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According to research, the best time to send an email is between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Additional engagement peaks can occur in the early afternoon (1–2 p.m.) and evening (5–6 p.m.).

For B2B emails, sending during work hours (especially mid-morning) yields better results. In contrast, B2C marketers can experiment with emails during weekends or evening hours because that’s when individual consumers are home and able to check personal emails with more focus.

In the rest of this post, I’ll share the research and data behind the best time to send emails based on the latest email marketing statistics. And, I’ll tell you my tips for how you can achieve the high open rates and click-through rates (CTR) that you’re looking for.

Studies on the Best Time To Send Email

I scoured the web and compiled open rate data from the most authoritative research studies before confirming that Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9am and 11am are the best times to send email. But there is nuance to that answer that could be helpful for your unique business, so I’ve also summarized those studies before so you can make the best decisions for YOUR business.

Here’s what they say:

1. Brevo’s Insights

If you just glance at the chart above, you’d think that you should send all important promotional emails on Wednesdays.

However, Brevo’s full study emphasizes the importance of industry-specific timings.

Different industries vary in terms of the best workdays and times of day, although midweek emails perform best for most industries. Saturdays and Sundays are the worst days among all the industries Brevo included in their study.

Here is an overview of Brevo’s findings:

• Best time to send email by business type:
  • B2B Professional Services: Monday or Tuesday, 8-10 a.m.
  • E-commerce: Tuesday or Thursday at 10 a.m.
  • SaaS (Software as a Service): Tuesday or Thursday, 2-3 p.m.
  • NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations): Tuesday or Thursday, 3-4 p.m.
  • Marketing Services: Wednesday at 4 p.m.
  • Offline Retail or Hospitality: Thursday, 8-10 a.m.
• Recommendation: Understand the nature of your business and the daily routines of your target audience. This will help you optimize the send times for better engagement.

2. GetResponse’s Research

GetResponse’s data suggests that while there are peak times for engagement, it’s essential to consider the nature of the email.

For instance, many people check their email on their phones as soon as they wake up or at their desks when they first get to work.

• Best time to send an email: One email in the early morning (4-6 a.m.) and a second email later in the afternoon (5-7 p.m.).
• Recommendation: Monitor your metrics and adjust your strategies based on results. Testing different days and times can help in optimizing email campaigns.

3. Omnisend’s Study

Omnisend’s research highlights an important point: The best time to send an email varies depending on your primary goal for that campaign.

Omnisend’s data charts are divided based on the goal: open rate, click-through rate (CTR), and sales conversion rate.

For instance, the chart above shows users are most likely to make purchases through your emails on Fridays. The best days for CTR are Friday and Sunday, while open rates are best on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

This study goes beyond comparing different weekdays. They also have data on each day of the month. Open rates and CTR go up and down throughout the month. Sales conversions, however, are definitely highest on the first day of the month

While there are general patterns, Omnisend also points out that individual behaviors can be quite unique. That’s why it’s so important to understand your target audience. The study also emphasizes the significance of combining emails with other channels, like SMS, for better engagement.

• Best time to send email:
  • Highest open rates: Tuesdays
  • Best for conversions: Fridays
  • Day of the month: You may also see better sales through emails sent on the first day of the month.
  • Best time of day: 8 a.m., 2 p.m., or 5 p.m.
• Recommendation: Determine the primary goal of each email campaign, and that will help you decide the best day to send it. Also, while general trends provide a starting point, always be ready to adapt based on your audience’s behavior. Multi-channel strategies can also enhance engagement.

4. HubSpot’s Analysis

HubSpot surveyed over 150 marketers in their email timing study. Their data underscores the importance of understanding the difference between B2B and B2C audiences. 

The bar graph above shows that 31% of the marketers surveyed get the best engagement on marketing emails sent between 9:01 a.m. and 12 p.m. EST. B2B businesses prefer the same time span but at a much higher rate of 47.9%.

So while 9:01 a.m. to 12 p.m. is the best time for both B2C and B2B, B2C marketers have more flexibility. Also, Monday emails are an exception: the best time for those is 6:01 a.m. to 9 a.m. EST.

• Best time to send email: Tuesdays between 9:01 a.m. and 12 p.m. EST. Emails sent after 6 p.m. get by far the lowest engagement, so late evening and night are the worst times.
• Recommendation: Segment your audience, and tailor your send times based on user behavior and demographics. This can lead to better engagement rates.

5. Salesforce’s Research

This Salesforce data from 2021 is a little older than the other studies on our list. However, it still provides insights you can learn from. Specifically, Salesforce emphasizes the dynamic nature of optimal send times.

Their system, built with Spark, scales for customers with varying data volumes and uses an assembly model structure to provide optimal recommendations.

• Best time to send email: 8-10 a.m. in the recipient’s local time zone is the best time to send emails.
• Recommendation: Consider the recipient’s behavior, timezone, and other factors. Personalization is key, and automated systems can help in determining the best send times.

While the Promotions tab is designed for good reasons, we all prefer our emails to end up in the Primary Inbox. Here’s how to stop emails from ending up in the Promotions tab and why this happens.

