Best time to send emails + Send time optimisation guide with steps!

No point is sending your emails if the recipient does not open and read your emails or is in the right mindset to take any action for your emails. There are numerous studies conducted online about the perfect or the best time to send emails, the truth is there is no single best time to send marketing emails. Each individual is different and its interaction with its inbox is different. Some like to read emails at night while others like to do it in the morning, so it is challenging to come up with concrete data surrounding this. I have analyzed a lot of data and studies conducted by numerous email providers online and highlighted the answers that they found.

But as far as I am concerned I like to treat every individual different and take a little help from email automation tools to conduct my research and get the optimum from my email campaigns. I love to do Send Time Optimization and let AI do the job for me I have seen amazing results which I haven’t got in the past since I have taken this approach which is very easy to conduct, I have shared the steps later on how to do send time optimization using my favourite email marketing tools.

Also, I have divided this article in two categories best time to send emails for beginners (Who want to do it for free) & the Best time for Seasoned entrepreneurs or companies who have resources at your disposal. (Paid, but awesome results) 😀

We will cover the following topics in this article and hope after reading it you get all the answers you are looking for –

1. What is email marketing?
2. How to generate a profit using emails?
3. Best day to send email?
4. Best time to send email campaign?
5. How to send FREE EMAILS & Do Send Time Optimization?
6. What is the best time and day to send emails in different countries?
7. Conclusion

What Is Email Marketing?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines email marketing as “the process of advertising goods and/or services by sending bulk emails to customers.” Email Marketing has huge relevance to businesses and has become a fad with the industry for their outreach programs, it allows companies to connect with their customers on a more personalised level, it helps in updating your customers about the latest information, product updates about your product, you can also inform your subscribers about the latest discount or offers.

Emails are one of the most common forms of promotion which is used by companies around the globe as it is one of the most pocket-friendly ways to promote your product or connect with your audiences. Email marketing gives amazing returns. Plus there are a number of Free SMTP server providers out there that you can use to send 10-12k free emails every month. I have also discussed steps on how to use a free SMTP for your website to send free emails in the article. Now I am sure a lot of non-technical peeps out there wouldn’t have the slightest idea what is an SMTP server? or What is SMTP?

I want to highlight a study conducted by Marketing Sherpa which suggests that almost 72% of the total population having access to technology prefers to receive information about promotional offers through emails. It also helps connect to their audiences at a more personal level and you can cater to individual queries in a better manner and give promotional offers according to your customer’s behaviour that gives you better conversions.

Statista.com suggests that we will be sending and receiving 347 billion emails by 2023. When sending a large number of emails remember to use a free SMTP it will make sure that your emails land in your subscriber’s inbox.

The next thing to understand is, that it helps companies generate more revenue and increase their ROI. It also helps in creating brand awareness & increase conversions. In the next section I have highlighted how you can make profit using email marketing.

How to generate a profit using emails?

Emails can be used in a number of occasions like –

• Updating your subscribers about new features or services of your product
• Upselling similar products
• Educating prospects about your product
• Transactional emails
• Creating a brand presence
• Interacting with your users etc.

Suppose you have a store, now, any visitor coming to your website won’t buy a product in the first go. But you can collect email addresses from them. And once you have it you can create awesome drip marketing campaigns to create funnels and guild your visitors to reach your desired goal, which in this case is to sell a product in which your visitors has shown interest previously. Creating trust is the foremost priority of any business as it will help you increase sales. Once the customers interact with your brand time and again they start to develop trust over time. It is a slow process but it is sure to be successful. It is seen that email marketing gives a return of $38 for every $1 spend, conditional that you have a genuine list and not something you bought online.

The rate of sales conversions also increases as it attracts a large number of customers, which eventually results in high Return On Investments (ROI) of these companies. Another factor that contributes towards this is that email marketing helps raise awareness about the company. This happens because, by building relationships with consumers, helps them increase visibility. Increased visibility means, the number of target customers also increases, and consequently the company is able to earn maximum profits.

