Many people have conducted research and you would have undoubtedly encountered conflicting ideas. If you aggregate the results to form a general consensus then you usually end up with a Thursday morning… But then if we all read the same report and start sending emails on a Thursday morning then Thursday suddenly becomes like a Monday and Monday becomes like a Friday, leaving Wednesday to become the new Thursday, leaving Tuesday and Friday to fight it out amongst themselves. Confused? You don’t need to be.

All you have to do is send emails when your customers want to receive them. How do you find that out? Ask them. The following first stage poll can give you a decent idea of when you should send emails.

Where do your read your emails?
a) on public transport
b) in meetings
c) at your desk
d) at home

Mostly a)
First thing in the morning or just before the office closes. It may also be worth creating entertaining content that doesn’t require ‘there and then action’, and don’t forget to try to keep images to a minimum.

Mostly b)
Rather obvious but when do your sales team complain that they can never get through to your customers because they are in meetings? That’s your answer; this also brings up the need for short and snappy content.

Mostly c)
Instead of worrying about what time is best for your customers, try thinking about your own team and your own infrastructure. If you rely on offers that need people to call in, when do your sales team have the lowest call rates? Similarly if you send out emails that will direct extra traffic to your website, pick a time where visitor levels are low to ensure that they do not experience any lag.

Mostly d)
Be brave and send them in the evening. This goes entirely against the grain to never send an email outside standard trading hours but in a world of 24 hour availability does it really matter?

I appreciate that this insight is rather one dimensional but it will give you a solid foundation to build on and well worth running a speculative split test to see if your results are founded. Follow it up with a secondary poll that asks when they prefer to read emails and then take your marketing insight that one step further and get your sales team to drop it in conversationally. Over time and alongside your analytics package you can begin to plan templated themes and strategies to return the best value for your marketing spend.

And if you find out that 18:30 on a Friday is your optimum send time, don’t be afraid, have conviction and press send. Be prepared for people to challenge your decision and be prepared to be quoted research from unrelated industries. Resist their advances and back your perfect day and send them your own report, your customer’s voice.