Do you want to get the highest possible open rate for your e-mail?
If you do it makes a difference which day you mail...
Here's some useful, hype-free information from a company called ExactTarget of Indianapolis.
To do their study, they collected data from more than 4,000 organizations; 230,000 mailings; and 2.7 billion messages.
Here's what they found:
1. 92% of all e-mail is sent Monday through Friday.
2. Best open rate: Friday.
Why? Probably because less mail is sent that day than any other weekday. 14.3% on Friday vs. 24.5% on Tuesday.
3. Best clickthrough rate: Sunday
But - and here's the catch - Sunday has low open rates.
Is there an absolute best day to mail?
According to the study no, but if you're not testing Fridays and Sundays, you may be missing the boat.
Thanks to ExactTarget.com for the data.
This message brought to you by the System Seminar.
Have you nailed down your seat yet? The deadline for System 2006 approaching fast. Seminar info here.
Ken, it doesn't matter to me what day I receive an e-mail from you....I open it and read every last word!
Posted by: Barry Brenner | March 28, 2006 at 01:10 PM
If the Friday info is true, then why is it Fridays seem to be the day that all my "junk" mail comes in? The rest of the week is mostly work related. Fridays is: open mail, click delete.
Posted by: Melissa | March 28, 2006 at 01:11 PM
So how come you sent this Tuesday Ken? Wouldn't be running your own little test on your Graduates by any chance? Interested to see if your CTR beats the control!
Posted by: Head Lice Advice Guy | March 28, 2006 at 02:43 PM
Great article
Posted by: John J Schach | March 28, 2006 at 03:00 PM
Answers...
About when I mail, you can rest assured I'll mail you on Friday and Sunday too :-)
Good info like this has a way of piling up in my office. I wanted to get this one out to you while it was still fresh on my mind - otherwise it might never see the light of day.
To folks who raised topics that are way off the topic, I've deleted your posts. Try to stick to the point. If you want to contact me about some other matter, please do it directly not through a post on the plog.
Thanks.
Ken
Posted by: Ken McCarthy | March 28, 2006 at 03:23 PM
I'm working with another copywriter on some interesting tricks for subject lines. We have seen how a couple unique techniques can have a dramatic affect on open rates...regardless of the day.
To me, if it's a compelling, curious and or provocative subject line it'll have a high open rate.
Posted by: Shaune Clarke | March 28, 2006 at 04:17 PM
According to my testing with my list of about 6000 people I get best results in terms of rapid sales increase when mailing sunday - very clear. Probably because people are in a mood to take time for reading something and doing some "good" to themselves (my newsletter is about how to improve male potency naturally). Wolfgang
Posted by: Potenzmittel Wolfgang | March 29, 2006 at 01:59 AM
Ken, like Barry, I read every email I get from you. On those days, when I receive emails from the other gurus as well, guess whose email I read? C'mon take a wild guess. In my book, there's no contest. Hands down, you're DA man when it comes to keeping us all plugged in AND on the cutting edge!
By the way, who's teaching the Advanced Copywriting workshop at the System training? Is it you?
Tony Ostian
"THE Web Copy Guy"
Certified Master of Webcopywriting
Posted by: Tony Ostian | March 29, 2006 at 02:43 PM
Well, it was supposed to be a surprise, but yes.
One of the 25 sessions in Chicago will be me, kicking the tar out of all the BS myths about copywriting that are holding people back from creating their best copy.
It's going to be a session to remember.
Posted by: Ken McCarthy | March 30, 2006 at 05:10 PM
Here are some other statistic from trusted sources.
Tom Kulzer, the CEO and Founder of AWeber Communications
"Sunday generates the highest average open rate of 41.1%, followed by Saturday at 36.7% for newsletter sent date."
Average Open Rate by Sent Date: (higher is better)
Sunday 41.1%
Saturday 36.7%
Wednesday 34.0%
Friday 32.8%
Tuesday 29.6%
Thursday 24.6%
Monday 23.2%
In their latest study for Q3, eROI found the next results:
"Average Open Rate:
Sunday 30.8%
Monday 25.6%
Tuesday 23.9%
Wednesday 22.8%
Thursday 23.1%
Friday 27.0%
Saturday 23.7%"
And finally, MarketingSherpa.com came out with their annual predictions called "Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2006".
Their findings show that:
"... Marketers who segment their lists to send the right offer or newsletter to the names who are most likely to be interested in it, get results substantially (or evenastronomically) higher than those who don't.
Segmentation can have dramatic results impact for small lists with fewer than 5,000 names. In short, no matter how small your list is, segmentation is probably worth the extra work."
More information about these data:
http://www.internetmarketingprofitscenter.com/blog/2005/11/how-to-improve-your-email-metrics.html
So what's the best day to email?
Well, I believe every day! As long as you build a strong relationship with your readers, they will open up your messages and buy from you.
But certainly you cannot rely on other people's statistics.
Posted by: ValeriuPopescu | April 02, 2006 at 12:47 AM
Ken
Good info. I wish aweber would allow me to pick the days I want my auto-respond messages to go out. I like the number of days option but having day specific would be nice also.
Posted by: Jerry Dyas | April 03, 2006 at 12:08 PM