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Best day and time for an email campaign?

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Dave Erickson

Dave Erickson

T.O.
Jun 29, 2011
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Dave
#1
I usually go with early Friday morning thinking that I don't want our email to get lost in a work week or appointments to be scheduled too far in advance creating less of a gap for sales people to not followup/confirm or the customer changing their mind. I was talking to our GM and he thinks Thursday morning is best so the prospective customer has more time to plan out their weekend for an appointment or visit to the dealership. I think he has a good point too.
What do you guys think is the best day and why?
 
#2
There are many articles out there where studies have been, typically Tue-Thurs are pretty safe bets without doing much research. If you want to drill down a bit further take a look at your analytics and see what days of the week and what hours of the days are the most active. Sending during those times might be the best match for "Your" customers.
 
#3
Jason! Nice to see you in here. I agree with you. Looking for the analytics and what that illustrates about "your" customers makes all the difference. The problem is not everyone knows how to access that information. I would urge anyone doing email blasts to make sure they try to understand their customer base. Most CRMs provide data in the reporting tools. Fridays are usually less effective (in my experience)... maybe because customers have one eye on the clock and one foot out the door?
 
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#4
For me, a lot of the answer depends on the size of the email blast. If it is large, it will have to be staggered to protect your domain (or the domain of your agency sending it). For most dealerships, the bulk of your website traffic is during working hours from Monday through Thursday. It looks like a right triangle on its side, with the highest traffic on Monday, a little less on Tuesday, a little more less on Wednesday, etc, until it peaks again the following Monday. I would shoot for a Monday/Tuesday delivery. ;)
 
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#5
First off - what type of campaign are you referring to? Targeted, Newsletter, Hey come'on in, are you still in the market... :)

What type of customer "list" are you going to be sending to? Prospects, Previous customers, service customers...

Targeted campaign around a specific model(s) - I've had success on Monday (later in the afternoon) and tuesdays - followed up by another campaign later in the week but only sending to previous customers that didn't engage with the first campaign OR turn it around and re-engage customers that open the first email but tailoring the message according to what the customer engaged / clicked on. You have to have the right message to get away with this but the results can be sweet.

Recommended read --> Can Your Email Marketing Find Love The Second Time Around?

Not trying to over complicate this but email marketing is, to this day, the most effective channel of online/digital marketing. However, as it has matured and the behaviors of the inbox have changed, one needs to have a game plane behind segmentation, content/message, design (mobile) and more.

I've asked our in-house email guru Malinda to jump in here and offer some advise as well. Nothing like some black and white data to support your actions.
 
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#7
Dave - You've got some great advice posted here. eConsultancy did a nice compilation of 6 case studies on the best times to send emails. Tuesdays - Thursdays typically have the better open rates for sales messages but there is also more inbox competition. You'll see that some of the stats conflict.

Here is the link:
Six case studies and infographics on the optimal time to send emails | Econsultancy

Your best bet to see what works for your list is to test. Send your email with the same subject line at one time and then to the balance at another time and compare results.

If you are sending a message about a Saturday sales event, I would stay away from Fridays. Not everyone checks their email each day so you'll frustrate those who don't see it until Monday.
 
#10
Personally, I believe an "Email Blast" should be sent out no earlier than Tuesday and no later than Thursday to leave enough time for email delivery and time to plan their weekend. I like to target around Noon or after 5pm because I believe that's when customers are more likely to be available to check an email. The worst times to launch an email campaign is after 9pm or while they sleep. Every morning I wake up to dozens of emails and have no time to check a single one of them.

You can show me 30 studies on the best delivery days and times but nothing will be more effective than delivering the right message to the right audience. Period.
 
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