Creating sending patterns to get your emails top-of-mind for your audience.
When is the best time to send an email to my customers? Just type it into any search engine, and you’ll find an overwhelming number of answers, each suggesting something different. However, the most successful email programs follow simple yet strategic approaches. There are key strategies that any company can implement to increase email marketing success—it all starts with understanding your target customer.
● Reaching out to event goers about an upcoming concert?
● Promoting a research report to high level companies’ decision makers?
● Maybe there is a sale coming up for one of your featured products.
Each of these scenarios describes a specific demographic, and every demographic has different optimal sending times. At Virgen, we’ve analyzed client data over the years to establish best-practice email send times for general audiences, including direct-to-consumer sales promotions and business-to-business brand and social campaigns.
Direct to Customer Sales Promotions
When it comes to sales, you’re asking for something. And when asking for something, success often depends on your customer’s emotions at that moment. Understanding this allows you to create a send pattern based on general psychographic analytics—identifying when people are most comfortable and ready to buy.
Finding the Optimal Balance Between “Want” and “Need” in Email Send Times
Weekdays (8:00 PM – 10:30 PM)
Higher open rates and stronger engagement occur during these evening hours. At this time, people are more relaxed, spending time with family, and thinking about what’s next. This creates a psychological environment conducive to decision-making based on both “want” and “need.”
Weekends (6:00 AM – 9:00 AM)
Early mornings on weekends show higher engagement in decision-making.
Business-to-Business Brand and Social Email Campaigns
When sending B2B campaigns, you’re often giving your audience something valuable—information, and in most office settings, important information is frequently shared and discussed.
Let’s break down a typical workday: employees arrive, grab a coffee, and get to work. Meetings are scattered throughout the day, lunch is often taken outside the office with coworkers, and afternoons are filled with brainstorming and project work. Given this collaborative team atmosphere, the best times to send emails are:
Beginning of the day (7:30 AM – 9:30 AM)
According to Virgen’s data, this time had the highest rate of email forwarding among colleagues. Since meetings dominate most business days, providing something valuable to discuss can increase visibility.
End of the day (3:30 PM – 5:00 PM)
Data showed that during this window, email open and click-through rates were higher. While conversion rates were more varied, users were more likely to engage with emails as a way to “kill time” at the end of their workday—so why not make it about you?
As this information helps guide your email strategy toward success, remember that consistency is key. Creating a send pattern that aligns with your audience’s habits will help them anticipate and engage with your communications. So send often—and stay consistent.
Cheers!
Comments