The best day and time to send email campaigns to retail customers (Part 1)

"What is the best time to send?" is one of the first questions every email marketer asks. The honest answer is that there is no single best time for everyone. There is, however, a best time for your customers, and you can find it. This first part looks at retail and end customers. Part 2 covers B2B.

Be careful with articles that promise one magic hour. Your audience, your products and your offer matter more than any general rule. Use the ideas below as a starting point, then let your own results decide.

Think about when your customers read, not when you work

Retail customers usually read promotional email in their own time, not at their desk. Picture a normal day for your customer and look for the moments when they pick up their phone with a few minutes to spare:

• The commute, on the way to work or home.
• Lunch break, when many people scroll their phones.
• The evening, after dinner, when there is time to browse and buy.
• The weekend, when shopping is something people plan to do.

An email that arrives just before one of these moments is near the top of the inbox when the customer looks. An email sent in the middle of the night is buried under everything that arrives in the morning.

Match the day to the reason to buy

The day matters as much as the hour. Think about when your customer is most able and most likely to buy:

• Around payday. Many people in Indonesia are paid at the end or start of the month. Offers on bigger purchases often land better then than in the middle of the month.
• Before the weekend. A Thursday or Friday email can help people plan what to buy or where to go on Saturday.
• Shopping days. Dates like 11.11 and Harbolnas on 12.12 are moments when shoppers expect offers. Send early enough to be seen before the rush, and expect a busy inbox on the day itself.
• Ramadan and Lebaran. Daily routines change during Ramadan: people are often active before dawn and after breaking the fast. Gift and travel needs peak in the weeks before Lebaran.

Mind the time zone

Indonesia has three time zones: WIB, WITA and WIT. Seven in the evening in Jakarta is already nine at night in Jayapura. If your customers are spread across the country, choose a time that works for most of them, or create segments by region and send each group at a time that suits it.

Good starting points for retail

If you have no data yet, start with a time that fits one of the moments above, for example:

• A weekday evening, after working hours
• A weekend morning, for offers people can act on that day
• Just before lunch, for short, simple offers

These are not rules, just reasonable first guesses to test.

Find your own best time

The only reliable way to know is to test with your own list:

1. Run an A/B test on send time. In Flashmail, an A/B test can compare send times as well as subject lines and content. Send the same campaign at two different times and let the better result win.
2. Change one thing at a time. If you test the time, keep the subject and content the same.
3. Look at clicks and sales, not only opens. The goal is a purchase, not just an open.
4. Repeat. One test can be a coincidence. Test over several campaigns before you decide.
5. Use the report. Each campaign report shows performance over time, so you can see when people actually opened and clicked.

Let automation pick the moment

Some emails should not wait for your schedule at all. A welcome email works best right after someone signs up, a birthday message on the birthday, and a reminder about a forgotten cart soon after the customer leaves. Flashmail automation sends these at the moment that matters for each customer. See Marketing Automation.

Checklist

• Pick a starting time based on when your customers have time to read
• Plan around paydays, weekends and shopping days
• Check your customers' time zones
• Test send times with an A/B test over several campaigns
• Judge by clicks and sales

Selling to businesses instead? Read Part 2: the best time to send B2B email campaigns.