How many times have you opened your email inbox only to find a large list of emails waiting for you on a Monday morning? Do you either skim through them quickly or delete them without even opening? If so, you’re not alone. Figures show that Mondays and Fridays are the two least popular days of the working week for people to open emails. his is hardly surprising when you consider both days are either side of the weekend. So why do businesses still send out some of their most important emails on these days? A key problem many businesses have is that they look at their email communication as instant news rather than what it should be – part of the marketing communications mix. As a result they often fail to dedicate the same time and effort in developing their eMarketing and email messages. By dedicating a bit more time to developing the message, you are able to deliver a message that engages the readers. However your emails will lose effectiveness if the email is sent without considering when the message when the message will be received, including days of the week, time of the day and the time of year that your email is sent. The goal of any marketing plan is to work towards maximising Return on Investment as well as promoting sales opportunities at key points of your business calendar. Would you send out a Christmas flyer at Easter? Your eMarketing strategy must be combined with the rest of your marketing activity as well as a logical place in the calendar based on your promotion. Although we may plan to send an email on Tuesday morning, as the week quickly takes over, before you know it, its 16:00 on Friday and the email “has to be sent this week” regardless of how the timing may impact results. Don’t sacrifice your results for speed. Industry statistics show that there are decidedly better days to send emails if you want them to be opened and acted upon. The two busiest days of the week for sending emails is Mondays and Fridays – yet for all the emails that were sent, both days achieved an open rate of less than 20%. Contrary to popular belief, Monday is one of the worst days of the week for emails to be read as people are flat out working on their own issues and plans for the week. They are also clearing up all emails that have come in over he weekend and are more likely to delete those that don’t immediately interest them (or leave them until later then forget about them!) Friday is also a poor day as most people are thinking about clearing their desk before the weekend Compare that to emails that were sent throughout the week – Tuesdays saw a peak of 24.62% of emails opened. If you’re still not convinced this small percentage difference matters, consider an email send of 10,000 messages. The difference between 19.82% opened on Monday and 24.04% opened on Tuesday is almost 500 more people reading your email. What Are the Best Times to Send Email? For similar reasons as the best time of the week, the best times of the day to send an email and hope it gets read and actioned are 10:00 – 10:30 a.m. and 1:00 – 1:30 p.m. In fact the open rate increases as the day progresses with a low of 21.4% at 8 AM to a high of 34.1% at 5 PM (though the chance of being actioned reduces as the day progresses as they will get added to the overnight emails and/or being seen on a smartphone, and are not that easily readable Taking these figures into account, planning your emails to be sent on the more profitable days of the week is the obvious solution. Knowing recipients are more receptive to emails received from Tuesday to Thursday, perhaps it’s time for you to start getting more out of your email campaigns and call to action. To discuss how KONA’s Hearts and Minds™ Sales Training and Coaching will help your team to smash their targets please contact KONA today on 1300 611 288 or Glenn@KONA.com.au