Recently the VP of a B2B  technology developer asked us when is the best time to send an email newsletter to media executives. 

The answer is easy, but not simple.

The ideal time to send B2B e-commerce marketing emails based on open rates (top of funnel educational emails) is 10 a.m on Tuesday (Hubspot, Experian) or Thursday (MailChimp). We pick Tuesday because MailChimp has a lot more B2C data in its data  – literally billions of emails sent.

But…Wednesday at 10 a.m. is better for clicks and conversions. We found that  Wednesdays emails get 500% more direct response, that is, people scheduling appointments and calling us on the phone.

So if you are, say, tempting an executive to click to your website to find information to sign-up for a webinar, Wednesday is the better day.

Another snag is the three hours change in time zones, that is to say, it is always 10 a.m. somewhere.  If your most important market is, say California and you pick 10 a.m. there, the rest of the country – and your prospects – are  going to be in the mid-day email open dead zone.  We would rather send at  10:30 to 11 a.m.  on the East Coast and have more or less most of the country in the prime email opening and clicking hours: Weekday mornings, 8 to 10 a.m.

Here are some fundamental concepts to know create your email marketing schedule:

As long as you stay within the 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. window, don´t worry too much about the exact time. 

But you do want to stay in that zone; almost all studies show that the highest open rates come from sending in morning, around  8 to 10 a.m. Both Hubspot and MailChimp agreeing on a peak time of 10 a.m.

Opens drop off radically when the send is at noon. If you miss the morning for some reason, there is another bump around 3 p.m.

Incidentally, Sunday, the worst day of the week to send, is an outlier, time-wise; that day the highest open rate is at 9 p.m.

About 25% of openers open within the hour.   

The number of openers quickly reduces as the day continues, so a morning send also allows most recipients to act before the close of the business day. Our own experience  with LocalMediaInsider is that B2B email opens are still going days later in small spurts, but that is probably due to  information being resent to others who are using it for other purposes. 

Tuesday and Thursday are the best days for open rates, with a (slight) advantage on Tuesday for B2B. 

For introductions, announcements and general information that do not require a click through, these are better days to send your  email. Think of it this way, is the main point for them to read the email and understand the message, or to click to your website. If its the former, Tuesday is for you. 

As stated above, Experian  and HubSpot are showing Tuesday is the highest, while Mailchimp, concluded there are more opens on Thursday.  So if you have a B2C option, Thursday may be a better choice.

Wednesday is still the best day for clicks and e-commerce sales.

As email marketer Sendblue describes it:

“Ecommerce, SaaS companies, and NGOs …All three of these industries have spikes for the open volume on Tuesday and Thursday. But, if you look at the click volume graph below, you’ll see that the largest amount of clicks by far takes place on Wednesday.”

Another email marketer, Sendio, compiled similar data, also shows that B2B e-commerce spiking during the beginning of the week, peaking Wednesday and dropping off (see image at the top of this blog). 

So if sales is the goal, Wednesday is still the day, followed by Tuesday.

Other considerations may still trump the Wednesday choice.

The differences from Tuesday to Thursday are in the 10 to 35% range may be trumped by timeliness that creates extra urgency or relevance.

For example, reminders should be sent about 24 hours ahead of an important deadline, such as a client contest or webinar,  for maximum urgency.

As one more email marketer, Jilt, put it, after studying the data,  “While Tuesday and Thursday perform the best, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday aren’t too far behind.

“If there’s something unique … that makes Monday a better day to send your emails, don’t be afraid to send that day.”

Otherwise, if you are scheduling a B2B email and want action, Wednesday is the best choice.