What Day of the Week Has the Best Email Open Rate?

What Day of the Week Is Best for Emails?

Studies on email open rates have extensively explored the best day for sending marketing emails, and the consensus often points towards Tuesday as a top contender. Tuesday has consistently shown high open rates across various studies, which makes it a perfect choice for marketers aiming to maximize engagement. 

However, while Tuesday tends to perform well, the right day can vary based on industry and audience. Let’s take a closer look with AudiencePoint.

What Day of the Week Has the Best Email Open Rate: An Overview of Studies

Data shows that Campaign Monitor suggests Tuesday holds a slight edge over other days, with an average open rate reaching around 22%. This is closely followed by Thursday. Other studies by Moosend and HubSpot also corroborate these findings, reporting higher average open rates on Tuesday in terms of engagement. These studies are measuring performance metrics such as open rates to determine the most effective days for email campaigns.

Why Tuesdays Are a Top Performer

• Users are more focused and accessible on Tuesdays, and the recipient’s behavior shows higher engagement levels on this day.
• They’re coming off the catch-up phase of Monday

Subscriber habits also contribute to making Tuesdays a top performer, as understanding these routines helps optimize email timing and increase engagement.

What Day Are People Most Likely To Open Emails?

When it comes to email engagement, determining the optimal day for sending emails can significantly influence open rates. Generally, studies indicate that weekdays, particularly Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, show higher engagement levels compared to weekends.

These days offer a sweet spot between the chaos that often begins a week and the inertia of a coming weekend. However, it’s crucial to note that while benchmarks can guide you, the specific business type, different industries, and audience behavior should drive your decisions, as optimal days can vary significantly by sector.

Many studies analyze multiple industries to identify trends in open rates and highlight how timing strategies should be tailored for each.

Comparison of Engagement Rates Across the Week

The engagement rates across the week generally reflect consistent trends. Tuesday has emerged repeatedly as a high performer in several studies, with a notable increase in the number of emails opened and higher email opens compared to other days. High email open rates on Tuesday are due to the concentrated effort of businesses catching up with tasks after Monday, and the average open for this day often surpasses other weekdays.

Monday and Friday, while not far behind, do witness varied levels of engagement. The former can suffer due to the after-weekend backlog, and the latter, users may mentally clock off for the weekend.

Weekdays vs. Weekends in Terms of Open Rates

The significant drop in email open rates on weekends stems from changes in user activity and behavior. Weekdays outperform weekends in terms of open rates, as Saturday and Sunday are generally saturated with less engagement, often hovering below the 20% mark.

While the best day might vary based on specific audience behavior, prioritizing weekdays can offer a strategic advantage because these days see the most engagement and higher open rates compared to weekends. Harnessing insights from robust tools like AudiencePoint can further fine-tune your approach. We’re here to leverage data and pinpoint the perfect day tailored to your target audience.

Why Weekdays Have Higher Engagement

The answer lies in professional and personal habits. During weekdays, individuals often have structured schedules and devote time to checking their emails as part of their usual routine, especially during work hours and working hours. Emails sent during working hours—typically from around 10am to 3pm—are more likely to be seen and engaged with. Early afternoon is often a peak time for email engagement during the workweek.

Conversely, weekends are periods of relaxation and general abstention from work-related tasks, resulting in decreased engagement rates. This routine difference can be critical for marketers aiming to optimize their email timing.

Role of Industry and Audience in Determining Optimal Days

Industry and audience demographics are pivotal in shaping the best days to send emails. For instance, B2B emails—such as those sent by saas companies and marketing services—might receive more attention during business hours on weekdays, as these industries often optimize timing to maximize open and click-through rates. In contrast, consumer-centric brands, including offline retail businesses, might find success in sending emails on a weekday evening when individuals have downtime, as offline retail often sees open rates gradually increase toward the end of the week.

AudiencePoint’s analytical tools can help you dissect these nuances by utilizing extensive second-party data, offering insights into peak engagement times and helping refine email marketing strategies.

