Timing your emails

Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on January 24, 2008

a clockIn our happiest dreams, recipients get emails when they have the time, inclination and need to read and act on the contents.

Problem is, we don't know when this is. Nor is it the same time of day for everybody.

So, how do we make the best of the timing situation? One way is simply to find the sending time in the day that gets the best response across your email list.

Which means testing.

MarketingSherpa, for example, recently reported on one retailer who found changing the send time from late afternoon to early morning could produce lifts in clickthrough rates of over 15 percentage points.

Another way is to allow the recipient to determine when they should get emails. This concept is not a new one and is behind the success of autoresponders and the current interest in triggered emails.

But it can apply equally to broadcast, generic email, too. A recent article at ITWales suggests sending out emails at the time of day when each subscriber opted-in or last opened your email.

Back in 2006, Bill Nussey reported on how eBags took exactly this "individual send time" approach and saw success metrics (opens, clicks, revenue) rise dramatically.

If you know when people spend time at your website, you can use that to time your emails too. "Evening browsers" get your newsletter in the late afternoon, lunchtime browsers late morning, weekend browsers...at the weekend?

Any other ideas or examples?

More on timing and frequency | Tags: ,

[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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2 Comments:

Mark -

Test.
Test.
Test.
Test again.
Implement.
Test in 2 months.
Repeat.

It makes me chuckle every time I read that a company has "figured it out" - "The best time to send is..."

Personally, I think it is a bit of a shot in the dark. It changes so often. Friday afternoon used to be the best day. Then Wednesday became the new Friday. Morning is better than afternoon, but it depends how you define morning. Morning GMT is very different than morning PST. What about if you have subscribers reading your messages in Australia?

Bottom line: It depends. Depends on your line of business. Depends on the subject of the message. Depends on the offer. Depends on what the weather is like (storms in the NE means more people are at home). Depends on politics (are people checking email in the US during the annual State of the Union?).

You get my point.

ABT - Always Be Testing.

dj at bronto
By Blogger DJ Waldow, on 30 January, 2008  
 

Yep, get your point. Like it. Agree with it :-)
By Blogger Mark Brownlow - Email Marketing Reports, on 30 January, 2008  
 

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