The Best Time to Send Emails in 2024: Day, Hour, and Industry Insights

As we step into 2024, hitting your recipients’ inboxes is more crucial than ever. You must find the best time to send emails and optimize them according to your audience preferences and industry trends. 

Your email send times can vary depending on factors like time zones, office hours, and holidays. And setting a time for every individual recipient can be an overwhelming experience for you. Luckily, we have gathered industry data to help you decide the right time to send your email marketing campaigns.

Let’s look at the best times to send different types of emails, the best email send times for various industries and general email timing rules.

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General Timing Guidelines for Sending Emails 

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to sending your emails at the right time. However, the timing determines your email open rates and conversion rate. 

Your email send times can vary depending on your email campaign type, industry and business type, and seasonal factors. To make it easier for you, we have divided emails by their types and the best time to send each.

Types of Email Campaigns	Best Days to Send	Best Time to Send	Audience Participation	Worst Time to Send
Marketing emails	Mondays & Tuesdays	10 am – 1 pm	😀	Monday mornings 👎
Promotional emails	Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays	9 am – 3 pm	👍	Early mornings or late nights
Email newsletters	Thursdays	8 am – 9 am	😁	Tuesday & Wednesdays 8 am – 9 am
Abandoned cart emails	30 minutes after the customer leaves site	Follow-up email in 24 hours	😐	Immediately after the customer leaves the site ❌
Re-engagement emails	Mid-week	9 am – 3 pm	😵‍💫	Within one week of no customer engagement
Survey and feedback emails	B2B – Mondays, ThursdaysB2C – Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday	3 pm – 6 pm6 pm – 10 pm	😉	Tuesdays 😠
Event and Webinar emails	One month before the event	7-10 days reminder before the event	👍	On the day of the event
Drip email campaigns	B2B – 1 automated email per month  B2C – 2-5 times per month	No more than 5 emails	👏	Too frequently 👎
Educational emails	Monday  Wednesday  Friday	10 am – 12 pm  9 am – 11 am 11 am – 1 pm	😉	Saturday
Holiday emails	A few weeks before holidays	During the day	👍	On the day of the holidays
Cold emails	All days of the week	6 am – 9 am PST	😶	Cold emailing is generally not recommended ❌
B2B emails	Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays	5 am – 7 am	👏	Monday mornings and weekends
B2C emails	All days of the week	9 am – 12 pm	😉	Nil

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The Best Time to Send Marketing Emails 

Marketing emails are broadly categorized into promotional emails or any email that requires some form of selling. Deciding on the timing for your marketing emails is based on your audience type and segmentation. 

For example, if you are an E-commerce company selling officewear, your target audience will likely be office-goers aged between 25-40 years. This set of audiences frequently check their emails, and the best time to send a marketing email will be between 10 am – 1 pm. 

Choosing a time to send marketing emails will vary across businesses, so it’s helpful to know the industry benchmarks and timings for these emails.

The Difference Between Marketing Emails and Non-marketing Emails

Marketing emails align with promotional email content, while non-marketing emails are sent to inform and update subscribers. Let’s see the different forms of the above email types:

Marketing Emails	Non-marketing Emails
Promotional	Transactional emails
Marketing Newsletters	Account-related emails
Product launch emails	Employee notifications
Abandoned cart emails	Subscription or service alerts

Let’s first look at the types of marketing emails and move to non-marketing emails.

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The Best Time to Send Promotional Emails 

Promotional emails include product information, deals, email coupons, and discounts. The goal of promotional emails is to inform the customer about the products or services and lead them to a purchase.

Promotional emails are more effective when you send them during the weekdays. Here’s more information to help you determine the best time to send these emails:

Best Time to Send Promotional Emails	Day & Time	Trends
Mid-week	Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday	These days have lower email volume and higher open rates.
Morning and early afternoon	9 am-11 am 1 pm -3 pm	People are more likely to check emails during work breaks.
Lunch break	12 pm -1 pm	This could be a perfect time to send offers and discounts as more people check their emails during lunch breaks.

Although you may have tempting offers and discounts, avoid sending emails early morning or late at night. This is when most people are away from their phones, and your promotional email will likely be buried under a pile of other emails.

