Reciently it was announced that Wednesday afternoon is the best day/time of the week to send email to subscribers… Guess what happened lots of marketers looked at this and said “I should mail Wednesday Afternoons”. Moving forward your going to find that Wednesday afternoons are probably not so effective and another report will be published saying that some other day of the week will become the best day to mail.
The real trick here is that each email program is unique and the subscribers will all behave defirently. Take the time to find your subscribers sweet spot and you’ll not regret it.
Here’s how (assuming 1 M-F mailing per week):
- Segment your lists into a five groups send each segment the same offer but on different days of the week. This might need to be modified based on your mailing schedule or program needs.
- Alternate sending to these segments in the morning one week and the afternoon the next.
- Repeat this test for five cycles to give a good view of each segments performance on each day of the week:
| M | T | W | T | F |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
- Review metrics from all mailings to determin the best day of the week to send “your” messages.
- For additional testing or targeting find the best day of the week to mail and segment into time alotments (00:00 – 6:00, 6:00 – 12:00, 12:00 – 18:00, 18:00 – 00:00).
Singeling out any specific day will potentially have negative long term effects on your email program. I guess you could say “The best day to mail is any day that ends in Y”.
Share your results email them to contact or leave a comment.
