Got an email marketing campaign? Send it on a Thursday
The best day to send an email marketing message is a Thursday, according to an analysis carried out technology firm Responsys.
The company analysed what it said were a total of one billion email marketing messages, sent by 350 marketers in Australia.
Thursday was narrowly the day that delivered the highest open rate for emails, of around 22%. It is also the day when the most emails are sent. However, the day that delivers the highest clickthroughs once an email has been opened is Tuesday, with about a 9% clickthrough.
Excluding the weekend, the days delivering the worst open rate are Mondays and Fridays. Friday also delivers the lowest clickthrough rate.
The study – titled The Big Australian Report – also suggests that the last four quarters have all seen a noticeable decline on the email open rate on messages compared to 12 months before.
However, it also indicates that where messages are opened, the click through rate has actually increased slightly.
During the last year, the number of marketing emails sent is estimated to ahve gone up by a third, while the number of individual marketing campaigns has more than doubled, Responsys‘ report suggests.
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Great stats except, now we’ll all send on Thursdays so the CTR will drop due to the increased volume.
Bugger.
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agree with Devil’s advocaat – unfort! double bugger…
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taking bets on the new best day. I’m thinking Wednesday- the sluggishness of a hump day?
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Since when was this news… this has been fact for years….
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Before we get caught up in the numbers, keep in mind that the variance in clicks & opens during the working week is a mere 2-4%, according to these figures. It’s very easy to peg the success of campaigns on being sent exactly at 10am on a Thursday, however focusing on providing relevant content (or heck, even a thoughtful subject line) can result in much more significant gains.
Secondly, email results aren’t necessarily sensitive to time of send. Sending an email at midnight or having it 10-deep in the inbox the following morning doesn’t necessarily mean that the email won’t get read.
Being an email nerd, I’ve added a few more words on whether there’s such a thing as a ‘perfect time to send’ in this blog post. Good to see this research is getting done and very curious that while there’s been a drop in open rates, clicks have been on the up. We must be doing something a bit different this year…!
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The best day depends on your target audience! End.
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I seem to think that the key is still in having something that your customers actually want first so that they’re more likely to open any communication – any day of the week.
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Sam – you are right about the day to send details. This is a stat always asked for and in some ways important, but as ROS pointed out the key is to be much more thoughtful about your actual customer database. Also, as transactional emails and trigger emails become more and more used, the time becomes more about the activity and the customer action then a bulk send time or day.
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In the US & Canada, I was under the impression it was Tuesday (still seems to be for Clickthroughs based on this article for Australia…) any thoughts?
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I was also under the impression that Tuesday was the optimal day but was also told that Tuesday to Thursday between 10am and 12pm is best? This is from experience in the UK but seems like Thursday is more relevant to the Australian market.
Anyway, agree with the fact that as long as the subject matter is pertinent to your target audience then it will be opened. I know that to be true for me when I receive emails otherwise I go straight to ‘block sender’!
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There are so many variables to consider when collating this data which does not get factored in. When the best time to send, open, click emails is nice to know but should never replace a good strategy, testing and optimistion. Every brand and customer is different and you should look at your data in the same way with each campaign.
Surprised Responsys are releasing this or Mumbrella chose this part of the report as the key point. It’s 1980’s as…Responsys clients must agree! They spend too much money on things like coding to get such mundane advice like this. Alternatively, Mumbrella need to get with the program and choose better info from the report to PR.
Sorry to be negative. I’ll write positive stuff when it’s good!
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