What is the origin of the best time to send emails and how does it affect recipients?

Key findings

• Mythical origin: The idea of Tuesday mornings being the best time to send emails is largely considered a marketing meme originating from a 1990s newsletter, not from objective data.
• Self-fulfilling prophecy: Modern studies often confirm this trend, but this is because marketers, believing the myth, send more emails at that time, skewing the engagement data.
• Recipient focus: The conventional wisdom often overlooks recipient behavior, assuming a universal best time rather than individual engagement patterns.
• Engagement peaks: While Tuesday mornings might show higher volume, engagement varies greatly depending on audience, content, and industry. Most emails are opened within a few hours of sending, regardless of the precise send time. This influences how email sending practices impact domain reputation and deliverability.

Key considerations

• Audience specificity: The ideal send time is highly dependent on your specific audience's habits and preferences. What works for one audience may not work for another. Understanding your audience is key to improving email inbox placement and ensuring your messages are seen.
• Content relevance: Focusing on delivering relevant and valuable messaging is more critical than adhering to arbitrary send times. Irrelevant content can negatively impact deliverability, leading to emails going to spam.
• Continuous testing: Regular A/B testing of different send days and times is essential to discover what truly resonates with your subscribers. This continuous optimization helps maximize impact.
• Utilize data: Leverage your own email platform's data and analytics to identify when your audience is most engaged. Many platforms offer send time optimization features that learn from recipient behavior.

Key opinions

• Challenging the meme: Many marketers recognize the Tuesday morning advice as a meme that skews data rather than reflecting genuine optimal send times. They understand that such broad advice can contribute to emails going to spam.
• It depends: The most common refrain is that the best time depends entirely on the specific campaign, audience, and content. There is no universal answer.
• Relevance over timing: Delivering relevant messages to readers is prioritized over strict adherence to perceived optimal sending windows. This focus on value is crucial for improving engagement and avoiding issues like high sending frequency affecting deliverability.
• Recipient behavior: Many marketers emphasize understanding when their recipients are most likely to check their phones or have downtime, rather than simply sending when others do.

Key considerations

• A/B testing: Marketers should constantly test different send days and times, analyzing their own campaign data to find unique optimal windows for their audience. This aligns with how to run an email deliverability test.
• Cadence and habit: For regular content like newsletters, establishing a consistent cadence can be more beneficial than chasing a fleeting best time.
• Time zone considerations: For diverse audiences, using time optimization features that deliver based on the recipient's local time can significantly boost engagement, rather than a single global send time.
• Impact on deliverability: While not directly impacting deliverability in the same way as IP reputation or authentication, poor engagement due to ill-timed emails can indirectly hurt sender reputation over time, affecting overall email marketing performance.

Key opinions

• Beyond timing: Experts contend that the precise best time to send is far less critical than the overall quality of your email program, including content relevance and audience segmentation. This is a critical factor for improving inbox placement.
• Engagement metrics: While open rates are often cited, experts highlight the importance of other engagement metrics, such as click-through rates and conversions, which are often more indicative of true campaign success. These metrics provide insights into how delayed email opening impacts deliverability.
• Sender reputation: Consistent positive engagement, built over time through relevant messaging, is paramount for maintaining a strong sender reputation. Arbitrary send times do not inherently improve this.
• Historical bias: Experts acknowledge that some historical data on best times might reflect past industry practices rather than current recipient behavior or technical realities. This bias can lead to misleading deliverability rate perceptions.

Key considerations

• Subscriber journey: Consider the entire customer journey and send emails when they are most relevant to the recipient's current stage or action, not just a generic optimal time. This tailored approach is key.
• ISP reception: While not directly about best time, remember that ISPs process mail continuously. A steady, engaged stream of mail is always preferred over bursts driven by a perceived optimal window.
• Deliverability impact: Focus on deliverability fundamentals first. Ensuring proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), list hygiene, and content quality will have a far greater impact than obsessing over send times. This is foundational to addressing email deliverability issues.
• Continuous adaptation: Email marketing is an ever-evolving field. What works today might not work tomorrow, necessitating continuous monitoring and adaptation of strategies based on performance data.

Key findings

• Aggregated trends: Many reports from large email marketing platforms indicate that weekdays, particularly mid-week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday), and late morning/early afternoon, show higher average engagement metrics.
• Audience behavior: Documentation often highlights that recipient engagement patterns are influenced by factors such as work schedules, leisure time, and device usage, which vary by demographic and location. This is why email open rates vary for specific languages and countries.
• Variations by email type: Different types of emails (e.g., newsletters, promotional offers, transactional emails) may have different optimal send times due to varying recipient intent and urgency.
• Testing and optimization: Official resources consistently recommend A/B testing and leveraging smart send time features that automatically determine the best time for individual subscribers based on their past engagement.

Key considerations

• No single answer: Documentation frequently states that there is no universally best time to send that applies to all businesses or campaigns. Context is always key.
• Focus on data: Rely on your own campaign data, audience insights, and industry benchmarks relevant to your specific niche. This data-driven approach is critical for improving domain reputation and deliverability.
• Recipient experience: The primary goal should be to send emails when they are most likely to be welcomed and engaged with by the individual recipient, respecting their daily routines and preferences.
• Industry trends: While general industry trends can provide a starting point, they should not be treated as rigid rules. Continuous monitoring and adaptation are necessary.