Pro Tip – There are a huge number of newsletter tools out there, companies often start using a service that is not necessarility the right fit, we compiled a guide on newsletter tools to help you choose the ones that is the right fit according to your needs.

With all the businesses going online, email is the right choice to promote your product or connect with your potential or existing customers. It is easy to use, lot’s of best email marketing services available online (if you are starting out and have a limited list), autoresponders can be set easily, includes a personal touch etc.

Best Day To Send Email?

The best day to send emails is a relative concept it can vary from country to country and from industry to industry. Let me give an example for your better understanding. E.g You offer a product that has a demand in late hours at the night, your product can be a 24*7 restaurant, cab service etc. then this study is not valid for you and you should rely on automation to choose the best time to send an email for each of your individual clients. If you have a business with regular timings then this data might be quite useful for you.

Disclaimer –  The data has been compiled by different email industry leaders, I have just analyzed it for you!! 

Top studies on the best time of day to send emails-

1. Industry-specific research – By Sendinblue
2. Tips for sending emails at best time – By Constant Contact
3. Research on the best day to send email – By GetResponse
4. Research on best days to send email newsletters. – By GetResponse
5. MailChimp’s insights for send-time optimization.
6. WordStream’s research on the very best time to send email newsletters.

Remaining studies on the time of day to send emails that we have analysed

1. Research by Customer.io’s  best day to send emails.
2. Research by CampaignMonitor’s on the best time to send email campaigns.
3. Original findings from curated data by Propeller.
4. HubSpot’s best time to send a business email report.
5. CNBC’s findings from an interview with MailChimp’s own John Foreman.

Analysis by SMTPServers.co on the best day to send emails!

# 1 – Tuesday: Most of the studies point that Tuesday is the number #1 to send your email blast.

#2 – Thursday: It is #2 on our list. If you send approximately two to three emails in a week, Tuesday + Thursday makes the best combination for you.

#3 – Wednesday: Wednesday is #3 in out list of best days to send emails, in many studies that we analysed Wednesday was highlighted as the second or third best day to send marketing emails.

Disclaimer – While I was going through the studies I found that some studies point out that weekend is the best time to send emails due to good open rates and people are free over weekends. But I want to tell you that it totally depends of your business model suppose if you have a product that can be enjoyed over the weekend like a restaurant, museum etc. than it might be the right time to send your emails. But if you have a business of delivering groceries in the morning which are ordered at the night then weekdays might be a better option. Also, some countries do not allow you to send emails over the weekend.

#Most of the studies point out that the middle of the week is the optimum day to send your emails

When you are trying to find the optimum time to send your emails there are basically these elements that you need to consider, while analyzing your campaign namely –

• Open Volume % – It means the total number of emails opened when compared to the total number of emails sent in a defined time period or campaign. Eg. If is a campaign you send around 100 emails and among these emails, only 40 are being opened then the campaign will have an open volume will be 40%.
• Click Volume % – It refers to the total number of clicks that your emails got in a definite time period or during a campaign. Eg. If during a campaign you send 100 emails as stated in the above example and 40 persons open your emails then the open volume is 40% and from these 40 persons only 10 clicks on the link and visit your landing page then your click volume will be 10% ie. (No of clicks/Total number of emails send)*100
• Conversions % – It means the number of persons that buy your service when compared to the total number of emails sent. Eg. As in example discussed above it from 100 emails 40 persons open your email and 10 click your link and visit your website and from these 10, 1 person buy your service then your conversion rate will be 1%. I.e (Number of persons bought the service/Total number of emails sent)*100

Let’s have a look at the data that we have compiled by analyzing numerous studies online –

• According to MailChimp Thursday is the most preferred day to send email blasts followed by Tuesday

• Study conducted by GetResponse show that the most optimum time to send marketing emails is Thursday and followed by Tuesday.

