How Do You Know When To Send Your Emails?
One of the early mistakes that new email marketers make is assuming they can send their emails at any time and expect the same results. We wish that were the case! That would mean that even sending an email at midnight could yield great sales, open rates and purchasers. However, it’s just not true.
When sending an email, you need to find the time when your specific target audience and database are free and available to dedicate attention to your brand. After all, there’s no point asking them to purchase if they can’t dedicate more than 5 minutes to you. They’ll simply skim your email and will likely be distracted by something else before they can fully commit.
But when you have so much time in the day and so many different types of people in your database, how can you truly deduce the best send time?
Start With Your Website Data
Your website and Google Analytics provide insight into when customers are most on your website. At a granular level, you will be able to determine the weekday you have the most purchases, as well as the time on that day when these orders usually occur. Use this as a benchmark to guide your send time.
If your most popular purchase time is around 8 am on a Saturday, you shouldn’t be sending emails at 9 pm on a Tuesday, unless the data suggests otherwise. Instead, send your emails at this ideal time to get an additional boost from what you know works. You can also use this data to guide expansion into your send times. For example, if the Saturday 8 am send time proves to work, you may also consider adding a Sunday morning send or a weekday morning send to your strategy.
Test And Test Again
Once you determine an ideal send time based on your website analytics, don’t think it’s your only option. Having a handful of send times at the ready allows you to maintain relevance in your email marketing, especially when targeting current events or special days.
Use your data as a benchmark and then test around it. With Saturday being your strongest time, A/B test a morning send and an evening send to determine if there’s a difference in results. With 8 am being your best send time, try 8 am sends on various days of the week to see if they also perform. With enough testing, you will be able to determine your ‘best’ send time and day, as well as other ones that deliver sustainable results.
Think About Who Your Customers Are
Every brand will have different customers, which means that no two ideal send times are ever identical. Map out a day in the life of your customers.
If they’re mums, they likely wake up early, prepare the kids for school and attend to drop off. Then, they may have a job to work alongside this. This means after school pick-up, dinner and bedtime, they don’t have much time to themselves before 8 pm.
On the other hand, young adults without kids who frequent the gym may be more receptive to your messages while they’re walking on the treadmill before or after work. Think times like 5 am or 6 pm.
Using your demographics to your advantage can help you identify your ideal send time.
The Email By Design Team Can Help
Feel like your emails aren’t hitting the mark no matter how hard you try? We can help you locate and test send times, so you find the one that works best for you. Book a free 15-minute consultation today to get started.
