When is The Best Time to Send an Email Newsletter to Your Audience?

An email newsletter is a message you send to your subscribers with exciting news and updates on your company or product. Your business’s latest activities and news are reported directly to your customer base through this easy-to-use and handy digital marketing technique.

Why should you send an email newsletter?

Sharing the latest ongoings and promotions can go a long way to maintain your customers engaged with your business, contributing to the success of your marketing efforts and increasing your return on investment.

Not only is your email newsletter a constant source of traffic, engagement, and customer retention it also has the added benefit of setting consistent and realistic expectations for communication with your customers.

Got it, but how does time matter?

Imagine you just received an email from a company or service provider you are subscribed to, are you not less or more likely to open, read through, and possibly interact with that email if it arrives at a time when it is convenient for you to do so? Your customers are very much the same as you, and this is why time matters.

Not only does the time of day in which you send your email newsletters matter but also the day of the week you chose. Depending on your business and your customer base, the day of the month or month of the quarter can also determine whether your email newsletter arrives at a welcome time.

It is important to consider how these factors affect your email newsletter because your metrics for email marketing are directly influenced by them. Your open rates will vary greatly depending on your choices. Therefore, determining the best time to send your email newsletter is critical for optimizing and making the most of your email newsletter and your overall email marketing strategy.

Your email newsletter took time to be made, and your hard work should not go to waste over the technicalities of schedule demands. Tackling the questions of when to send your newsletter will not only prevent potential loss of value in your awesome email newsletter, but it will also place you in a much better position in your customer’s minds - it’s important to transmit to customers that you know when you’re welcome to communicate with them.
Below, I’ll present some suggestions on how you can determine what the best time is to send out your email newsletter.

1. No emails on Mondays!

This one should go without saying, but it certainly cannot be ignored.

Picture this scenario: It’s Monday morning and you’re having your coffee, going through your emails for the first time this week, and planning what your workflow will look like for the next five days of your productive time. You don’t have the time, nor mood, to indulge with a newsletter.

No, in fact, you won’t care to even open one should it arrive in your inbox - you’re also not likely to open it up later to check it out, it will be lost and forgotten amidst the sea of emails you already have to deal with on a daily basis.

Again, much like you, your customer will be the same.

Marketers have found that Tuesdays are, by far, the best day to send out email newsletters. But in truth, any day that isn’t Friday or Monday will likely be great for your email newsletter. During the middle of the week, your customers are already adjusted to their routine, and the weekend is still far enough that everyone is focused, energized, and ready to engage.

2. What about the best time of day?

The answer is also not very surprising here, but it is still very important to take note of this.

The best time of the day to send your email is either in the mid-morning (10 am) or in the late afternoon (6 pm). Why is this? Simple, too early in the morning and your customers won’t be available to open your email newsletter, they just started working and they’re busy.

Anywhere else during the day is also a bad time for your customers, who are focusing on their own tasks, maybe designing and deciding on strategies for their own email newsletter. But at the end of the work day, everyone is tired and slower - the perfect time to check out that awesome email newsletter that just landed in their inbox.

Keep in mind the difference between time zones for your various customers and remember to schedule your email newsletter accordingly. You can even go as far as to let your customers customize at what time they receive your email newsletter and on what day - whatever you do, just keeping this in mind when defining your marketing strategy will help your email newsletter succeed that much more.

3. What other factors should I consider?

That’s a great question!

For example, your customer base demographic has a huge impact on the best time to send your email newsletter. Above, we discussed what the best day of the week and time of day was to send out your email newsletter, but as you remember, it was mostly based on your customer base being within working age and participating in active life. This is not, however, always the case.

Imagine you’re a business that markets mostly to teenagers, students, or the elderly. This will impact your decision-making, forcing you to adapt to the realities of your customer base. While teens and students will engage more with emails sent during lunch break hours or on the weekend, the older generation is more likely to react to early morning emails.

Not only should you consider your demographic, but also consider other factors such as your customer base’s culture. For example, in Europe, it is rare for people to check their inboxes outside of conventional working hours, so you mostly want to aim for the most optimized option within those times. While in the United States, it is not uncommon for people to take a quick look at their inboxes during the weekend - you know, just in case.

In the end, your marketing goals for your email newsletter should be the main driving force behind your sending strategy, it is critically important to associate those goals with the analysis and consideration of the factors discussed in this blog post.

4. Always remember to run some tests!

Despite how much we try to give the best advice and promote best practices for your email newsletter and overall email marketing strategies on our blog, the truth is that each business has its own individual and unique needs. It’s important for you to test what best works for you, so don’t be afraid to run some classic A/B testing and segmentation to find out what the best time to send your email newsletter is for you.

With just a little effort and almost no time, you will be able to determine what time returns the best results and is most effective and positively impactful on your email newsletter metrics and success.

Email marketing is the single most effective marketing strategy in terms of return on investment, so make sure you are getting the most out of it.

Let’s summarize

Hopefully, you now understand the importance of considering time and day when sending out your email newsletter.

Here’s an overview of the tips we shared today:

Remember that the day of the week matters

• No Mondays!
• Schedule your newsletter for a time that is convenient for your audience
• Remember your demographics
• Provide customization
• Keep your marketing goals in mind
• Run tests for maximum efficiency

We hope to have provided you with helpful information on how to best decide when to send out your email newsletters.