• As you can see in the image below, the Data by wordstream suggests that Thursday and Tuesday are the best time to send your email campaigns
  
• According to Customer.io your email campaigns get the maximum open rates on Tuesday, so it suggests tuesday to send your emails. As we have pointed above.

• As shown in the image below in the data provided by HubSpot shows that Tuesday is the best day followed by Monday and Wednesday

Best time to send an email campaign?

Here is what we found out regarding the best time to send your email campaigns by analysing data from numerous email newsletter tools

1. 10-11 AM – It was concluded by Several studies that 10 am to 11am is the best time to send your marketing emails
2. 8 PM to Midnight – People usually checks there phones after reaching home from work or after dinner before sleeping hence this is the best time.
3. 2 PM – It is presumed that people are generally having lunch break at this time, so these email campaigns get the maximum open rate
4. 6-7 AM – Most people start there day by checking there phone so it makes more sense to send an early morning email blast.

Now let’s look at the data to back our claims of these results –

• In research by Campaign Monitor, it shows that morning 10 AM to 11 AM is definitely the best time to send your email campaigns. As we can see in the image that the maximum open rates are achieved by campaigns that were scheduled at 10 AM. The study further reveals that 53% of emails are opened during the weekday between 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

• As you can see in the screenshot below from the research done by MailChimp, which also asserts that sending emails between 10 a.m.–12 P.M gets the most open rate. The results of the Mailchimps study in sync with the study conducted by Campaign Monitor, which I have discussed above.

• As per the study done by wordstream, 2 PM looks like the best time to send your emails and it also shows that 2 PM has the maximum open rate.
• As you can see in the screenshot from the research done by Customer.io’s, it was found that the email open rate is highest from 8 p.m.–12 p.m, with a second-best time between 4–8 p.m.
  
• According to HubSpot 11 a.m. has the best open rates hence it is the best time to send your emails.

Also I want to reiterate that different industries have different open rates which was backed by a study done by Sendinblue –

Here’s what we concluded from the above studies, I think you should try and schedule your emails at these timings or you can use hourly schedule templates for optimum results for optimum results –

1. Tuesday at 6 a.m.
2. Tuesday at 10 a.m.
3. Tuesday at 2 p.m.
4. Tuesday at 8 p.m.
5. Wednesday at 6 a.m.
6. Wednesday at 10 a.m.
7. Wednesday at 2 p.m.
8. Wednesday at 8 p.m.
9. Thursday at 6 a.m.
10. Thursday at 10 a.m.
11. Thursday at 2 p.m.
12. Thursday at 8 p.m.

The time that is mentioned above has been stipulated with keeping in mind that complete email campaign for a month that have around 12 emails.

Pro Tip – Try sending your emails, 30 minutes prior to the peak time.

How to send FREE EMAILS & Do Send Time Optimization?

There are a huge amount of tools available in the market that schedule your email automatically and let you send free emails. Below I have discussed a couple of these players along with steps on how to use there AI-based sending technique to get the best open rates.

I have written earlier that email opening habits of each individual is different and you can’t contemplate this on your own, so you can let AI determine when a person prefer to open it’s emails and the tools will send the emails at that time only –

• Sendinblue
• Constant Contact

Sendinblue

The first choice to help you with determining the best time to send your emails is Sendinblue, It is a tool with very powerful send time optimization AI, that lets you schedule emails by determining the time at which each individual prefers to read its emails. Also, it offers 9000 free emails every month. You can easily optimize your campaigns or schedule your emails to be sent automatically.

• Using SendinBlue Plugin to send 9000 free emails every month – WordPress Hack
• Check Out the detailed SendinBlue Review
• Send an email at an individual’s best time – Sendinblue’s send-time optimization
• Setting Autoresponders – Free Guide on How to set up Welcome email using Sendinblue
• SendinBlue’s comparison with its alternatives 
• Sendinblue Vs Mailchimp

Below you can check out their plans, If you want to check out the pricing of sendinblue in detail

You can also use Sendinblue for your transactional emails. We have covered how you can use various transactional email services

Sendinblue also offers the feature of doing A/B testing which comes quite handy if you are looking to get the best out of your email campaigns in the long run.

