Forget about sending out emails and messenger campaigns on Mondays, Fridays, and weekends; don’t even dare to bother your subscribers in the evenings, or, heaven forbid, at nights! That’s what most of the studies teach us. Is it all true though? And if not, what is the best time to send emails and messenger campaigns then?
Let’s figure out when you should send your monthly, weekly, and daily campaigns and how you can improve their performance.
The importance of good timing in your campaigns
No one wants to talk to someone who doesn’t listen, especially when you put a lot of effort into a conversation. In your case, it’s not just the mental effort but planning, investments, and precious company time.
Your bulk campaigns need to receive instant response and awareness to perform well and help you achieve your goals and KPIs. Customers are not on their phones or laptops 24/7 waiting to interact with you. However, you need to target specific times when they are available because that’s the only way to ensure high open and click rates. Only after your target audience sees your campaigns can you start increasing your conversion rates, sales volume, and ROI.
Choosing the best time to send emails and messenger campaigns is step one in the process of making them successful and profitable.
Best day of the month to send your campaigns
The best time to send your email and messenger campaigns can vary from industry to industry and from company to company. Nevertheless, we will bring you up to speed on some statistics-backed recommendations you might want to keep in mind.
Every brand has its own email sending frequency and its own unique best time to send email campaigns. Newsletters usually land in subscribers’ inboxes two or three times a month, while promotional emails from online stores are sent out twice a week, not counting trigger emails.
However, there are a few days of the month that you shouldn’t miss out on.
Regarding click rates, the numbers are at their highest on the 5th, 7th, and 12th of the month.
As you see, the highest click and open rates, as well as the average number of orders per monthly campaign, are on the 12th of each month. This date demonstrates excellent overall performance, meaning you might want to include it in your campaign plans. We also recommend you schedule your emails at the beginning of the month because it’s the best time to send email campaigns in terms of their performance metrics.
Messengers
One of the most important metrics by which you can determine when to send your messenger campaigns is online sales volume. How come? Well, messengers can provide you with your customers’ instant attention and you can keep their interest by looking like a regular chat among other messages from friends, family, or colleagues.
Messenger campaigns can provide you with a higher open rate and CTR than a regular email campaign, meaning you can close more sales. But how do you determine when to send your messenger campaigns if their open rate is almost always the same? You can have your audience’s most careful attention during the time they are eager to buy even if your purpose is not to sell something.
This means that global online sales volume is one of the performance metrics to take into account while planning your campaign to make sure that your messages will be sent right when your customers are the most active and eager to read them.
The 2021 eCommerce Stats Report by SaleCycle demonstrates that the level of spending vastly depends on when people receive their paychecks. The lowest point of online sales is the 19th of each month, with the 27th turning out to bring the highest sales volumes.
This means that the best time to schedule your messenger campaigns is the beginning and end of the month — especially the 27th day of each month since it’s the peak of online sales volume.
Best day of the week to send your campaigns
Now that we have set that straight, let’s get on to how you can optimize your weekly campaigns to be sent right on time.
Omnisend reviewed 2 billion promotional campaigns to determine the best day to send email campaigns. The results showed that Wednesday is the best day for opens, while Sunday is best for clicks.
However, according to GetResponse’s study, there is little difference between each day of the week in terms of email campaign performance, except for Saturday and Sunday.
The study analyzed over 2.85 million emails and tracked campaigns that went out to at least a thousand contacts. It seems that Friday is the best time to send an email campaign since it offers the highest open rates, while Tuesday is the winner when it comes to click-through rates.
Messengers
The SaleCycle’s 2021 eCommerce Stats Report shows that customers are more inclined to buy on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays than any other day of the week. Moreover, the number of online sales made on Thursdays has been the highest since 2019.
As seen from the report, the best time of the week to send your messenger campaigns is Wednesday through Friday, making Sundays and Saturdays the worst days to send your campaigns. Wait, but people usually have more time on their weekends, so does it really make sense? The moment of truth: yes, it does.
It seems that weekends are the lowest points of user engagement on Instagram and Facebook, which means that you should probably schedule your messenger campaigns on weekdays.
The best time of day to send your campaigns
As you might have guessed, your bulk campaign metrics will depend on an average person’s workday. Let’s see how you can schedule your email and messenger campaigns to make the most out of them.
