Tuesday May Not Be the Best Day for Email
Fact: Fewer promotional emails are sent on the weekends. This creates an opportunity
for businesses to scoop up some email love when there is less competition.
Experian's email marketing study found that recipients responded more to promotional emails
received on the weekend, when send volume was the lowest. The unique open rate for Saturday
and Sunday was 17.8 percent for both days, the highest percentages of the week.
Before changing all your email launches to Saturday and Sunday, we recommend testing first.
(Remember that open rates on these days are still lower.) Split your list in half and send
the same email to group A on Sunday and group B on your usual weekday. Repeat this a few
times and see when you get better results.
For example, while doing a project for Subaru, an email campaign sent late on a Friday night
had the highest open and click-through activity, nearly 25% better than every other day of
the week. Last year, several B2B clients found pushing projects on Sunday evenings showed
better results than campaigns sent on Monday.
Yes, I am guilty of fueling the Tuesdays day to promote your product or service. Even back
in the 80s, I found Tuesday was the ideal day for direct response ads in ROP[^1]. But if
you are promoting woodworking supplies for the hobbyist, Friday's your day. Most hobbyists,
unless they're retired, do their woodworking on the weekend!
And there you have it—test sending your email on a Friday night or during the weekend, and
you may be surprised at the result!
[^1]: Rate-of-placement ROP is an acronym for print advertising newspapers, magazines, and periodicals.