Best time to send emails?

Okay, if you’re like me you try not to be online much each weekend…well…at least you do try. Yet I find that while I do not much surfing (other than looking up stuff I’d have no chance of ever getting correct in the New York Times crossword) emails I do try to look at at least once a day.

That should, at least in my mind “cut down” on the huge numbers of emails that I find in my INBOX on a Monday morning….but once again, today…I had more than 250+ emails…and yes, most of them were not for me.

Standard spams of course like we all get, offers of body part enhancements, mortgages, millions from religious folks in Africa…you know the normal BS that we all get.

But once and awhile a client email is sent, so yes, I do try to scour that INBOX with a fine-toothed comb in case I might miss something important. And it was while I was doing just that this morning, I realized that in truth, I had no real idea on when a smart marketer SHOULD send an email to get traction with a prospect…ie what “time” of the day and/or even what day would be best. And once and a while – okay, not often at all, there is a new email campaign email that I do find of interest….but so so so seldom that again I wondered about the rate of opening/clickthrus to the day/time it was sent.

So after a quick Google on that topic, and the resulting millions of hits…I waded in and found out some interesting differrences of opinions.

Some, like say “a recent study found that Facebook usage peaks at 3 p.m. ET on weekdays, with Wednesdays being the busiest day of all. As for weekends, Sundays can be slow, so save your updates if you can.” Well, okay…but I really am not interested in Facebook messages…

In fact, the folks over at getresponse.com have a great Infographic based on more than 21 millions emails and their opening/clickthru rates…and what they say is that the absolute best times to send an email are in the afternoon….especially in the noon to 6:00 pm timeslot. Do click that link as the Infographic does carry some real gems, in my mind at least….

Hmm….okay. So if that’s the best time…does the day count as well, was my next question….and is there a real difference between one day and the next? Yup, found some interesting stats on that sub-topic too….and the one that I liked best was here at the webmarketinggroup.co.uk blog…and what they did was to sub-define both B2B and B2C types of email campaigns….and the resulting numbers and pointers to certain days makes sense to me.

One note tho….is that these stats and conclusions are all interpretations based on the size of the sampling survey of each of the article writers, so a caution that your own mileage may vary. Interestingly enough….some of the data that I mentioned above is refuted by other stats and results too from other article and blog sites…seems like the simple fact that one must interpret the results means a variance can occur.

So what, you might ask?

Well, after wading thru my own email INBOX this am…all I can say is that for me to even open an email would mean that it rose well above the clutter of the 250+ other inhabitants therein….and for that to even have a chance would require a solid Subject and an address that I would somehow recognize…..most as I’m sure you’re aware don’t much get past my cursor!