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Highest email open rates on Sundays?

by Dana_W
25 replies
Never on Sunday? Rethink Your E-mail Schedule - ClickZ

Interesting article. Do you guys find this to be the case?
#email #highest #open #rates #sundays
  • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
    Dana, not at all, but I guess it will vary depending on what niche you're in.

    For me, it's Tuesday...hands down.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
    You may want to read this article too:

    Email Newsletter Open Rates: April 2008 - Inbox Ideas: Email Marketing Tips by AWeber

    I quote a conclusion:

    "My main point in showing these is to point out that our assumptions about what works are often quite wrong, and that you ultimately have to test for yourself to see what best suits your audience."
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  • Profile picture of the author tomw
    Hi Dana,

    I'm with Steve.

    Our tracking of open rates (and response rates) over many years for a huge diversity of brands illustrates that from Adidas, Amex and BMW to Vodafone, Volkswagen and Unilever, Tuesday is the day.

    Research also shows that once the weekly work is allotted and started on Monday, Tuesday is the first day of ducking, diving, dreaming and slacking around most offices...and this continues for the rest of the week right up until the usual panic to get the work done on a Friday.



    Thomas
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  • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
    Interesting. I could absolutely see that Monday wouldn't be the highest day. I wonder why this study came up with Sunday as the highest day.

    But good to know from people who do this every day!
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  • Profile picture of the author John Piteo
    Tuesday is the day for me too although, Thursday has also been working for me almost as good as Tuesday.

    John P
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  • Profile picture of the author tomw
    Originally Posted by Dana_W View Post

    Interesting. I could absolutely see that Monday wouldn't be the highest day. I wonder why this study came up with Sunday as the highest day.

    But good to know from people who do this every day!
    Our data is based on UK lists, not US, but I am still pretty surprised by the findings. The only thing that I can think of is that, as stated in the text, perhaps these results do not take into account comparative volumes of email. For example, since a recipient will receive less emails on a Sunday, they are more likely to open them.

    This is quite an insight for me AND a pretty sad reflection of society in my opinion.

    What the hell are so many people doing in front of their PC on a Sunday?

    Surely they should be in the park holding hands with the person they love, or playing with their kids...

    Thomas
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    • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
      Originally Posted by tomw View Post

      What the hell are so many people doing in front of their PC on a Sunday?

      Surely they should be in the park holding hands with the person they love, or playing with their kids...
      Sorry about this ... but to me it looks like a narrow thinking. Whether we like it or not, the real world is different.

      - Some people don't like anyone (they still can be your customers)
      - The person they loved may not be alive
      - The person they love may not be home
      - Some people don't like the parks
      - Some people don't have parks where they live :p
      - Some people don't have children
      - Some kids grow up and leave the home
      - Some people are exhausted and take a rest in front of their computers

      And so on and so forth.

      There are thousands of reasons for someone to stay at home on Sundays (or on a certain Sunday). It doesn't matter whether you agree or not their reason. They are home

      Shall I mention that for many people Sunday does NOT mean the same thing that means for you? [Some people's rest day is NOT Sunday ...]

      As I said ... and so on and so forth
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  • Profile picture of the author brianAwilliams
    Hmmm. Could this be the $64,000 question, or just a moving target in internet marketing? I've been doing "heavy" email marketing for 10 years now and honestly, after a decade of emails, I do not have a "magic" day for achieving high open, click or conversion rates accross dozens of niche markets. What I can tell you is that CONSISTENCY, CONSISTENCY and CONSISTENCY is the key I've found to be most important in achieving the best short and long term email marketing results.

    In other words, if you send to your list on Wednesdays, keep sending it to them on Wednesdays and don't ever miss that date. If you send every Monday and Thursday, keep at it, CONSISTENTLY, every week.

    I'm curious if anybody else has a similar or different experiences than this.
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  • Profile picture of the author AndrewStark
    The best time for me to send is when I have something that I want to say, and it is relavent for the people on my list.

    I have found that I do get better responses on Sunday when mailing to safelists as it's the time when people who are still working a dayjob have time to try and get an online business started.