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Best Time to Send Email Newsletters

Email marketing newsletters help you stay connected with your subscribers by sending them the latest news, product updates, brand changes, and other relevant information. These emails are scheduled beforehand and are a gateway to building lasting customer relationships.

Newsletter timings and frequency depend on your business type and goals. Some businesses send newsletters every few weeks, while the rest send them twice a week or more. Studies show that the best time to send an email newsletter is between 8 am and  9 am on Thursdays. While 8 am is pretty early in the day, users have reported a 25% increase in open rates during this time. 

The worst time to send your newsletters is Tuesday and Wednesday between 8 am and 10 am. It’s because your competitors are eyeing the same day, and your recipients’ inboxes are likely to be cluttered. 

Eventually, your email newsletter timings will rely on your audience demographics, time zone, location, and preferences. For example, if your audience is Gen-Z, sending newsletters at night wouldn’t interfere with your email campaign metrics.

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The Best Time to Send Abandoned Cart Emails

Abandoned cart emails are about recovering potential sales — you want to send enough reminders without frustrating your customers. 

If your customers do not take action despite these emails, it’s better to stop sending them emails altogether. Too many email reminders can lead to lower open and click-through rates. And in worse cases, your customers might unsubscribe from receiving your emails. 

This can further weaken your IP reputation and sender reputation.

When Should You Send Re-engagement Email Campaigns

When customers haven’t interacted with your brand for a while, they become inactive. In this case, re-engagement emails help you reconnect with these subscribers. Brands often use compelling win-back messages and exclusive promotions to re-ignite subscribers’ interests.

It’s good to wait for 30-60 days after a subscriber becomes inactive to send emails. As for the timing, send re-engagement emails during mid-week, ideally between  9 am – 11 am or 1 pm – 3 pm. Be mindful of people tuning out because of receiving too many emails. It’s always better to know the reasons for audience disengagement and fine-tune your timings consequently.

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Best Time to Send Survey and Feedback Emails

Email surveys help you gather customer insights and improve your products and services. Here’s a guideline on the best time to send survey emails.

Business Type	Day to Send	Time To Send
B2B	Monday Thursday	3 pm – 6 pm 3 pm – 6 pm
B2C	Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday	6 pm – 10pm

Note that highly engaged users participate regardless of the day and time of the survey email. The success of your survey depend on recipient’s email response rates. Hence, including a clear subject line and an incentive in these emails will increase the chances of higher response rates.

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When to Send Event and Webinar Emails

Event invitation emails and webinar emails contain critical information regarding the events. The main purpose of this email type is to build anticipation and drive engagement. Sending webinar and event emails are subject to your brand goals and user interests.

Ideally, you must send these invites as a teaser one month before the event. The invite for registration usually opens 7-10 days before the actual date. Follow-up with reminder emails 1 day and 1 hour before the event.

In your emails, include the benefits of participating in these events and provide an incentive where possible. For example, you can give subscribers who couldn’t attend the event free access or download to the webinar. 

Drip Email Campaigns and When to Send Them

Drip emails or autoresponders are pre-defined messages sent to subscribers at intervals. Autoresponders are widely used in email marketing scenarios like customer onboarding, holiday email marketing, and re-engagement campaigns.

Not enough studies show the best times to send drip email campaigns. However, we can tell you the number of times you should be sending your drip emails.

Business Type	Best Time to Send Drip Emails	Maximum Drip Emails
B2B	1 automated email per month	No more than 5 drip email sequences
B2C	2-5 times per month	Do not cross over the bi-weekly limit

If you are uncertain about your drip email timings, stick to the normal email marketing campaign timings — Tuesdays and Thursdays between 8 am- 9 am.

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The Best Time to Send Educational Email Campaigns

Educational emails provide value for subscribers and help you establish authority in your industry. An email series of ongoing learning can help your subscribers stay on top of industry news and trends.

But, what’s the best time and how often should you send them? It depends on your audience preferences and the nature of your educational content. However, we explore the timings based on assumptions that individuals may spend more time during the work week.

Day of the Week	Optimal Time To Send Educational Emails	Considerations
Monday	10 am – 12 pm	Most people focus on professional development during the start of the week.
Wednesday	9 am – 11 am	Mid-week motivation and subscribers are likely seeking new information to use at work.
Friday	11 am – 1 pm	Wrap up the work week with insightful content.

