Is It Better to Send an Email at Night or in the Morning?

Any marketer planning out their next email campaign will want to know the best time of day to email subscribers. A common question is whether emailing at night or in the morning is better. 

Nighttime can seem like a good point in the day to send emails. Most people are done with work and in a more relaxed state of mind. However, the morning can also look like a good opportunity to catch subscribers at the beginning of their day. 

We’ll tackle this debatable topic throughout this article. You’ll want to read to the end to get all the answers about planning the timing of your next campaign. 

Is It Better to Send an Email at Night or in the Morning?

To give you a quick answer, the morning has higher average engagement rates compared to the night when you compare data from emails across industries. In most instances, sending your email marketing content in the morning will be better. That said, there’s much more to consider here, like the type of email and your specific audience. 

Is It Appropriate to Send Emails at Night?

Since emails tend to get less engagement at night, you may wonder if it’s an inappropriate time to send content. In email marketing, there isn’t really an appropriate or inappropriate time to send promotional content. Your subscribers won’t think about it much one way or the other. 

The one exception can be if you’re emailing leads who you want to turn into professional clients. Then, keeping communication to their regular work hours may be more appropriate. 

In addition, if it’s a work email, you may want to wait to send it until the following morning. Nobody likes it when their boss sends emails late at night or they get questions from their co-workers outside of regular work hours. So outside of emergencies, you probably want to avoid that. 

Is It Inappropriate to Send an Email at 10 pm?

If you’re looking for a cutoff point, 10 pm would be an inappropriate time to send a work-related email to a boss or co-worker. You also likely wouldn’t get a response until the next day, anyway, since many people are getting ready to go to bed at that time. 

Additionally, while sending promotional emails to general consumers at night isn’t inappropriate, sending a marketing email at 10 pm likely wouldn’t work the best. Since many people are getting ready for bed or tired at that time, your emails would probably go unseen or be brushed off by those who receive them. You want to avoid that as much as possible in email marketing. 

How Late Is Too Late to Send a Professional Email?

As for how late is too late to send a professional email, you’ll probably want to avoid emailing anytime after 5 pm. That’s when many people’s regular work hours end. So if your organization follows a 9-5 work schedule, you should limit email communications to that time range aside from emergencies.  

To get the best possible chance of response to your professional email, it’s also good practice to send it before 3 pm. Earlier in the day is better, so if you can email in the morning, you’ll have a much better chance of getting a response on the same day. Otherwise, if you email right at 5 pm, don’t expect a response until the next morning. 

How to Apologize for Emailing Late at Night?

If you need to email late at night in an emergency, including an apology can be a good best practice. A simple “sorry for sending an email late at night” can work well. Just keep it simple and professional. 

What Is the Best Time of Day to Send an Email to Get a Response?

In email marketing, getting a response or conversion will be a key metric for success. Usually, sending your campaign’s content between 9 am-3 pm will get the highest average response rates in most industries. That said, this can vary depending on the industry, your target audience, and the type of content you’re sending. 

Why Your Audience Is the Most Important Aspect to Consider

Overall, timing your marketing emails right will be highly dependent on your subscribers. Everyone has different lifestyles and preferences, so you need to target your content accordingly. 

For instance, if your audience is third-shift medical professionals, they may engage a lot more at night since that’s when they’re awake due to their work schedule. On the other hand, someone who works a 9-5 will often be more engaged during that time range. 

To plan your strategy successfully, you need data on your specific subscribers. AudiencePoint can help with that. 

How AudiencePoint Can Make Your Email Marketing Strategy More Successful

AudiencePoint offers email insight software. We offer three tools called Real Time Optimization, Send Time Optimization, and ListFit that help you send better and more engaging content at the right time. 

If you want the exact answer on whether it’s better to email your audience at night or in the morning, our Send Time Optimization tool will help. 

Plus, it’ll take it a step further by giving you a more exact time and day of the week to send your content. So rather than just saying your audience responds well to emails in the morning, AudiencePoint can tell you your individual subscribers respond the best on Tuesday mornings at 10 am. It’s simply a more accurate way to plan your email strategy. 

In addition to helping you send content at the best time, AudiencePoint also allows you to get crucial data on your audience, like subscribers that have become inactive or ways to segment your email list. ListFit data can show you which of your subscribers who you haven’t seen in a while are still active in their inbox letting you target them for reengagement with your brand.

If all this sounds like it would be a helpful addition to your email strategy, you can contact us today to learn more.