Weekly newsletter - when to send?
Sounds like a simple and silly question, but seriously, when is the best time to send a weekly newsletter?
On Mondays people arrive at work and go through their inbox sorting all of the emails. On Fridays people are anticipating the weekend and so are more likely to read some unrelated to work emails. Wednesday is somewhere in the middle and is a valid option too. Or maybe weekends?
And what time of the day? In the morning right when people start their work? Or later in the day? Maybe during lunch time?
What's your experience with that?
Suggest to conduct a split test several times and see what works and not.
It depends on where your audience locate. If your mailing software allows you to segment your recipients, you should breakdown into groups and try. Make sure to measure key metrics i.e. open, click, unsubscription-rate, etc.
I will also send out the weekly newsletter by batch to avoid the risk of getting into spam. @artjom
I send my newsletter out at 11am EST on Mondays to 26k+ people and have been sending it for almost 2 years now.
I think being consistent is the most important thing, so an audience gets used to when your email arrives. I chose Monday so it's something positive for people when they're at the start of their weeks. Another reason is that it's a weekly Google Sheets tip, so hopefully something folks can then apply in their work right away so I wanted people to be at work to read it.
My audience is primarily US based, hence why 11am EST is a good time. I'd choose a time that works for your audience location.
Other folks do well with Sunday email because you're not competing with work emails so much.
Incidentally, I once surveyed my audience about best times to host a webinar and Wednesday or Thursday afternoons were overwhelmingly the most popular slots. Not email, but interesting nonetheless.
You could test different times and see what happens, although there are many factors that affect open rates (time of year, holidays etc.)
I wouldn't stress it too much, I think creating great subject lines, great email content and having a consistent publishing schedule are probably more important.
Hope this helps!
Cheers, Ben
That's a great insight! Thanks a lot for the tips.
For the reason you mentioned above, we moved from Monday mornings to Tuesday mornings. Still feels like a newsletter at the beginning of every week, without the stress of competing for attention in the inbox.
Def. consistency is key.