Is It Better To Send an Email on Friday or Monday?

Deciding whether to send your marketing emails on a Friday or a Monday can be pivotal for achieving optimal open rates, as both send time and sending time are critical factors in email marketing success. Traditionally, Monday has been recognized as a day with a slightly higher open rate than Friday. This difference can be attributed to how individuals approach the start of their workweek versus the anticipation of the weekend, making the decision of when to send email on these days especially important.

To maximize engagement, it is essential to test different sending times and analyze which sending time works best for your audience.

Comparison of Friday and Monday Open Rates

The average email open rates indicate that Monday tends to have some of the highest open rates and generally achieves high open rates compared to Friday. Campaign Monitor shows Mondays consistently performing well, with average opens hitting around 22%. This is often because recipients are returning to their inboxes after the weekend, ready to tackle the tasks for the week.

Conversely, Fridays witness a slight drop in attention as many readers begin winding down towards the weekend. This can mean emails sent on Fridays might be overlooked or stay unopened until the next week. Thus, if you’re aiming for immediate attention and engagement, Monday might just have a slight edge.

Impact of Weekends on Email Engagement Flow

AudiencePoint’s insights confirm that weekends generally have lower open rates due to people’s inclinations to spend their weekends away from work-related communications. Sending an email blast on a Friday or during the wrong time—such as late-night hours from 6 pm to 5 am—runs the risk of your email being buried by Monday’s influx and experiencing lower engagement.

For Email Marketing Professionals, understanding the flow of email engagement around weekends can be crucial. By ensuring your emails are positioned ahead of the inbox flood on Mondays, you take advantage of the fresh start feeling when recipients are most attentive. If an email blast is sent at the wrong time, using auto resend features can help recover engagement by automatically following up with subscribers who did not open the initial message.

Recommendations for Timing Emails These Days

• Schedule emails to send campaigns, such as send email campaigns or send marketing emails, for late Sunday night or early Monday morning to optimize engagement.
• When you send an email campaign on Friday, ensure it is sent earlier in the day to capture attention before end-of-day distractions.
• Avoid sending campaigns, including marketing emails, on weekends due to reduced engagement with work-related content.
• Use audience-specific engagement data to guide your timing decisions for when to send campaigns and send email campaigns.

This is where tools like AudiencePoint can make a significant impact. By leveraging AudiencePoint’s powerful data analysis capabilities, you can tailor your email strategy to best match how your audience engages with inbox content, no matter the day of the week.

Final Thoughts

Understanding the best day to send emails is critical for any effective email marketing strategy. To optimize your email marketing campaigns, it’s essential to conduct your own analysis using your own data and historical data. By analyzing a comprehensive data set from previous campaigns, including open rates, click through rates, click to open rate, and conversion rates, you can identify when your emails perform best and make informed decisions about send times.

However, it’s important to note that these recommendations are not one-size-fits-all, and timing is not the only factor—results are not all created equal. Each audience is unique, and factors such as industry, subscriber habits, and consumer behavior play crucial roles in determining optimal send times. Gathering data specific to your audience, including how different segments respond in various time zones and the recipient’s local time zone, is paramount for honing in on the perfect time to send emails and boost engagement.

AudiencePoint uses cutting-edge technology, including email marketing automation, smart sending, send time optimization, and features of an advanced email marketing platform or email platform, to automatically deliver emails at the perfect timing for each subscriber. These tools deliver emails based on behavioral data, time zone, and engagement patterns, helping you increase engagement, achieve better engagement, and improve your conversion rate. With features like link triggers, A/B testing with the same content or same email, and analysis of promotional emails, AudiencePoint enables you to refine your strategy and maximize results. Don’t forget the importance of crafting compelling subject lines and testing subject line variations to further enhance open rates.

Book a demo and embrace the future of email marketing with informed precision and let AudiencePoint be your guide to more effective, targeted campaigns.