Everyone has their own opinions about email marketing, particularly what works best when it comes to choosing an appropriate time to send out campaigns. Traditionally the rules have been:
- The best time to send a campaign is between 10am and 4pm
- Don’t email on Mondays because everyone is busy
- Avoid sending campaigns during lunch hour
- Don’t email on Fridays because everyone is winding down for the weekend
Well I think these myths are well on their way out because unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years then you’ll know that the world of email has gone mobile.Long gone are the days when people only access email from their desktop Monday to Friday 9 – 5, mobile opens are starting to count for a larger percentage of total opens than ever before.
Figuring out exactly when people are opening, reading and actioning emails has become even more of an art. We know that once an email has been opened it may not be dealt with straight away. It may be flagged for action at a later date or it may be read again on another device such as a mobile or a laptop.
It’s always been difficult to pinpoint when people will respond to a campaign even before the days of mobile but the response rate is always likely to be highest within the first 24-48 hours of sending your campaign. The period between receiving the campaign and actually doing something with it may be longer than before but if your campaign is eye catching or meaningful enough then the recipient may save it to come back to at a later date.
It still makes sense to launch a key B2B campaign in peak working hours during the day but, for example, if your newsletter is light-hearted then Friday afternoon or during lunch is a perfect sending time.
Why not give your email strategy a shake up and see what happens by changing your send times and test and test again to see what gives you the best response?
Find out more about how to design your email for mobile devices