Do you know when the best time to send email marketing in Australia is?
It’s not enough to simply whip up a cracking email newsletter and shoot it off without a second thought. If you want to see higher open rates (not to mention the increase is clicks and conversions that should come from having more eyeballs on your content), then you need to know when the best time to send email marketing in Australia is, as well as what time your mailing list is most responsive.
Why does the time I send my email marketing matter?
Just like other platforms (Instagram, Facebook, etc.), when you ‘post’ or ‘send’ content, matters.
There’s a lot of competition out there – plenty of companies are vying for attention in inboxes – just like they are in your Insta feed. So, you’ve got to make sure your email has a fighting chance of being seen, opened, and, if all goes well, acted upon.
You’ve probably noticed that your own inbox gets flooded at certain times during the day. And on certain days. You might check your phone in the morning and see 10 new emails. At lunch, you might check again and see a new batch. And on your commute home from work, there they are, waiting for you.
Companies know what times their audience is most likely to check their inbox, and so, in a bid not to miss out and fall to the bottom of the pile, merely glazed over, they send their marketing emails out at strategic times.
The best time to send email marketing in Australia
There’s plenty of research and data available on this topic, and they generally reach the same conclusion. It’s best to catch your audience in moments of downtime, or when they’re not fully switched into ‘work’ mode yet.
According to Hubspot, the highest click-to-open rates occur at 10 AM, and 1 PM, and pick up again at 6 PM.
If we were to hop over to Mailerlite, we’d see from their analysis of over 2.5 million email campaigns sent in 2021, that most email opens occurred between 10 AM-2 PM and 5-6.
Optimonsiter’s advice deters only slightly, suggesting sending at 8 AM to catch those who check their inbox before work, or at 4 PM when the day is drawing to a close and they need some distraction.
The best days to send email marketing in Australia
The good news is there’s not a lot of difference when it comes to open rates during weekdays. However, there is evidence to suggest that weekend sends generally earn lower open rates (especially sales emails).
Looking at all the data across the board, it seems Tuesday might be the optimal day according to CampaignMonitor’s research, boasting the highest click-through and click-to-open rate.
While this information is very useful, it’s important to note that it’s quite general. For instance, your audience may respond more favourably to your emails on Thursdays rather than on Mondays, totally contrary to this broad overview.
Every audience is unique and as such, your send times need a little bit of detective work if you want to get the best results out of your campaigns and email sequences.
The best time to send email marketing to your audience
This can only be answered by you through trial and error (as well as using what you know about your audience already).
Think about how your audience spends their time, what their lifestyle is like and when the opportune moments of phone-checking may occur.
Put yourself in their shoes – would you like to receive a newsletter at the beginning of your workweek? Or would you be more inclined to click on a Wednesday, once you’ve settled in and found your groove?
But don’t forget to test those theories! Assuming you know your audience isn’t the same as actually doing the research to find out.
How to test your mailing list for the best email send times
A/B testing is the best way to learn about your audience’s email habits and improve your email performance. And there are a couple of ways you can go about this.
If you send a weekly newsletter, for example, send it at a different time or on a different day for the next month. You’ll likely start to see differences in performance that can help you determine when is the best time to send to your audience.
However, this method isn’t my favourite as your subject line will also impact your open rates. That’s why I recommend conducting A/B testing within a single email campaign.
This involves sending your email campaign (e.g. your April Newsletter) to 50% of your audience at one time and sending it to the other 50% at another time. This way, your subject line will not impact your test results because it stays the same.
To keep the test fair, remember to review your results after the same amount of time has elapsed between each send. For example, if you send to the first 50% of your audience on Monday at 9 AM and report on the results 48 hours later, remember to wait to report on the second 50% until 48 hours, too.
Once you’ve run a few tests, you’ll be well on your way to learning what days and times work for your audience best.
But don’t forget! Audience segments and campaign types can greatly impact your email performance. Testing how different segments behave as well as how your audience responds to different campaign types (i.e. promoting an offer vs. sharing educational content). The more you know, the better!