The advanced attribute of SendInBlue CRM helps in creating different lists such as visit time along with a source of acquisition.

Send Time Optimization With SendinBlue

You can easily create emails using drag n drop editor from scratch or choose from already present templates, once you create your emails then you can save them and schedule them to be sent at an apt time –

You can schedule or send your emails in the following ways –

• Send Now – Immediately sends your email
• Schedule on some specified time – Sends your email at the time you specify
• Choose the best time to send your email campaigns – Sends the email as per the opening habits of your recipients.

I recommend choosing  “Send at the best time” to let the Sendinblue automation feature send the emails at each individual’s best time according to their past opening habits.

If you choose the third option. You just have to choose the date on which you want to send your emails, Sendinblue using its AI and data will choose the apt time for you as per your individual recipients’ past opening habits. That gives you a better conversion than what you do yourself. Check out the features offered by sendinblue according to their plans.

How the best time to send emails is determined by Sendinblue AI? – How AI works?

Each recipient is different and time is calculated for each individual separately. If that individual has already received emails from Sendinblue, they optimize your emails for each person according to its previous open habits. So that you have the best open and CTR.

If a particular recipient is the first time receiver of emails from Sendinblue, the best time is determined on the basis of the opening time of previous campaigns.

You can see the best or optimal time directly below the campaign’s scheduled date.

SendinBlue learns with each campaign and with time it automatically optimizes your campaigns for better returns on your investments. Check out Sendinblue automation.

What if I choose the campaign to send at the best time on the current day?

Yes, you can but if the best time has passed for some contacts, the message will be sent on the next day (within 24 hours).

Pro Tip – If your campaign is time-sensitive I recommend going for there option to send on a specific time option. It is recommended scheduling your first campaign at a specific time. SendinBlue will learn from your campaign’s engagement to determine the optimal send time for future campaigns.

Disclaimer –  This feature is available only with premium and enterprise plans of Sendinblue

Constant Contact

Constant Contact offers a free trial for 60 days months, in which you can send 100 emails sends for free. It is one of the best ways to do marketing automation.

• Constant Contact Review
• Constant Contact Price
• Constant Contact affiliate program
• Constant Contact alternatives

Let’s look at Constant Contact and how to use it to do send time optimization. You need to sign up to check out there features.

How you can review the send history in Constant Contact along with determining the best time to send marketing emails:

Send History: Low and high open rates can be compared in the send history for marketing campaigns. Send history of marketing campaigns can be found on Reporting Tab, under Campaigns Table. You can compare the send time and day of emails and look for any differences.

Open report review: To focus on high open rates email campaigns, patterns need to be reviewed from the Opens Report and Unique Opens can be looked into. The patterns can be either a particular day or time where the recipients open the email mostly. After the best time to send emails has been determined, marketers need to be consistent when and number of emails send to the contacts. Also, open rates will be improved since contacts will know when the emails will be sent out. 

Boosting of Open Rates: Open rates will automatically boost up when marketers will find out the best time to send an email.

Steps to find best time/day to send emails 

It will be magical if we get a particular day and time to send emails and get the desired outcomes for email campaigns. However, sadly, no one can tell the exact time/day. Don’t be disappointed!! Constant Contact has found out the steps for finding the best time to send an email along with how you can find the best time of day to send an email.

Let’s have a look at the steps:

• Focus on trends
• Focus on the audience
• Focus on email campaign
• Setting expectations
• Testing

Focus on trends

If you are finding it hard to decide the best time/day, you can always look into the industry trends which can be a starting point of your journey. Now you must be wondering it will be so time-consuming to analyze the trends. Here comes Constant Contact to save you from all the hustle. Results of customer email are regularly analyzed and industry data is collected by Constant Contact to understand your true position.

