When you send out an email marketing message, your natural inclination is likely to pick an early morning deployment time. And although you’re certainly not alone, new data from Experian Marketing Services shows that an evening send may actually boost the efficacy of your email message.
As part of Experian’s Q4 2012 Email Marketing Quarterly Benchmark Study, stats show that 40% of emails are sent between 8 a.m. and 11:59 a.m., resulting in a 16.1% unique open rate and 2.4% unique click rate.
Compare those numbers to messages sent in the evening, between 8 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. Although this is the time of day during which the least amount of emails are sent, the results are considerably more impressive: a unique open rate of 21.7% and unique click rate of 4.2%. Check out the graphic below for a more in-depth breakdown of the information:
Another interesting finding in this latest survey? In terms of best days to send emails, Saturday and Sunday remain the days with the lowest volume of emails—yet they’re also the days that produce the best response rates.
Now that you have this data, take a look at your own campaign. You might have compiled a set of in-depth analytics that point to the specific deployment times and days your particular customer base prefers. Yet if you’re still on the search for your email marketing sweet spot, consider mixing things up.
It might seem unconventional to send out an email in the evening, but it doesn’t hurt to give it a try and see if your own experience matches up with Experian’s data. You’ll likely be competing against fewer retailers and businesses for your audience’s attention, since the bulk of marketing and promo emails tend to arrive in the morning—and that means your message has a decreased chance at getting lost in the shuffle.
While you’re experimenting with different send times, don’t forget to try new days, too. And each time you test a new variable, be sure you keep a close eye on your data. Your results might not match up with a survey like Experian’s, and that’s fine—as long as you’re listening to and serving your audience, that’s what’s important.
If you do send an email during the evening and notice a resulting spike in your open and/or click-through rates, it doesn’t hurt to try another evening send to make sure your results weren’t a fluke. Email marketing, like any other type of marketing, is an ongoing journey filled with testing, research and data analysis—and while that sort of perpetual cycle might drive some people crazy, the data nerd in me loves the challenge of this sort of marketing puzzle.
Have you experimented with an evening email send? Did you see any sort of spike in activity as a result?
