What's the Best Day to Send an Email?
When the recipient is going to open it?
All kidding aside. This is the question that everyone asks. Everyone, that is, except those who’ve been in the “newsletter game” for decades. And why is that? Why are all the pro’s who have hundreds of thousands of emails on their list not asking this question but the rest of us are? What do they know that we don’t? What secret information have they been given from “on high” that we have yet to take receipt of? Well, I believe I received that very message today. This very minute. And the second I had it, I let my fingers do the talking!
Lean in, cause you’re not going to want to miss this answer: The best day to send an email is ANY freaking day!
Don’t believe me? I can easily point out a dozen people for all seven days of the week who send their email at all different times of the day and their open rates and click through rates are not faltered or altered because they “don’t sent on a Monday” or “only send on Tuesday afternoons cause no one is sending emails on that day.” Seriously? Do you hear yourself?
There are billions of people in the world. And of those billions let’s be liberal and say that millions of them are in the newsletter sending game. Do you really believe there is a secret day of the week that only you know about to send an email where it will not be encumbered by a whole other barrage of emails before and after it? Do you truly believe that exists?
Or that the people who subscribe to your newsletter aren’t subscribed to anyone else who will be delivering emails on that particular day of the week that you chose?
I think the reality is, we need to stop trying to psychoanalyze that which we literally have no control over. Every individual on the planet is unique and different and that is a beautiful thing. Instead of stressing over the day of the week we should be sending out an email, let’s put our focus on what really matters: content.
Because I got news for you that you will not believe, but regardless of which day you send an email, if the content is crap, I’ll bet you any money, your email will never be opened again. Even if you happen to find the holy grail and know the exact day and minute to deliver your email so that no one else is in the room but you and the recipient. If your content sucks it’s a secret not worth sharing.
Make sure your content sings. Make sure it is the best you can put into every email. Deliver what you promised when they signed up. And deliver it every single time. Whether it’s daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly (yes, I subscribe to some newsletters who only email me once a year) make sure that email is banging. That is what will get your email opened whether you’re competing with 100 other emails on that Monday morning, or Friday evening, or whatever day you think is the worst day to send an email. Cause if I know I’m getting an email from X on X day, I could get 1,000 emails on that day, but I’ll make damn sure I don’t miss that one cause I love their emails. And in fact, to make sure I don’t miss them, I set up Rules and Filters within my email provider of choice to move any emails from X from my inbox and into its own special folder.
I’m not saying that everyone does this. I’m sure there are a lot of people with emails who are drowning in them because they don’t know the many ways they can reduce the clutter (is there a future blog post here? possibly…) but trust me, if someone truly wants to read your email as long as you are consistent with the day of the week and time of day you deliver it, they will find it, they will open it, and they will read it. You don’t have to consult a crystal ball or analyze the latest statistics from some third party company that “conducted a poll” to try and answer this very question.
The answer is clear: Put out good content and the BEST day to send an email will be whatever day you decide.
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Content is king; if it isn't your best work, the frequency, time of day or anything else won't make people want to read what you write. Thanks for reinforcing this. :)