Do you know when the right time is to send out your email campaign?
With the way people are accessing their emails changing, whether it’s at a desktop or laptop, smartphone, tablet even a smart TV, it is even more vital to send your message at the right time.
Although there is no one size fits all technique to timing your email campaign, there is a rule of thumb we tend to apply to our own email broadcasts. We’ll discuss this below and give you hints and tips for you to try with your own email campaigns.
However, why should we all be working towards improving your email timing? The main goal is to sell more, more often. You may have other objectives, such as brand awareness/growth but it always boils down to increase revenue and sales. To do this you want to beat competition and get your message in front of theirs, we’ve already written another blog on how to make your email stand out: blog post, but for this post we are focusing on the timing of your campaign.
Improving your timings will involve a lot of testing, different messages at different times to a range of audiences. And this is will be constant throughout your email broadcasting days…..
We have never been as connected to the online world as we are today, checking emails throughout the day and night, on our range of devices. So calculating the right time might not be an exact science but a lucky guess, and you guessed it….lots of testing.
Your audience
Understanding your audience is the most important aspect for your email campaign success. Gathering information should be relatively easy as your recipients will either be existing customers so you will have their shopping habits and preferences, or if you are prospecting buy additional information about them to understand their needs
Friday to Monday
We recently tested a B2B email campaign on a Friday and Monday with the results showing a better open rate from the Friday send with 66% of those opened within the first three hours, however from the Monday broadcast 78% where opened within the same timeframe. So although the Friday received a higher open rate, the Monday broadcast received a better immediate response rate.
However, both broadcasts had the same click through rate (77%) within the first three hours, this could indicate the people more likely to interact with your email will be one of the first ones to open it. This is vital information when following up on your warm leads, you want to contact these people as soon as possible!
Early mornings
Whether you’re an early bird or a night owl, we all fall victim to checking our smartphones on the commute to work. Meaning it’s a perfect opportunity for people to check out your email that’s just landed in their inbox!
Lunch time rush
The middle of the day is always a popular time to send marketing messages, check your own inbox and you will see how many messages from the same company are sent to you at the same time of day. We carried out a recent survey on all of our inbox and saw 54% of marketing emails being received between 11am and 2pm, the remaining 46% being spread over the hours of 7am and 6pm.
Personalisation
In this instance we don’t actually mean the content of your email but the time it can be sent. This relates back to the top point, knowing your customers. If you know when your user is active on your website, or what time they signed up, this is when your emails to them should be going out. Analyse your data and look for trends of “live time” and test accordingly!
Saved items
If your website allows shoppers to save their items to a basket to come back to at a later date this is perfect opportunity to follow up with a well-timed email. Depending on the value of the item will determine the time that should be left. Roughly an hour for small ticket items and 24-48 hours for large value items as it gives time to discuss with managers or departments to agree.
Ok, so they are just some of our points to help you decide when your email campaigns should be going out. The more you can test and adjust your timings the more likely you will naturally see an increase in open and click rates and hopefully an increase in revenue!