You can also schedule the educational emails for Sunday evenings, so it maximizes the chances of people opening them on Monday mornings. 

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When to Send Seasonal and Holiday Emails?

Holiday emails are a great way to capitalize on the festive season and leverage urgency and exclusivity. While there are no perfect times to send these emails, here’s a guideline for increasing your ROI during these seasons.

Holidays	Best Time to Send Emails	Average Open Rates
Halloween	Sept 15 – Oct 7Oct 8 – Oct 31	13%14.7%
Thanksgiving	Nov 8 – Nov 19Nov 20 – Nov 28	12.3%15.1%
Black Friday	Nov 4 – Nov 15Nov 15 – Dec 1	12.9%14.2%
Cyber Monday	Dec 1 – Dec 8	13.7%12.1%

Popular holidays like Christmas saw higher open rates compared to the other holidays. It’s best to send holiday-themed emails a few weeks before the holiday season and one to two days before the actual holiday.

Now, you might wonder why trigger emails aren’t included in this list. There’s a reason we haven’t, so keep reading!

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Why Trigger Emails Don’t Work With These Timing Strategies?

Trigger emails are automated email messages that you send to customers after a certain action such as sign-up. Email triggers closely resemble auto-responders but they are not the same.

Since trigger emails are timely and relevant to subscriber interests, you cannot predict a good time to send them. These emails are automatically triggered upon user action. However, you can use a reliable ESP to automate your trigger campaigns and maximize your reach. 

Campaign Refinery offers a simple editor, smart goal triggers, and evergreen flash sales to make your trigger emails more effective. You can do more with our built-in tools and features, which we tell you further down.

But first, let’s know the best time to send transactional emails so you can strategize your email campaign timings accordingly.

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The Best Time to Send Transactional Email Campaigns

Transactional emails are sent in response to a user action such as sign-ups or purchases. For example, an order confirmation after a recipient purchases from your brand. 

Since the recipient fires the automation and is waiting for the information, your transactional emails must be timely. However, not all transactional emails demand an immediate response from the sender.

For example, order confirmations must be sent immediately upon trigger (after purchase). 

Sending transactional emails promptly will help you build meaningful customer relationships. 

Knowing these differences will help you segregate email campaigns and allot timings respectively.

Did you know there’s a third type of email campaign that’s not talked about much? Yes, it’s cold emailing!

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Best Time to Send Cold Emails

Cold emailing has been a hot debate for years now. While a few businesses believe it’s fine to email people without their consent, others think it’s a bad email marketing practice. 

We think the same, too. At Campaign Refinery, we have a stringent policy against cold emailing and immediately terminate accounts that do so. Cold emailing people can have adverse effects on your sender reputation and email deliverability, which are the key factors that determine your email ROI.

Although we don’t encourage it, we’ll still tell you the best times to send cold emails — send them between 6-9 am PST (9 am -12 pm EST). A few studies suggest that 10 am is more effective to reach people.

With that, let’s move to the more crucial aspects of emailing — when to send B2B emails to increase open rates?

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Best Time to Send B2B Emails 

B2B emails contain sales messages and business updates for other businesses. Typically, you would send these emails mid-week (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays) between 5-7 am. The sooner you send B2B emails, the better the chances your recipients will open them in the morning. Avoid sending your emails on Mondays and Fridays as people are likely catching up with emails from the weekend. 

You can also set your timing based on experimentation and previous customer data. For example, if you find your emails to perform well during late afternoons, you can schedule them to fit this criteria. 

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Best Time to Send B2C Emails 

In a survey, 30.9% of B2C marketers reported their emails worked best between 9 am and 12 pm. However, the timing comes down to customer behavior and business nature. So, you must constantly test and refine the timings as per customer behavior. 

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Best Time to Send Emails Across Different Industries (B2B & B2C)

Only 4% of the emails sent between midnight and early morning are opened by recipients. That means your email send times can impact your sender reputation and other email metrics. To help you navigate this process, we have outlined the best times to send emails, listed for different industries.

