What's the Best Day to Send an Email?

Email marketing is a staple of both digital marketing and online communication, but it can be tough to reach your audience. Are you sending your emails at the best possible time, or are you randomly scheduling them?

Being strategic about send time can help you improve both your open rates and click through rates.

 

Why is Email Important in 2020?

With all the focus on new trends, it's easy to dismiss email as irrelevant. However, email is still critically important. There are three key reasons why:

Now that you know why email is still relevant, it's time to find out...

 

When is the Best Time to Send an Email?

Research can help you narrow down the best day and time to send an email. GetResponse analyzed 4 billion emails from 1,000 active senders. Through this, they created the following graphs:

results-by-hour-of-the-day-1024x469Source: GetResponse

results-by-day-of-the-week-1024x469Source: GetResponse

 

The top chart shows results by day of the week, and the bottom chart shows results by hour of the day, averaged out across all industries and countries. Both charts show on average that emails receive attention every day of the week, with only a small dip toward the weekend. 

So, how can you decide what day of the week to send your emails? Constant Contact offers a bit more insight, by breaking down send times by industry.

 

What is the Best Time to Send Emails by Industry?

Below are the ideal send times, As of July 2019 to September 2019. The send times in the charts below are general industry guidelines:

 

Business Type Day of Week Time of Highest Open Rate (Local Time)
Accommodations (e.g., hotel, inn, B&B, campgrounds) Monday 4:00 PM
Accountant Wednesday 9:00 PM
Animal Services Tuesday 9:00 PM
Art, Culture, Entertainment (e.g., galleries, museums, musicians, theatre, film, crafts) Wednesday 4:00 PM
Automotive Services Monday 4:00 PM
Child Care Services Monday  3:00 PM
Civic/Social Membership (e.g., associations, chambers, clubs) Monday 8:00 PM
Consultant, Training (e.g., marketing, management) Monday 4:00 PM
Education – Primary/Secondary (e.g., elementary, middle, and high schools) Monday 4:00 PM
Education – Higher Education (e.g., colleges, universities, trade schools) Tuesday 8:00 PM
Financial Advisor Monday 7:00 PM
Fitness Center, Recreation (e.g., yoga studio, bowling alley, gym) Sunday 10:00 PM
Fitness/Nutritional Services (e.g., personal trainer, wellness coach) Sunday 8:00 PM
Government Agency or Services Wednesday 8:00 PM

 

Business Type Day of Week Time of Highest Open Rate (Local Time)
Health & Social Services (e.g., hospital, elder care, adoption services) Tuesday 8:00 PM
Health Professional (e.g., physician, dentist, chiropractor) Monday 8:00 PM
Home & Building Services (e.g., construction, HVAC, landscaping, design) Wednesday 8:00 PM
Insurance Monday 4:00 PM
Legal Services Tuesday 8:00 PM
Manufacturing and Distribution Monday 3:00 PM
Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations Wednesday 3:00 PM
Other Monday 4:00 PM
Other – Non-profit Monday 7:00 PM

 

Business Type Day of Week Time of Highest Open Rate (Local Time)
Personal Services (e.g., dry cleaning, photography, housekeeping) Monday 9:00 PM
Professional Services Monday 3:00 PM
Publishing Monday 3:00 PM
Real Estate Tuesday 8:00 PM
Religious Organization Tuesday 8:00 PM
Restaurant, Bar, Cafe, Caterer Tuesday 10:00 PM
Retail (e.g., brick and mortar and online) Tuesday 1:00 AM
Salon, Spa, Barber (e.g., nails, tanning) Wednesday 1:00 AM
Technology (e.g., web developer) Tuesday 4:00 PM
Transportation Monday 3:00 PM
Travel and Tourism (e.g., limo driver, tour guide, reservations)  Monday 3:00 PM

 

Using all the data above, you can find the best day to send emails for your industry. Also consider your persona: Does your persona work a 9-5 job or other hours? Do they check their email in short spurts or sit down to read? These will also influence when you want to send your emails.

* * *

 

Plan Emails with SMART Goals [Free Template]

an illustrated graph: the y axis ranges from "sucking" to "not sucking" and the x-axis ranges from "the past" to the "future." Overlaid is text that says "SMART Marketing Goals Template: Learn how to set your SMART marketing goals with this template"

SMART is a methodology that helps you establish concrete and achievable goals. To help you align your marketing efforts with SMART goals, we've built this marketing template that you can download for FREE. It will specifically help you:

  • Easily summarize your ultimate marketing goals
  • Automatically calculate your greatest marketing need
  • Set a deadline for meeting your annual, quarterly, or monthly goals

Download Our FREE SMART Goals Template

 

BizzyWeb is a Minneapolis-based digital marketing and web design agency that helps companies get the high-quality leads they need to grow and thrive. Our tactics include inbound marketing, SEO, advertising, web design, content creation and sales automation. We are an accredited HubSpot Platinum Partner and we offer full-service HubSpot onboarding, enablement and strategy for new and current users.

Dave Meyer
Author: Dave Meyer
Dave Meyer is President of BizzyWeb. Dave has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and communications and has presented digital marketing topics to thousands of people across the US and Canada.