Sunday, September 26, 2010

When Do You Send Emails to Customers?


Does your company follow the industry standard approach when it comes to sending emails to customers, whether your company is B2B or B2C? This means that on Tuesday or Wednesdays, you finalize your email message, your distribution software or vendor, and click send. But do mid-week, late morning, and early afternoon emails generate the highest read rates, click-thru’s, and responses?

A recent AOL survey reported that 62% of respondents checked their work email over the weekend, which raises the question, “Are Saturdays or Sundays better days to send business emails?” While this is an interesting idea for marketers, many Americans wish to better manage their work-life balance, but with gadget overload, this is becoming more and more difficult. If businesses add more emails to the mix, there will be no “off switch,” and employers will expect all employees to be available 24/7/365.

Here’s a sample of for-profit and non-profit email arrival (all are Pacific time):
• Ford’s emails arrive on Wednesdays at 7:30am
• Staples’ emails arrive on Wednesdays at 2:30am
• The Daily Grill’s emails arrive on Thursdays at 9:05am
• PF Changs China Bistro’s emails arrive on Thursdays at 10:15am
• Cheesecake Factory’s emails arrive on Wednesdays at 6:30am
• Brandweek’s emails arrive daily at 7am
• Harvard Business Review’s emails arrive daily at 5am
• Disney’s emails arrive on Fridays at 12:15 am
• Starwood Hotel’s emails arrive Wednesdays at 8:30am
• Kimpton Hotels’ emails arrive on Wednesdays at 6:45 am
• Joe de Vivre Hotels emails arrive on Wednesdays at 7:15am
• Canine Companions for Independence’s emails arrive on Wednesdays at 10am
• World Wildlife Fund’s emails arrive on Fridays at 3am

While the majority of this email sampling arrive mid-week, would I prefer to read 100-200 emails over the weekend as opposed to during the week? Here’s a better idea, would I just prefer to decrease the number of emails that I receive by 100-200 a week? Since that option is not realistically possible (unless I change email addresses), email messages will continue to arrive at a myriad of times on every day of the week – with the hope of standing out so I take notice and take action.

What about you? Are you reconsidering when to send your company’s emails?

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