What Are the Best Times to Send Out Sales Emails?
The timing of your sales emails can be the difference between great engagement and high conversions or sending out a total dud. The reality is this: people are busy, and their inboxes are crowded. Even with exciting content, it’s easy for your email to get lost in the shuffle if you send it when people are unlikely to pay attention.
So what is the best time to send sales emails? Well . . . it depends.
Full disclosure: there is a ton of existing research out there on ideal timing for marketing and sales emails, but there is no definitive, one-size-fits-all answer. In this article, we won’t be able to say “send your emails at X time to earn Y results.”
What we are going to do is look at the data and summarize it, help you evaluate it for your own unique scenarios, and share best practices you can use to maximize ROI on your sales emails.
Let’s get started!
Quick Takeaways
- The best time to send sales emails is Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday between 9-11am.
- Less successful times for sales emails are on the weekends and either very early or very late in the day.
- Truly pinpointing the best time to send sales emails to your audience requires knowing your ideal customer profile, tracking your own data, and experimenting with different strategies.
- Email marketing software is a valuable tool that can automate much of the sending and metrics tracking required to measure sales email ROI.
Why is timing important to sales emails?
Timing is much of the battle when it comes to successful sales emails. As we already mentioned, even the best sales message can get lost if it’s sent when a prospect is too busy or signing off for the weekend. Conversely, sales messages that may not get much attention otherwise may earn an opening if they’re sent at the optimal time for that prospect.
It’s likely that you won’t always get it right (certain, really) but the key here is to be intentional about when you’re sending. When you’re intentional, you’re also showing consideration and respect for your recipients’ time, and that will earn you better overall results in the long-term.
So before we jump into the best days and times to send your emails, let’s quickly cover a few of the basic don’ts:
- Don’t send sales emails on Saturdays or Sundays. While research on the best time to send sales emails shows varying results, the findings on this are pretty straightforward. Some people do choose to catch up on emails over the weekend, but it’s considered poor practice to send at this time and could seem like a lack of consideration for your recipient’s personal time.
- Avoid sending very early (before 8am) or very late (after 8pm). Again, there are some outliers here, but in general people are checking their email during business hours and right before or after.
What are the best days and times to send sales emails?
So when are the optimal times to send sales emails?
Let’s look at days of the week first. CoSchedule took a wide range of research into account (14 different studies) and found that of all weekdays, Tuesday consistently earned the best results. Thursday came in second, and Wednesday in third.
It should be noted, however, that various research shows a slight variety in rank order among the three for open rates and click-through rates. This suggests that the best time to send sales emails is during the middle of the week rather than on one specific day.
And what about time?
Research shows that late morning (between 9-11am) is the best time of day to send email, earning the best open rates at around 7%. Results stay pretty strong throughout the workday before starting to steadily decline around 4pm.
In summary: you can count on the highest engagement rates for the most commonly measured email metrics (open rate and clickthrough rate) on Tuesdays between 9am and 11am. That said, you can expect to see steady results throughout normal business hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
Great for general best practice. But how can you really be sure the times you’re choosing for your sales emails are optimal for your specific audience? That takes a little more trial and error, data analysis, and process refining.
Let’s go over what you should consider.
Other best practices to follow
Know your target audience
If you’re a B2B company, it’s likely that your company has developed an ideal customer profile (ICP). Your ICP tells you about your target customer’s industry, company size, roles and responsibilities, and more. Think about this profile and consider what their realistic day is like.
For example, if you’re targeting professionals that tend to start their work days earlier, like teachers or lawyers, sending an email before 8am could be effective. For the entertainment or restaurant industries, later emails may be better.
The key is to use general best practices as a guide, but ultimately to know the demographics and habits of your unique target audience and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Draw on your own experience
What does your own experience with sales emails tell you? Every company, industry, customer base, and product niche is different. Don’t just go through the motions. Pay close attention to the timing, messaging, and other practices working best for you, record them, and scale them to improve results.
Be data-driven
Data is your friend when you’re trying to pinpoint the best time to send sales emails. Some of the best email metrics to track include open rate, click through rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate, and engagement over time.
Email marketing software is a helpful tool to help you do it. This video reviews several top options you can consider:
Test and experiment
You can’t really know what’s working best unless you try many strategies. Experiment with your sales email strategy by trying out different subject lines and sending days/times to find out what works best for your company and audience.
Our outbound email software and lead generation services are custom-built for startups, consultancies, marketing agencies, and other B2B organizations. Schedule a quick call with us and find out how we can help you win more clients.