“When is the best time to send emails to subscribers?”
As an email marketer, this is a question that I’d often get from a client, especially when they’re new to email marketing.
The real answer is: it depends. Every brand serves different audiences, and every person checks their emails at different times of the day.
This post will help guide you to find the optimal send times for your list, for each day of the week, and will also share some helpful scheduling tips that I’ve learned over my career.
Does your audience include seniors? Consider sending your emails earlier in the morning, as they often wake up sooner than adults.
1. The Average Workweek
Weekdays
The average American wakes up at 7am, commutes 30 minutes to work, then works a 9am-5pm job and eats dinner between 6pm – 8pm, during weekdays.
For most brands, this is a great starting point.
Do not send an email when your audience members are likely to be busy. This includes:
| Commuting hours | 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM |
| Working hours | 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM 1:30 PM – 5:00 PM |
| Private / Sleeping Hours | 9:00 PM – 6:00 AM |
Nobody likes to be interrupted at an inconvenient time!
Instead, you should send your emails when your subscribers are likely to be checking their phones:
| Meal Times | 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM |
| Leisure Hours | 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM |
Fridays & The Weekend
If your audience includes adults between the ages of 18-35, you should avoid sending any emails on Friday evenings as they are often busy during this time.
On weekends, you should send your emails a few hours later than weekday mornings, and a few hours earlier than typical evenings.
Here’s an example of a weekend email schedule, based on typical weekday hours:
| Weekday Email Schedule | Weekend Email Schedule | |
| Morning | 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM | 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM |
| Afternoon | 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM | 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM |
| Evening | 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM | 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM |
2. Your Buyer Personas
Your brand’s buyer persona will provide a lot of hints about how to schedule your emails.
Is your buyer persona likely to stay out on Friday nights? Then you should push your Saturday morning emails until the afternoon.
3. Sales and Promotions
Let’s pretend you’re planning an email campaign for a week-long sales promotion.
You should aim to send at least 3 emails:
- Email 1: Announcement
Send Date: 2-3 days before your sales starts- This is an email to inform your subscribers that they should expect a sales promotion in a few days.
- Make sure this email includes the start date of the sale!
- Make sure your sale starts at a time that they’re likely to be available — do not start a sale at midnight!
- Bonus: use a countdown timer!
- Email 2: Launch
Send Date: the first day of your sales, as soon as it starts- This email will let your subscribers know that the sale has started
- Email 3: Last Call
Send Date: the day the promotion ends- This email will reminder your subscribers to take advantage of the sale while they still can
- Communicate the exact hour that the sale will end
- Bonus: use FOMO in your copy, and a countdown timer to build urgency
In every email campaign I’ve sent in my career, these 3 emails were consistently the most important. Whether you decide to send 5 emails or 10, make sure these 3 emails are among them.
Emails 2 and 3 are often the highest revenue-generating emails, as most people shop a promotion at the beginning and end of the sale period.
First-Time Buyers
You’ll likely find that email 1 doesn’t generate much (or any) revenue, but it serves an important purpose: to build anticipation for the sale.
Imagine you’re shopping for a new brand you found through social media — it’s scary making your first purchase with them because you don’t know if their products are of quality, or if they have decent customer service.
This is why most new visitors and non-buyers will make their first purchase during a sale, so they can save as much money as possible, which minimizes their risk, before they commit to your brand.
4. Public Holidays
Public holidays are generally not a good time to send marketing emails, because most people are traveling, spending time with their families or going out with friends.
This includes:
- Christmas, New Years, and the winter holiday break
- Mother’s Day, Father’s Day
- 4th of July, Canada Day, other independence days
- Thanksgiving
Holiday promotions should start a week before the actual holiday, and perhaps more than a week for large holidays like Christmas.
Summary Notes
- Always think about your buyer personas!
- Don’t send emails when your audience is likely to be commuting, working, or sleeping
- Do send emails when your audience is likely to be on their phone
- You should send at least 3 emails to support your sales promotions:
- Announcement
- Launch
- Last Call
- Avoid sending marketing emails on public holidays
- Holiday promotions should start at least a week before the actual holiday
This is just scratching the surface; email scheduling can be very nuanced because every brand serves a different audience.
That’s why marketing agencies would rather resell our white label email marketing services. This lets our experienced email marketers handle all of the scheduling research while they can focus on building client relationships.