    Overall it's not something that you can generalise as like real life everyone is different.
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    • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
      Originally Posted by AndrewStark View Post

      The best time for me to send is when I have something that I want to say, and it is relavent for the people on my list.
      You may want to know that such publishing "schedule" may be considered not very professional by some people.

      What will you think when your favored weekly magazine (offline magazine, OK?) next week will appear on Monday instead of the usual Tuesday (just an example)? And the following week it will appear on Saturday. And the next week on Thursday ... Reason for such new schedule? These were the days when the editors had something that they want to say (I'm following your "pattern" )

      I don't know about you but many people will not be very happy.

      Quite the same is online.

      OK, online that's not a very big issue and that's why people will not start unsubscribing. But you lose their respect/confidence a little bit here, a little bit there ...
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Lockwood
        Originally Posted by ezine ads View Post

        You may want to know that such publishing "schedule" may be considered not very professional by some people.

        What will you think when your favored weekly magazine ...

        I don't know about you but many people will not be very happy.
        Those people don't understand the concept, then. Unless Andrew calls his list a weekly newsletter or has promised to send it on a specific day of the week, people shouldn't be expecting it at any particular time.

        Weekly magazines are completely different, as are daily newspapers. Those are printed publications which obviously are published on an announced schedule.

        What does that have to do with one person sending email to his list?

        It's like comparing scheduled network TV shows with videos people put on YouTube.

        Do you even have a list?

        I've never had one subscriber complain about the time of day or day of the week I sent something. MOST list owners I know publish when they have something to send, just like Andrew explained. That's smarter than painting yourself into a corner by announcing that you will broadcast at specific days or times. What happens when Tuesday rolls around and you don't have something to write... or it's Friday and there's something urgent?

        And BTW, all these articles about the best time to send may be interesting but are completely useless for planning your list... if there was a "best day" to send, why don't all those articles agree on what it is?
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        • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
          Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood View Post

          Those people don't understand the concept, then.
          Welcome in the real world! In the real world there are newbies too. In the real world there are many types of persons, not only professional email marketers. In the real world there are not so smart people too.

          When YOUR reader doesn't understand YOUR concept, YOU have a problem. Oops!

          Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood View Post

          Unless Andrew calls his list a weekly newsletter or has promised to send it on a specific day of the week, people shouldn't be expecting it at any particular time.

          Weekly magazines are completely different, as are daily newspapers. Those are printed publications which obviously are published on an announced schedule.

          What does that have to do with one person sending email to his list?

          It's like comparing scheduled network TV shows with videos people put on YouTube.
          And you were just referring to people who don't seem to understand something

          My friend, this is about people habits (it doesn't matter if you like or not some of these habits, they still exists). People learn from their first years that any PROFESSIONAL "thing" has a SCHEDULE. It doesn't matter whether they are right or not, what matters is that when they see something out of schedule they THINK is not professional.

          Now you now how you are. If you don't care what people may think about you, that's it. However, if you don't care about people's opinions, then it's best for you to find a business where you don't interfere with human beings

          This is about people EXPECTATIONS (legitimate or not), not about a certain concept (good or not).

          If you really are an email marketer then for example you know that it does NOT matter how good your email is in your opinion. What matters is what the subscribers think. It doesn't matter if what they think is wrong. If they don't open your state-of-art email, you LOSE.

          Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood View Post

          Do you even have a list?
          Of course I don't, don't you see how stupid I am?

          You got me! I am publishing more ezines since almost 10 years but I still don't have a list

          Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood View Post

          I've never had one subscriber complain about the time of day or day of the week I sent something.
          Online usually people complain by UNSUBSCRIBING. They don't waste their time explaining you their feelings. You have people unsubscribing from your list, haven't you?

          Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood View Post

          What happens when Tuesday rolls around and you don't have something to write... or it's Friday and there's something urgent?
          When Tuesday rolls around and you don't have something to write ... YOU HAVE A PROBLEM.

          If it's Friday and there's something urgent ... YOU HAVE A PROBLEM.

