When should I send emails for optimal results?

If there is any topic that makes a marketer superstitious, it's email launch times. Most marketers don't want to send on Monday or Friday, fearing their email will be ignored; Mondays feel too early in the workweek, while Fridays are too late. Tuesdays have been noted by many as being the best time for sending b2b emails, but does that hold true for your database? Here are some tips for planning your email schedules and testing which days and times work best.

1. Pay attention to time zones. Find the optimal time to send emails across time zones, or segment your lists by region to be conscious of time differences. An email sent at 3 p.m. PDT may be ignored by your East Coast audience.
2. Send in the early morning or after-hours. Some marketers are seeing better response rates with after-hours and early-morning sends (between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.)—times when recipients' inboxes are not as jammed.
3. Consider Sunday evening sends. Weekend warriors or busy executives seeking to get a head start on the week check emails on Sundays.
4. Follow up after events, whether live or virtual. Sending a follow-up email 24 to 48 hours after the event is optimal to connect with attendees. For live events, be aware of travel times so your follow-up does not get lost in the shuffle of attendee travel.

The truth is that there are no hard and fast rules for scheduling an email send. Variables such as list segments, time zones and channels make it necessary to test your lists and sends. Create a baseline with your open and click-through rates, and trend against these metrics to figure out which days and times work best for you.

Majda Anwar is a revenue engineer at marketing agency Pedowitz Group (www.pedowitzgroup.com). She can be reached at majda@pedowitzgroup.com.