Timing your emails

 In 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?

By Mark Brownlow on January 24, 2008