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When and How Often to Email
When's the optimal time to email your list? What's the optimal frequency? These are two key factors to running a well-read and responsive email list.
Email at the wrong times and your emails either won't get opened or your sales letters won't convert. Email at the wrong frequency and you risk either burning your list out by emailing too much or not building a solid relationship by not emailing enough.
=> When to Email: Days of the Week
For having your emails read, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays tend to work well for a professional audience.
On the weekends, most professionals either don't check their emails, or check their emails but only skim non-essential emails. It's their days off, after all.
Fridays they're looking forward to the weekend and Mondays they're just getting back into the groove of work. Therefore, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays tend to work well.
On the other hand, for a non-professional audience, the best open rates can often be the reverse. On weekends they're less likely to check their emails because they're out with friends, while on weekdays they have more time to read emails carefully.
As for sales emails, marketers often find that Sundays work well for conversions. People tend to do more active activities on Saturday and spend Sundays in a more leisurely way, often browsing the internet and may be more susceptible to a great sales effort.
Another tip is to time your sales emails to be a day or two after payday, on the 1st and 15th of each month. At these times people have a bit of spare cash that they may feel more willing to part with. The 15th, 16th and 17th are especially good dates because your readers are getting paychecks, without having to also pay end-of-the-month bills that the paycheck on the 1st usually comes with.
=> When to Email: Time of Day
In general, it is best to send your emails either early in the morning or after work.
If you send your emails early in the morning, time it so your readers receive your emails before 7am Eastern Standard Time. That way, when they check their emails as they get to work in the morning, your email will be in their inbox.
Alternatively, you can wait for people to get home before delivering your email. In that case, aim for your emails to be delivered around 5pm.
Having your emails delivered in the middle of a work day is generally a bad idea. People are busy and will either not read the email, or just briefly skim it before deleting it. Aim for times when people have a bit more attention to devote to reading your emails.
=> How Often to Email
How often you send your emails depends on the length of your emails, the commitment of your list and your personal ability to consistently generate quality content.
If your emails are relatively short, your list wants to hear what you have to say and you have the time to produce a ton of content, then you can email as often as five times a week.
On the other hand, if you tend to produce long emails (or videos), or your list is subscribed to many other lists and just reads yours in a cursory way and you personally don't love generating content, then you might just want to email once a week.
There are successful lists that don't email very often at all, as well as successful lists that email very often. The best frequency depends more on you and your list than any specific rule of thumb.
When and how often to email are two things you'll want to think about before you even start your list. Once you start emailing, people will generally expect the same frequency and perhaps even delivery times. So make your choices early on and stick to them, so people can get used to receiving content from you at specific intervals.
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