When to Send: E-Mail Timing Tips
Contrary to what some marketers assume, people generally don’t open commercial e-mail at work during their lunch hours, according to a new study by U.K.-based e-mail service provider Pure360.
In a study of 660,000 messages sent by 34 companies, Pure360 reports that just 9% of e-mails were opened between noon and 2 p.m., and 62% of those messages were news or magazine alerts.
However, according to Pure360, almost half, or 48%, of marketing e-mails in the study were opened outside office hours.
People are also apparently receptive to marketing e-mails during the first hour of their work day. Pure360 reports 16.5% of e-mails in the study were opened between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.
Restaurant and live-events e-mails fared particularly well during this hour, with 27% of the former and 19% of the latter being opened between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., according to Pure360.
Also, 42.6% of financial e-mails were opened after lunch, indicating that workers are more receptive to so-called bigger-picture or life-changing messages in the afternoon.
TIP:
DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT WHEN IT’S BEST TO SEND YOUR PARTICULAR OFFERINGS VIA E-MAIL. IT’S DIFFERENT FOR EVERYONE. TEST. ALSO, RELEVANT, COMPELLING CONTENT ALWAYS TRUMPS TIMING.