You can be updated on bounce rate, click rate, and open rate every month along with charts that inform you about the best time to send your email campaign on the basis of industry trends.

Expert advice: Send out email campaigns to the subscribers on Monday and look how it goes for you.

Focus on the audience

Before sending out email newsletters, think about audience demographics and their routines. For instance, the entertainment industry focus on sending emails on weekends. Hotels send out campaigns on Wednesday morning so that recipients can make weekend plans. You just need to think about your audiences and then find the best pattern.

Focus on email campaign

Just like thinking about the audience is important, thinking about email campaigns and when they are sent out is equally important. Timely messages can bring improved revenue and better results. Take an example of restaurant special deals on Thursday. Marketers can send out emails at the last minute as well as a day before. This will create a sense of urgency and more recipients try to capture the deal. You can also include the date of the special deal in the subject line of the email for better results.

Setting expectations

The setting expectation is another crucial factor for businesses to make their audiences glued to the messages. A particular time should be chosen and businesses should stick to it. Contacts will be on the lookout for the new content only if they know when to hear from you again. You can also mention in your newsletter when they can expect another newsletter with some great content. 

Testing

You can compare and test the emails by segmenting the email list into smaller groups and then sending the message at different days or times. Just make sure that the variable factor is time and nothing else. In such away, you can look into the open rates and compare them. This will give you an idea about when the emails are read best.

Importance of checking email opens, bounces, clicks and compare the performance

Once an email campaign is sent, every marketer expects that the subscribers will open that email. And if they don’t, all your hard work goes in vain. Not only the effort, but the time and money put into the campaign are just a waste. Here comes the importance of knowing the open rate of your email so that you can modify time and date to get the desired results. 

There is nothing better than open rates to tell the businesses whether their email strategy is to the point or not. As the name suggests, open rates reflect the recipient percentage who opens the email. A higher open rate depicts that the subject line is in sync with the audience. And if you have a low open rate, you can improve them by either making the subject line interesting, sending the audience different campaigns which suits them or you might try changing the number of email sent to the audiences. For a better email open rate, you need to find the best time to send email and work on it until the desired results can be seen. 

The bounce rate is the rate at which your email is bouncing back. In simple words, the email sent by you has not reached the targeted audience and need to be send again along with a notification stating the bounced status.

It is crucial for businesses to check the email open rate, bounce rate, and click rate for measuring the performance. Now you will be worried as how to find them. Don’t worry, Constant Contact provides you the simplest steps in which you can check these rates without much hustle.

Steps for looking at the reporting numbers for various campaigns at a single click:

1. The first step is to click on the Reporting Tab.
2. Select the range of dates for which the stats need to be seen from the drop-down.
3. You will be able to look into the Sends, Open, Clicks in the Overview section.
4. You can even download the overview stats by clicking on Download As.

5. Compare the average click and open rates in the Trends section.
6. Tips are also given for improving click as well as open rates.

7. Select a time period and look at the email performances in the table.
8. Stats for particular campaigns can be found by just putting the campaign name or even the time frame in a campaign.
9. Columns can be sorted and maximum of 5 emails can be selected and results can be compared graphically.
10. Download the stats through Export button and look into the stats graphically.

11.  Click on open, click, average industry rates and download the graph for future purposes.

The ease with which Constant Contact lets you access the data is exceptional. You can check the campaign performances and modify the date and time of sending emails. Click here to create an account in Constant Contact and try the amazing features provided by them yourself.

What is the best time and day to send emails in different countries?

Finding a particular day or best time to send emails is not sufficient if you are catering to a worldwide audience. Every country has a different best time in which businesses should send their email campaigns for maximum output. We have gathered the information for different countries which can give you an idea to market your email campaign.

Best time to send email in US & Canada:

Businesses looking for high open rates should send their email at 4 AM whereas marketers focusing on high click-through rates should send emails at 6 AM. Both the open and click-through rates drop when emails are sent after 10 AM. The focus should be sending the emails at 6 AM or between 9 to 10 AM to reach out to more subscribers.

