Should You Send Marketing Emails on the Weekend?
You send marketing emails to customers, prospects, and people who have signed up for your newsletter. To make sure you're sending the right emails at the right time, you need to know when your audience is most likely to open them. If your customers are more likely to open emails on weekends than during work hours, then it makes sense for you to send marketing emails on Saturdays and Sundays. But what does the data say?
Email marketing software company Mailjet found that email open rates tend to drop on weekends.
You may be surprised to find that the answer is no. (Or maybe you're not, since this article is called "Should You Send Marketing Emails on the Weekend?")
Mailjet, an email marketing software company, analyzed over 1 million email open rates across multiple industries and found that email open rates tend to drop on weekends. For example:
The average weekday open rate was 25% higher than weekend open rates in 2016.
Fashion brands had a 28% higher weekday-to-weekend ratio in 2015 and 2016.
Healthcare organizations saw as much as 38% more opens on weekdays than weekends in 2017—and they gained 2x more sales leads per week during those 7 days of the week!
If you're selling a product or service related to weekends (travel, for example), this makes it a good time to send emails.
If you're selling a product or service related to weekends (travel, for example), this makes it a good time to send emails. People are more likely to be checking their email on the weekend than they are during the week, so they'll be more receptive and open to buying what you're selling.
For example, if you own a travel agency or write guidebooks about places in the world that people can visit on vacation, sending an email about your latest trip on Friday evening will likely get opened by recipients because they're probably not looking at their inboxes when work is still going on.
Retailers should avoid sending emails on Sundays, but Monday and Saturday can be the best days to send marketing emails.
The truth is that there are a lot of factors that go into determining the best day to send marketing emails. For example, if you're sending transactional emails, then Sunday could be a great time to reach people as they're thinking about their purchase in the middle of the week. But if you're sending newsletters or promotional offers, it's better to avoid Sundays because people want to avoid sales pitches when they know that they won't be working on Monday.
Even though we know what day isn't the best for email marketing campaigns (it's Sunday), we still need to consider what day is the most effective for different types of marketing campaigns and content. The best days for each type varies depending on who your target audience are:
Their average open rate was 9 percent higher than those sent Monday through Friday.
What does this mean?
If you're selling a product or service that is related to weekends in any way, it could be time to start thinking about sending marketing emails on the weekend (if you haven't already). For example, if you sell travel deals and know that people are more likely to take a trip on the weekend than during the week, then sending an email with your latest deal might make sense.
All of these are good reasons to start sending your marketing emails on Saturdays.
Email open rates are lower on the weekends
People are more likely to shop on the weekends than on weekdays
People are more likely to buy products related to the weekend
People are more likely to buy products related to the weekend on Saturday
You might want to start sending your marketing emails on Saturdays.
If you’re a retail business, it might be best to avoid sending emails on Sundays. But, if you’re a B2B company or another industry where prospective customers can’t easily make purchases during the week, it might be a good idea to send your marketing emails on Saturdays.
According to data from Return Path, Saturday opens are higher than they are any other day of the week. In fact, they found that open rates were 51% higher than Monday and Tuesday opens combined. This is because people tend to spend more time at home on Saturday with their families and may not have their inboxes flooded with as many emails as they do during the week; therefore there's less clutter for them to sort through when checking their email inboxes before going out for dinner or doing something else with their loved ones.
So, if you're selling a product or service related to weekends (travel, for example), this makes it a good time to send emails. If you're selling something more generic like clothing or hardware tools that can be used anytime then it may be better to send them on Monday or Saturday afternoon instead.
References
It is generally not recommended to send marketing emails on the weekend as open rates are lower than during the week[1][2]. Studies have shown that the best time of day to send emails is between 10am and 2pm[3], however, it is important to consider the quality of your emails over when they are sent[2]. Question or exploratory emails should be avoided on weekends as prospects may not have access to the information needed to answer them[4].
1. Why Sending Emails on the Weekend Is A Great Idea
https://blog.liveintent.com/why-sending-weekend-emails-is-a-great-idea
Here are three reasons you should consider sending ecommerce marketing emails over the weekend. Solutions. Advertiser solutions. ... Ask a marketer the best day to send an email and you’ll likely hear “Tuesday.” For years, Tuesday has been the go-to day for sending email, based on studies pointing to high open and click-through rates. ...
2. Best Time to Send Marketing Emails in 2023 - SevenAtoms
https://www.sevenatoms.com/blog/best-time-to-send-email-blast-and-marketing-emails
The weekend is the worst time to send a marketing email: with Saturday and Sunday deviating from the average coming to a wholesome -107% and -82% respectively. ... While adjusting the time that you send your marketing emails can help to improve open rates and increase engagement, the quality of your emails is most important in regards to ...
3. How To Determine The Best Time To Send Marketing Emails - ActiveCampaign
https://www.activecampaign.com/blog/best-time-to-send-marketing-emails
The best time of day to send marketing emails is between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. However, the data from the Intercom and Wordstream studies once again differ. Intercom shows that the period between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. performs best, with the hour before this seeing impressive open rates, too. Best time of day to send emails.
4. 3 Sales Emails You Should Never Send Over the Weekend - HubSpot
https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/emails-you-should-never-send-over-weekend
3 Emails to Never Send Over the Weekend. 1. Question or exploratory emails. Never send an email asking a question or attempting to explore a new topic over the weekend. You’re likely unsure whether your prospect will or can answer your question outside the office, so it’s best saved for regular hours when they have access to the information ...
