Is It Important To Time Your Emails?

I get my email on my phone and there's an aubible alert when a new email arrives. I also use my phone for an alarm clock and therefore have it at my side when I sleep.

Nothing annoys me more than an email alert when I'm trying to sleep.

Having a consistent time when you send out your e-mails
can be useful on many levels.

For one, it demonstrates to your subscribers that you're
reliable and deliver what you promise and when you
promise it.

For example, my first mentor has been religiously sending
out his ezine every Tuesday like clockwork - for years.

I'm on another list that sends me an e-mail with a link
to a video at the same time every day (9am UK time).

It's become so reliable that I make a cup of coffee
beforehand and then sit down to get the e-mail and
watch the video each day.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

In which time zone? I think all your potential customers must live in closely adjacent time zones, from what you're saying? You must have a "geographically specific list"?

I don't know where most of mine live. These days, many people use addresses like "gmail" for their email, and you can't tell from that where in the world they live. I know from occasional chats with subscribers that there are people all over the world on my lists, though ...

I always avoid sending out email "once a week" to any list, just to avoid the "same day of the week" problem. I send many out "every 5/6 days".

I let the followups go out automatically based on the time they signed up. If they were online at that time when they signed up, it is a good chance that is when they are online the rest of the time. My high open rate seems to indicate this is working out well.

When I send out a broadcast, I send it out on Tues or Thurs around 10am.

I tested many other times and found this was the best open rate.

Also, I use the segmenting feature and segment out those who did not open and then re-send same email to them with a different subject line which even further increases my opens.

And finally, I want to reward those who open and click links in my emails, so I reward those who do with unpublished free valuable bonuses every so often.

I find I tend to get the best open rates during the week at around 11 AM EST.

Whenever you send out e-mails, just try to be somewhat consistent so your list knows when to expect your content.

Completely agree stick to one time

In a nutshell, yes, it matters.

I have found that every list that I have has it own unique set of subtle (and not-so-subtle) intricacies. There are many factors to weigh in that have already been brought up such as the time zone, frequency, etc. Ultimately, these are items you should test yourself.

Some marketers have sworn to me in their own testing that they tend to get better conversions when they sent out e-mails between 5pm and 7pm in the time zone that most of their subscribers are in. If you don't capture or have access to that information then they do it based on their own time zone or dominant demographic.

So let's say you live in Australia, but the vast majority of your customers are in the United States. Well, you can set up your e-mail to go out at 5pm EST, which is 8pm PST. Some people don't check their e-mails until after they have dinner (or even during dinner haha), though others check their e-mails as soon as they hear or see that e-mail alert on their phone or mobile device.

In the 3 major niches that I participate in, the overwhelming majority of my customers are in the United States and Canada (approximately 80%), so I send out my e-mails based on PST / EST time zones. Lance brings up a good point about e-mail alerts. So in those 3 niches I generally send out my e-mails between 7:00 am EST - 5:00 pm EST.

However, the other 20% are scattered throughout the world, so someone always gets my e-mail at 1:00 am, 3:00 am, etc. This is something I haven't tested extensively, but my preliminary testing in these 3 primary markets has shown marginal differences on the times. However, I have noticed quicker sales when I've sent e-mails out between those times.

I generally send out 2 to 3 e-mails per week in these 3 markets because they are niches that have people who are STARVING for information that will solve a whole host of issues.

I don't agree with your Saturday conclusion. People may run chores on that day, but really, working people do chores nearly every single day. The key here is that if they work a job M-F they are not at work on the weekend and therefore have a bit more time to check their e-mails. With the growing number of smart phones and mobile devices, the whole time issue almost becomes a non-factor.

RoD

Timing is everything! I agree after numerous test. Sat is not a good day to send.

I am a big believer (due to testing) in behaviorally training your list.

If you train you list to only respond to free offers, the only thing you will be able to sell them is free stuff.

This same phenomenon applies to email timing. If you train your list to respond to saturday emails, they will. Assuming of course what you have to offer is consistently compelling enough for them to decide to be a part of your "tribe".

If you are building a churn and burn list, then the right answer is simply as often as possible until they burn off.

But if you are building a relationship centered list, then my testing shows that consistency is generally much more important than some perfect hour or day.