Gmail’s inbox tabs are designed to make life easier for recipients by categorizing emails into different categories: Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums. This categorization is done automatically and relies on a complex algorithm that depends on both your sending habits and the way you interact with the message.

What is the Gmail Promotions tab?

The Promotions tab is a tab in your Gmail inbox that contains deals, offers, newsletters, and other bulk emails that usually include a call to action. These emails are usually messages sent by businesses to promote their services, but other non-promotional newsletters may also be placed in this folder.

In summary, the 5 Gmail tabs are:

• Primary: For the recipient’s most important emails
• Promotions: Promotional content
• Social: Messages from social media
• Updates: Transactional emails like notifications, receipts, and invoices
• Forums: Updates from forums and discussion boards

Google introduced the tab system in 2013 to help users focus on the most important messages they receive. This system also makes brands less visible to their subscribers, which can reduce the effectiveness of your email marketing. This could be an important issue, as about 60% of subscribers use the Gmail email service.

Why do emails go to the Promotions tab?

Emails go to the Promotions tab when Gmail’s algorithm thinks the content is promotional and not important enough to send to your main inbox. The main goal of Gmail’s inbox algorithm is to rank the importance of an email without the user having to label it. This is calculated individually for each user.

Google uses a number of factors to decide how to categorize each email. The company says these factors include:

• Email content: Google scans the email to determine if the content is similar to other promotional emails. Here, the algorithm looks at factors like text, images, and links.
• Overall recipient behavior: Google looks at how recipients have interacted with similar content in the past.
• Sender reputation: If the algorithm thinks that the account sending the email typically sends promotional content, it will likely send subsequent emails to the Promotions tab.
• Individual recipient behavior: Google evaluates how the email recipient has interacted with the sender’s previous content.

The last point is the most important, because it means that the folder the email goes into is specific to each user. Your emails might go to the Primary tab for subscribers who read all of your content, but to the Promotions tab for subscribers who ignore your messages.

In short, you have two important things to do. First, you need to encourage users to show the service that your emails are important, and second, send emails that don’t look like other promotional messages. To achieve both of these goals and help keep your messages out of the Promotions tab, follow these tips:

1.Ask subscribers to move you to the Primary tab

The most effective step to ensure your messages reach the Primary tab is to ask subscribers to move your emails there. When people do this, they’ll also get the option to send all future messages to the Primary tab.

In addition to your emails being whitelisted for a specific user, Google is likely using this as a positive sign that your emails aren’t promotional. This step can increase the chances that your messages will end up in the Primary folder for all Gmail users.

In your welcome email, ask subscribers to move your messages to Primary. Include instructions for both mobile and desktop users so people know the exact steps they can take. On desktop, users simply drag and drop the email into the Primary tab, while on mobile, they can click the menu icon in the app and then select “Move to” from the drop-down menu, then select the Primary folder.

2.Ask subscribers to add your email address to their contacts

Google says that the Primary tab is for “mails from people you know.” Asking subscribers to add your address to their contact list increases the likelihood that future messages from that address will end up in the Primary folder. It’s best to ask your users to do this in a friendly way.

3.Encourage users to respond to emails

Google sees replies as a sign that the sender and recipient know each other. If you can encourage people to reply to your emails, Google is more likely to place your messages in the Primary tab.

The easiest way to generate replies is to ask a question at the end of your message and let people know that you read the replies. It can help if your messages are written by a specific person, as subscribers are more likely to respond to an individual than a brand.

You can also increase response rates by asking people to respond to your message to enter a contest, receive a free gift, or sign up for a product waiting list.

4.Minimize promotional content

Keeping your messages free of promotional content increases your chances of landing in the primary folder. This means avoiding stuffing your messages with product promotions, deals, or offers. Instead, include content that provides value to the reader. Google will see this and will likely send your messages to the Primary tab.

If the main goal of your emails is to generate sales for your business, it’s not possible to completely eliminate promotional content. In that case, follow the rest of the steps in this article to minimize the number of emails that end up in the Promotions tab, while accepting that there’s nothing you can do about some emails.

5.Minimize content that could be perceived as advertising

Even if you don’t include promotional content in your emails, Google may assume that your content is promotional if it resembles other content that the algorithm has already identified as promotional emails.

That said, you should avoid adding content that resembles the type of content you’d typically find in promotional emails. This could mean not adding too much of the following:

• Images: Promotional emails are often full of product images.
• Links: Promotional emails often have lots of links to products.
• HTML formatting: Promotional emails often include complex headlines, graphics, and other HTML elements.

This doesn’t mean you have to send plain text emails or that all emails with lots of images and links end up in the Promotions folder. Many quality newsletters have images, links, and beautiful formatting. But if you’re struggling to get your emails into Primary tab, you should think about this and design the most optimized template.

6.Test your inbox placement

If you get an Email Insights report with Inbox Insights, you can add an optional experiment for Gmail inbox. The Inbox Placement plugin sends a test email to Gmail and, based on the content of your email, predicts which tab your emails are most likely to end up in.

Here’s an example of an experiment that shows 3 emails appearing in the Promotions tab while one email hasn’t been received, which requires further investigation into the missing email.

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