What is the best time to send an email?

The email marketing company Omnisend analyzed emails from January 1, 2019, to January 1, 2023, to find out what the best time is to send an email. 

They found that people most often read their emails on Tuesdays and Fridays at the start of the month. They also prefer to do that either in the middle of the day at 2 pm, at the end of their working day at 5 pm, or before bed at 8 pm.  

“Knowing a good time to send email can help businesses get the best results from their well-crafted email campaigns. Because businesses are in constant competition for consumers’ time, the attention to detail is crucial,” says Greg Zakowicz, senior email marketing expert at Omnisend. “However, it goes without saying: email timing is just one of many factors that can influence your campaign performance. A well-crafted email sent at the wrong time can perform better than a rushed email sent at the perfect time.”

Businesses should send emails in the middle of the week

Tuesday has an average open rate of 11.36%, but Wednesday and Thursday are very close with 11.33% and 11.29%, respectively.

On Friday the open rates are a bit lower, at 11.07%. However, the conversion rates are significantly higher than on any other day of the week, at 5.74%. This means that even though people open emails in the middle of the week, they make purchases at a better rate on Fridays. 

Overall, experts still recommend sending emails in the middle of the week to get the best results for your emails.

“Test this to see which day works best for your brand. Some companies are seeing success sending out emails on low-competition days like Sundays,” says Greg Zakowicz. 

Ways to improve your email strategy

1. Optimize your email frequency. Along with email timing, frequency is another factor that can have a surprising impact on each campaign. Sending more emails won’t necessarily lead to more orders. While once per week is a good starting point for most newsletters, the only way to optimize your email frequency is to test out different strategies over time.
2. Understand your target audience. Knowing your target audience is the most important thing in all of marketing. If you sell to customers in their 20s, you might not have any trouble generating interest in a 10 pm email.
3. Leverage email automation. With marketing automation, you can configure emails to be sent at specific times and then focus on other tasks. For example, you might trigger a cart abandonment reminder to send 24 hours after a user leaves your site. Include the customer’s name and unique product recommendations based on their browsing history.