"When Should I Send My Email?"

HubSpot hosted an email marketing webinar last week sharing some very interesting data, including click-through and unsubscribe rates based on time sent.

They used data from Mail Chimp which catalogs information from 9.5 billion (yes, that’s billion with a ‘B’) email sends. It showed that click-through rates (the number of people who click on at least one link in the email) doubled on Saturdays and Sundays.

Messages sent Monday through Friday have an average click-through rate of about 4.6%, while messages sent on Saturday and Sunday average about 8.8%, almost double the during-the-week rate.

What’s so interesting about this is that it’s completely opposite what conventional wisdom subscribes, which is to send on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, since that’s when people are more likely to have a little time to spare at work. But, once again, data trumps conventional wisdom.

The webinar host explained this surprising finding with another bit of data, a survey that shows most people get on email seven days a week. Also, more than 80% of them have only one inbox that in some cases receives email from multiple addresses.

So people don’t typically distinguish between their work and personal emails, and when they’re checking on the weekend, they’re seeing both sources. Over the weekend, they have the time and, apparently, the inclination to read more email.

The other thing that intrigues me about this is my own anecdotal evidence of how few companies test best time to send and other variables in their email marketing. It’s pretty easy to split test, send half the messages one day and half another, and the resulting data can help companies refine their email marketing approach and make it more productive.

Incidentally, the webinar also looks at unsubscribe rates, which drop over the weekend, making Saturdays and Sundays a no-brainer option to at least test in your email marketing.