          If you're professional, then you find something interesting to write about and you also find the time to write it. This is the big difference between an amateur and a professional.

          Of course anyone decides what he wants to be

          Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood View Post

          And BTW, all these articles about the best time to send may be interesting but are completely useless for planning your list... if there was a "best day" to send, why don't all those articles agree on what it is?
          You didn't read the articles, did you? They are very useful if you're able to understand them and learn from them. Unless you think that for example Aweber are some stupid guys who don't understand the "concept" too
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  • Profile picture of the author Re-cycle
    I get the best response from my lists on Mondays!
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  • Profile picture of the author GarrieWilson
    Sundays get me half the norm.

    Tuesdays seem to get me the highest BUT they all besides Sunday, are normally the same after a week. eg Tuesday is 15%, monday is 10 but will reach 15 by the weekend. (Mad up numbers.)
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Riley
      Actually, I get a lot of conversions on my mailings on a Sunday night US time. Must be those who are returning to their computers after the weekend and before Monday, I'm guessing. BTW, the mailings weren't sent on Sunday, as my newsletter goes out Friday AM US time.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
    It looks as if everyone gets radically different results. It probably depends a lot on many variables, including your list and what day they would be most likely to open anything. Oh well, all I can do is test and see what works!
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    • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
      Originally Posted by Dana_W View Post

      Oh well, all I can do is test and see what works!
      I think that you got it perfectly! Testing is a key point in email marketing
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  • Profile picture of the author timemeter90
    How can be it on Sunday? i guess it depends on your target audience and also what kind of product you are targeting for?
    I kind of got surprised because sunday being a weekend, all office goers traffic becomes nil!
    so how is this possible?
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  • Profile picture of the author TheMagicShow
    Originally Posted by Dana_W View Post

    Never on Sunday? Rethink Your E-mail Schedule - ClickZ

    Interesting article. Do you guys find this to be the case?
    I get my highest ctr and sales during sat & sunday so it makes sense
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  • Profile picture of the author mlr08
    I was in DM for a magazine publisher for many years and hands down we always had a considerable increase in responses on Thursdays.

    Personally, I've found Tuesdays to consistently rock. Weekends are always the worst, but I've heard that Sunday is the busiest day for Ebay. Guess it depends on the niche...
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  • Profile picture of the author jazzyjeff
    Dana,

    I read somewhere a long time ago about this sort of question before. They also mentioned that Sunday night was the best day to get your email read and responded to. They reasoned that people are at home winding down with nothing to do and getting ready for work the next day.

    Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author Takuya Hikichi
    Well, I have been sending out weekly broadcasts on Sunday 10AM EST for some time now. I prepare them on Friday or Saturday night and it goes out on Sunday mornings (US EST).

    I started it because I liked having the feel of "Sunday Morning Herald" or some sort of Sunday newspapers.

    Most downloads and activities take places on Monday and Tuesday from these mailings.
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    • Profile picture of the author FrankRumbauskas
      For me it's Monday, hands down. I honestly think it's because that's the day companies hold sales meetings and scream and yell at the sales reps, making them far more receptive to sales advice and my Never Cold Call Again site

      If I had a more consumer-oriented product to offer then yes, I'm sure weekends would work.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
    INteresting - the answers are all over the map! I guess there are so many variables you just have to test and figure it out for yourself.
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  • Profile picture of the author dsmpublishing
    Im with the tuesday thing even when i was a seller on ebay i used to get higher bids or more sales on a tuesday.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jim Edwards
    Like many others who have posted on this thread, Tuesday at 11:00 AM has always performed the best for me. But there is another thing to consider and that's the email subject line. By just adjusting the title, you can completely change your open rates.

    I recently read an article about a survey that was done. They tested hundreds of different subject lines and the one that did better than all the others was this:

    bad news ...

    All lower case. Three dots at the end. Simple. The same study looked at internet dating subject lines and the one that got opened the most was this:

    need a date ...

    These subject lines are short and simple. And for whatever reason, they get opened more than anything else. I won't pretend to understand the reasons why but I've been using this type of format ever since and it's working great.
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