.
We ran the numbers and found that open and reply rates were pretty similar no matter what weekday an email was sent. Despite the bad rap, Fridays are no better or worse for sending emails than any other day of the work week.
Takeaways
An email’s prime time is when send volume is the lowest – weekends, early mornings, and evenings. Remember that:
- Email open and reply rates are highest on the weekends, when inbox competition is low.
- People are most responsive in the early morning or later in the evening. Experiment with sending emails between 6 and 7 AM, or around 8 PM.
- All weekdays are equal. Instead of pitting Monday against Friday, focus on reaching out at effective times of day, crafting better subject lines, and harnessing the power of social proof to get more replies.
