Source: Ron Rule
Somehow over the years I’ve managed to work “check my email” into the morning routine, sometimes even before getting dressed or pouring a cup of coffee, and I’ve noticed a few things:
- My Inbox is fullest first thing in the morning.
- It’s mostly newsletters and marketing stuff that came in after midnight.
- I don’t read any of it.
Sound anything like your morning mailbox? The answer is most likely yes, proving once again that most e-mail marketers still aren’t hitting the mark with their newsletters. With automation tools for consumer engagement, a lot of companies have taken a hands-off approach, leaving the delivery process to systems that automatically send out messages some time between midnight and 6:00 AM. As a result, their newsletters are being ignored by the vast majority of their subscribers.
What most marketers forget is that their newsletter is just one of many that their subscribers receive. Marketers who think that sending out the newsletter at midnight makes sense because it will be the first thing their subscribers see when they wake up are losing out because their messages are getting buried among everyone else’s. The more mail that’s in the subscriber’s Inbox at the time your newsletter comes in, the less likely they are to read it. When I tell marketers this, they never believe me… until I ask them “Of all the marketing and newsletters you get, how many of them do you read?”. Then it sinks in.
Every e-mail marketing expert will tell you that the subject has to be captivating and thought provoking if you want your newsletter to be read, and that’s true – but what they never tell you is that the time you send out your newsletter is just as important as the subject. There is no magic time of day, it’s different for everyone, but there is one easy way to figure out yours…
Look at your analytics.
Specifically, look at your site’s traffic by the hour and figure out (1) What time of day are the most people visiting your site, and (2) What time of day are the most people BUYING things off your site. Get at least a full 30 days worth of data together for an accurate assumption, and if your weekend traffic is significantly lower than your weekday traffic (usually the case for B2B products) then filter out the weekends.
These numbers will tell you when people are thinking about the types of products you sell. If you’re getting the majority of your traffic at 4:00 PM, then your newsletter should be going out shortly before that. If your peak traffic and peak conversion hours are different, test both. And this strategy isn’t limited just to daily newsletters, apply the same rules to weekly and monthly – figure out what day of the week you’re getting the most traffic and set your newsletter to go out on that day.
With a little patience and some testing, you’ll be able to find the optimal time of day to send out your newsletter and give your e-mail marketing campaigns the boost they’ve been missing.