Leading up to Valentine’s Day, Cupid has probably unleashed an onslaught of crimson email offers upon your inbox. So how can your business make sure it effectively uses email marketing to reach its customers over the competition?
For answers to this question, below are some key insights about when to send your emails so your company can capture consumer hearts and minds through February 14th!
What Days Work Best?
Knowing when to send your emails is extremely important, especially for Valentine’s Day. In a recent study by RetailEmail.com, Valentine’s Day experienced the greatest amount of retail email traffic of any holiday. Specifically, the majority of emails are sent on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday making them the worst days to send out emails.
Retail Email Participation Stats
The best days to send out emails are on Monday and Wednesday when they have the greatest chance of engaging with the undivided attention of your customers.
What Times Work Best?
As one might guess, sending out promotional emails at 4am may not be the wisest decision. Though I might want to read about a romantic box of chocolates in the middle of the night, it’s much more effective to send me an offer during the day.
As a general rule, 11am during Monday or Wednesday is a good time to send out your email, because your customers should have already read through their morning inbox and should have already finished their morning coffees. Once customers receive your 11am email, the point is to have it appear as the first (and hopefully only) email competing for their attention.
After an email is sent, companies should use online metrics to measure the rate of opens, clicks, etc., to gauge your audience’s preferences and ensure the greatest rate of success.
In Conclusion…
…don’t let the challenge of email traffic on Valentine’s Day scare you off. As we mentioned last week on our blog, B2C email marketing was ranked as THE best practice for online marketing yielding a high Return on Investment (ROI). A “2008 Direct Marketing Association (DMA) study found that email’s ROI in 2008 was $45.06 for every dollar spent on it.” Specifically in trying times, it is important to use cost-efficient practices such as email marketing to get your message out there.
There are many ways to give yourself an advantage over the competition, and when can be every bit as important as the who, what, where and why.