GetResponse registered the highest open rate for campaigns sent at 4 AM and the best click rate at 6 AM. But how often do you receive emails at this time of the day? Such impressive results can be explained by the fact that only about 1.2% of all emails are sent at 4 in the morning.
The best time of day to send emails is from 9 AM to 11 AM and from 2 PM to 5 PM. Remember that 64% of emails are generally sent between 8 AM and 5 PM, and the open and click rates make marketers do a happy dance.
To determine the best time of the day to send emails, Omnisend used the number of emails sent at a certain hour as well as open and click rates as a basis for its research. The company found that the best time to maximize your open rates is 8 AM, and 5 PM is the peak for click-through rates.
However, you should set a more flexible sending schedule if you notice that an increasing number of subscribers open your emails on mobile devices. These people always have access to the internet and tend to check their email while on the bus, standing in line, or having lunch, which might be your best time of day to send email campaigns.
Messengers
To figure out the best time of day to send bulk messenger campaigns, let’s take a look at some eCommerce statistics. According to SaleCycle’s 2021 eCommerce Stats Report, the peak online sales hour has shifted from 8 AM and 9 AM to 10 AM and 11 AM as a result of the increased number of remote workers and freelancers due to the pandemic. Sales volumes usually reflect regular hours of sleep, meaning that the next sales peak is between 8 PM and 9 PM.
Other common recommendations include scheduling your messages around the start and end of a workday. For example, at 9 AM and 12 PM on weekdays, people check their phones before starting to work. Similarly, messaging your prospects between 5 PM and 6 PM might also be the best time of day to send your messenger campaigns since most people finish their work during these hours.
Things you should never lose sight of
All this theory is great, but what can you do right now? There are some main principles that will guide you to choose the best day and time to send your email and messenger campaigns and improve your performance metrics.
1. Target audience
Set your sending frequency based on the preferences and schedule of your subscribers to find the best day and time to send email campaigns as well as messenger campaigns.
Workaholics and entrepreneurs tend to check their inboxes and messengers during lunch on workdays, while people with fixed working hours commonly do so when coming home and on weekends. If your target audience is millennials, don’t overlook evening messenger campaigns and emails. Teenagers spend a lot of time online at night, while older people prefer getting emails in the mornings.
2. Time zones
Segment your contact list based on location to identify the time zone of each subscriber. Thus, you will understand their pace of life and can send messages at a comfortable time for them. If you have segments from adjoining time zones, combine them to figure out the best time to send emails and messenger campaigns.
What’s next:
- optimize your timing according to the largest segment;
- improve your timing for each particular segment;
- or choose your own path.
3. A/B tests
Regardless of statistics and research results, collect the necessary data and test your hypothesis on your own — by the way, you can A/B test for free with SendPulse.
Consider dividing your mailing list and reaching each category at different times and days of the week. Don’t stop after your initial testing. To get enough data and find the best time to send emails and messenger campaigns, sometimes you might need up to three months, but it’s surely worth it.
4. Content
Successful campaigns can provide tangible benefits for your company, but what’s in it for your subscribers? Your content is one of the keys to building long-term relationships with them. You need to make sure that your messages are relevant, timely, and valuable to improve your open and click-through rates.
You can improve your performance metrics and find the best time to send emails and messenger campaigns by:
- keeping your subject lines short and concise;
- including compelling CTAs;
- sending personalized content;
- setting up triggered messages;
- gathering feedback and assessing your performance.
5. Events and holidays
If implemented correctly, events and holidays can be the best time to send an email campaign as well as bulk campaigns in messengers. For sure, no one wants to read marketing messages on Thanksgiving, but sending them a week before might be a great idea. This way, you can show your audience that you care and engage with them by offering time-limited discounts for your products or other relevant offers.
So, what’s the bottom line?
Timing is your marketing karma. You can only achieve your desired goals and KPIs if you schedule your bulk campaigns on the right day and time. It might not be easy in this constantly moving world, but that’s what it takes. However, if you keep your eye on statistics and the latest marketing trends, you will be rewarded with high performance rates and satisfied clients.
If you want to maximize your efforts and breathe easy, we have a little something for you. Try out our email service and visual chatbot builder to automate your communication with customers, monitor your results, and create your own outstanding marketing campaigns. What more can you do?
Experiment. Test. Analyze. Repeat. Until you get desired results.