Best day to send email in US & Canada:

The best day to send email in US and Canada is Thursday and Tuesday as per the studies undertaken.

Best time to send email in India:

The best time to send email for high open rates is 6 PM whereas 11 PM is the best time for high click through rates. Also, the time between 9 AM and 6 PM is the most ideal frame of time.

Best day to send email in India:

The best day to send email in India is the starting of the week. Tuesday is considered to be the best day for open rates and Wednesday is the best day for click-through rates. You can see the highest engagement of audiences these days. By leveraging the features of the best CRM software in India, you can ensure the highest engagement of audiences these days.

Best time to send email in Australia:

The best time to send an email in Australia is between 8 AM and 7 PM. 11 AM is the best time for the highest open rates and 1 AM for click-through rates. Marketers should focus on sending email campaigns between the time frame of 8 AM and 7 PM.

Best day to send email in Australia:

Both Monday and Friday topped to become the best day to send email in Australia. You can send out your email newsletters and compare the results in relation to the engagement rates.

Conclusion

This clearly indicates that the middle of the week is surely the best time to send your email blasts. The emails help companies to connect with customers at a very personal level which helps them in understanding their needs and wants. Moreover is helps them in working on their loopholes such that they are constantly working on themselves to be more customer-centric.

General FAQ

When is the best time to send a newsletter?

We analysed more than 11 studies conducted by email sending tools and found that there are four perfect times to send your newsletters that are

1. 6 A.M as people tend to check there phones first thing in the morning
2. 10 A.M Several studies show 10 A.M to be the best time to send your newsletters
3. 2 P.M People tend to have lunch or break time when they tend to check their phones and you will have amazing open time
4. 8 P.M to Midnight People generally checks there phones before sleeping hence this is the best time

When is the best time to send a marketing email?

The top 4 times to send a marketing email is as follows –

1. 6-7 AM – Most people start there day by checking their phone so it makes more sense to send an early morning email blast.
2. 10-11 AM – Several studies concluded that 10 am to 11 am is the best time to send your marketing emails
3. 2 PM – People are generally having a lunch break at this time, so these email campaigns get the maximum open rate
4. 8 PM to Midnight – People generally checks there phones before sleeping hence this is the best time.

Check out our Data backed study on best time to send a marketing email with SEND TIME OPTIMSATION STEPS

When is the best time to send an email campaign?

According to www.SMTPServers.co best time to send an email campaign are –

1. 8 P.M as people generally check their phones before going to bed
2. 2 P.M people generally take a break at this time so this makes an optimum time to send your email campaign
3. 6 A.M more than 50% of people check their phones the first thing in the morning.

Learn how to automate emails according to each recipients most optimum time to read.

When is the best time to send an email?

The best time to send an email is 6 A.M, 2 P.M and from 8 P.M to Midnight as analysed by www.SMTPServers.co by studying data from more than 10 studies conducted by famous email providers. Read more about best time to send a marketing email with SEND TIME OPTIMISATION STEPS

When’s the best time to send an email?

The best time to send an email is Early morning around 6 A.M, and between 8 P.M to Midnight. as people tend to check their phones the first thing in the morning and before sleeping. Data analyzed by www.SMTPServers.co from studies by best email providers. Read about how to automatically send emails on optimum time using SEND TIME OPTIMISATION.

What is the best day to send an email campaign?

The best day to send an email campaign is Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday as analyzed by www.SMTPServers.co from data provided by well-known names in the email industry. Like GetResponse, Constant Contact, etc. More than 10 studies have been analyzed to reach this conclusion. Best day to send an email campaign.

What’s the best day of the week to send out direct mail?

The best day to send direct mail is Tuesday if you send just one direct mail in a week but if you are looking at sending two direct emails per week Tuesday Thursday makes the best combination.

What day is the best day to send an email blast?

The best day to send an email blast is Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday and Thursday have the most open rate when you send an email blast.