Best Time to Send Emails

In Search of the Ideal Email Send Time

May 21, 2009

Speakers & Agenda• Richard Evans

– Product Marketing Manager

• Loren McDonald– VP, Industry Relations

• Agenda

– Best Send Time Is….?– Why Send Time Matters More Than Ever– What is Send Time Optimization?– Case Study Results – Questions & Answers

Best Time to Send Email is …

350,000,000 Search Results

Popular search question

Research Says…

Best Day for Deliverability?

Monday

Best Days for B2B?

• For business email, your audience is generally out of the office on Saturday and Sunday.

• On Monday, your recipients are recovering from the weekend and will not be in business mode yet. They may have a number of things to do on this day and are not quite interested in offers or solicitations.

• On Friday, they are interested in wrapping things up. If someone starts something on a Friday, it may be forgotten over the weekend.

• You will want to avoid holidays or any major vacation times.

Source: BusinessEmailLists.com

Tuesdays, Wednesda

ys, Thursdays

Best Day - Open Rates?

Source: eROI/MarketingCharts

Wednesday

Best Day – Click-Through Rates?

Source: eROI/MarketingCharts

The highest average click rate - 5.0% - was on Saturday, which had the lowest open rate, however: 18.7%.

Saturday!

Best Day – Click-Through Rates?

Wednesday

Source: EmailLabs/eMarketer

Best Day / Days To Send Email? Posted By: Billd724 on 7/25/2005 3:56 AM (CST)Posted by: AndrewS Accepted Answer 7/25/2005 4:22 AM (CST)

Really difficult question to answer, I usually find that all prospects (or suspects) are different in their email habits.

As a general rule:1. avoid weekends - lots of spam get sent over the weekend period2. avoid evenings - again, lots of spam at the weekend and you may get included in a 'mass delete'3. avoid fridays and mondays - for individuals these are usually busy days for getting things done.4. avoid public holiday periods and summer holiday rushes5. Mid -day / mid-week always seem safest.

Good Luck

Source: MarketingProfs

Avoid everything… except Mid-week and Mid-

day

Best Time of Day? (clicks)As for the best time of day for open and click rates, during the heaviest email volumes (8 AM to 5 PM), there’s a marked upward trend as time passes, eROI said. That is, both open and click rates gradually increase:

From a low of 2.6% at 8 AM to a high of 6.4% at 4 PM (down to 5.2% at 5 PM), in the case of click rates.

Source: eROI/MarketingCharts

4 pm!

Best Time of Day? (Opens)As for the best time of day for open and click rates, during the heaviest email volumes (8 AM to 5 PM), there’s a marked upward trend as time passes, eROI said. That is, both open and click rates gradually increase:

From a low of 21.4% at 8 AM to a high of 34.1% at 5 PM, in the case of opens.

Source: eROI/MarketingCharts

5 pm!

Industry Experts Tell Us…

Tuesday, 10 am

After School

Weekends

Wednesday, 8 am Buy My Report

Test It

Hmm, Best Send Time?

But Seriously, Why Send Time Matters More Than Ever

Loren McDonald

US Attendee: +1 516 453 0014, access code 659-994-817UK Attendee: +44 (0) 161 660 8220, access code 659-994-817

Relevance = Right Message + Right Time

Overloaded Inboxes, & New Entrants

Email is Competing for Mindshare

Web Browser

PC client

Mobile Client

Same Email… May Be Read In Multiple Environments

Social Network RSS Feed

Web Version

Email Habits Vary

Yahoo researchers recently developed a model for email user behavior that splits email users into two classes:

• “e-mailaholics” that send, and presumably read, email all the time, and…• “day laborers” that send, and presumably read, email during standard business hours.

Source: Word to the Wise/Technology Review/Yahoo

Time Variables Are Endless

Send Time Matters Most…

Because we are all individuals

One Size Fits All = A Failed Approach

The Right Time Of Course Is…

…when each individual recipient is most likely to respond:

The time when they consistently open and act on your emails.

What is Send Time Optimization?

Richard Evans

It’s about

• Relevancy• Segmentation• Targeting

It’s the next step in engagement

How does it work

It takes a lot of these

And these…

To get this…

• Analyzes a range of past recipient behavior

• Predicts the ideal send time for each recipient

• Adjusts for changes in individual behavior

• Delivers your email to one or one million recipients, each at the ideal time

• Eliminates time zone challenges for international senders

The Results

We’ve checked and double-checked

Little Tikes

Overview• Regular weekly promotional email• Established open and click rate trends

Results on first send• Open rates increased 20%• Click rates increased 30%• Total revenue generated increased 75%• Average value per order grew 35%

Increased metrics across the board with Send Time Optimization

Using Silverpop’s Send Time Optimization feature has allowed Little Tikes to take a more sophisticated approach to our email

marketing with no extra effort on our end. 

- Julie Gibson

Email Coordinator, Little Tikes

“”

Across the board• Open rate: 20% to 50% increase• Click rate: 30% to 50% increase• Revenue: 52% to 75% increase• Avg. order size: 35% to 50% increase

How to get these results

Two ways

For Silverpop Clients

For the rest of callers

• Dial us at 1-888-SI….

A quick test

• Export your email data from a recent send

• Group recipients by their open time• Test your next send

– 50% get the email at the standard time– 50% get it at the hour of day they last

opened

Contact Information• Richard Evans

– revans@silverpop.com– Twitter: @rlevans

• Loren McDonald– lmcdonald@silverpop.com– Twitter: @LorenMcDonald

www.silverpop.com/stowww.silverpop.comTwitter: @Silverpop