Often people ask me when is the best day to send their emails. I always give the same answer: “it depends”. Then they ask me from what it depends, and I answer “from many things”.
To know what these “many things” are, there are many elements to consider: the target audience, the type of content, the purpose of the emails, the list goes on.
Of course there are some general rules, but I still think the best way to define the ideal day to send your B2B emails (and emails in general) is simply by asking it to your recipients and of course by testing.
Now, this mainly concerns emailings that are sent with a more or less regular frequency like newsletters, promotional emails and mailings that are sent to a specific list.
If, in B2B, you are using advanced email marketing techniques, for instance, by using a marketing automation platform (MAP) to mail individual (potential) customers in function of where they are in their buying cycle (by analyzing their digital footprints), these rules don’t apply.
B2B email marketing: the “Tuesday until Friday rule”
In B2B environments, it’s generally best not to send your emails during the week-end. This may seem obvious but it’s not because sometimes there are exceptions.
However, if, like me, you have some B2C-oriented blogs or sites and some B2B, like this one, you will find that generally the traffic on B2C media raises in the week-end and the traffic on B2B media drops.
Not everyone is a workaholic and works 7 days per week. On the other hand, sometimes the traffic on this blog is higher than I expected in the week-end. Why? Sometimes it’s a lucky shot: someone with many followers on Twitter decided to retweet you. Or a website with high traffic decided to write an article and refer to you.
And sometimes it’s because for some marketing professionals it’s the only time they have to catch up on their “reading” or “learning”. The reality is that it’s never ‘this or that’, it’s always ‘this AND that’. The truth is grey, never black or white, right?
So, again, be very careful with general rules. Nevertheless, all caution aside, most industry experts agree it’s best to send B2B emails on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with Tuesday and Thursday being the most preferable.
The explanation for this phenomenon is always the same (and has been since ages). Why not on Monday? Look at how you behave on your first day at work, you’re probably still digesting what you did over the week-end, and you might have a bunch of work waiting that you couldn’t finish the previous week (and if you did, you can bet your boss will have 78 new jobs waiting, right?).
Why not on Friday? Look at how you are thinking about the coming week-end yourself on Friday. Furthermore, it’s the end of the week, you might be fed up with the work and tired from completing 74 of those 78 jobs your boss gave you.
It’s the same on a day as today, the last day of the year: I post this but few people will read it. Why? Because they have other things to do of course and, even if they are working, chances are that they are thinking about something else then email marketing tips, right?
Why testing is important in email marketing
Some studies showed (I don’t remember which, please forgive me) that 73% of all emails are sent on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Does that mean you have to do the same? Probably. But maybe not: if your competitors are all mailing on these three days, why not give Monday a try? Again: test, test and test.
It is also often said that over 60% of all emails are opened between Tuesday and Thursday. And on top of that spammers seem to be more active during the week-end.
However, if your audience proves to be more receptive to your email content during the week-end, then forget everything I just wrote!
And always remember this: it’s not because most people agree on something, that it’s the absolute truth. Every business, every audience, every day is different. That’s why it’s important to test.
It’s also important to keep testing. It’s not because Tuesday seems the best day for you over a certain period or year, that it still is the next period or year. Just like reality is not black or white, as I wrote in this post, reality is dynamic. And so are we.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know.
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