Industry	Best Time to Send Email
Technology	12 pm – 3 pm
Finance	7 am-10 am
Events	8 am – 9 pm
Hotels	10 am-11 am
Leisure	10 am – 12 pm
Marketing	5 pm-7 pm
Retail	10 am – 11 am or 4 pm – 6 pm
Travel	3 pm or 10-11 pm

While these are the nominal timings, you must also review the peak shopping days, consumer behavior patterns, ideal engagement timings, and time zones based on your industry and business type.

As we move toward the best days to send emails, here’s another aspect to consider — business hours. Studies reveal that emails sent during business hours have higher open and click-through rates.

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Best Days and Time to Send Emails 

While you might think weekends are perfect for sending your email newsletter, it’s time to reconsider that thought. Weekends are the worst times to send any type of email since your subscribers are away from their devices. 

Instead, sending them on Tuesdays can be more effective (as pointed out by 27% of email marketers in the U.S.). Here’s more information from the survey:

Day of the Week	Best Time to Send Emails	Engagement Rate
Monday	6 am – 9 am	19%
Tuesday	9 am – 12 pm	27%
Wednesday	10 am – 3 pm	16%
Thursday	9 am – 11 am	17%
Friday	10 am – 11 am, around 2 pm	13%
Saturday	10 am	5%
Sunday	9 am – 3 pm	4%

Ensure to schedule your emails ahead of time to avoid confusion. You might also want to test your email campaigns to figure out the best times to send your emails according to audience preferences. Let’s show you how.

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Test and Measure Your Email Campaigns to Find the Best Times to Send

While you can use email metrics to measure your email campaign success, the most prominent factor is your brand goal.

Your brand goal will tell you which email metric to focus on. For example, if you are sending a product promotion email, you would want to measure the number of click-throughs to understand your audience’s interests. 

The best way to know when to send your emails is to test them — send emails at different times and record them. Then, analyze the data to understand what works best for your brand and audience.

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General Trends in Email Timing

Understanding trends in email timing can help you unlock higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. Let’s look at the popular trends that will shape optimal timings for your email campaigns. 

Historical Data Analysis

A study used regression and classification models to determine the email open rates based on the time sent. It was found that 43% of email opens occur between 6 am to 12 pm. Past midnight, the email open rates decreased, with 90% of emails being ignored by the recipients.

However, another experiment shows that most subscribers opened emails at 10 – 11 am, 6-7 am, and 6-11 pm. This recipient behavior shows that most emails are opened as soon as they receive them or one hour later. It’s also more effective to segment your audience based on recency, frequency, and monetary value. 

Marketers often turn to past data analysis to define the best times to send emails. The data provides email timing patterns and customer behavior trends. 

Peak Email Engagement Times

Consistently, the peak email engagement times have been 9 am – 12 pm and 12 pm – 3 pm. 

For certain B2C brands, weekends may see more engagement compared to mid-week emails. It depends on your audience segment and when they are the most receptive to emails.

Time-Zone Considerations

Your audience’s time zone plays a vital role in determining your email timings. While it’s difficult to schedule emails according to every subscriber’s timezone, calculate the highest percentage of subscribers in a region and schedule your emails to their local time.

To do this, enter a value in the IP Timezone property when you schedule your emails. 

Since it takes time to set up the email process for all time zones, you must schedule them a full day in advance.

Your ESP usually provides options to schedule email timings. With Campaign Refinery you can schedule your email campaigns just the way you want. The point is to use dedicated email software to automate your scheduling times according to your subscribers’ time zones.

Tools and Analytics for Email Timing

While you can always A/B test your email campaigns, we recommend using an email service platform to allocate email dates and times for different email campaigns. 

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Best Practices for Email Timing in 2024

Your email timing also depends on the general email best practices. Cause when you follow email etiquette, it solidifies your email marketing agenda, including the timing. 

Maintaining your email timing schedule comes down to following these email best practices alongside using reputable email automation software.

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Schedule Your Email Marketing Campaigns With Campaign Refinery 

Timing decides the success rate of your email marketing campaigns, but it’s not the only factor to focus on. Your email deliverability rate, sender reputation, and engagement metrics are more important to determine your email marketing ROI.

We understand this, and that’s why we built pivotal tools to help you succeed. You can use our automatic email list cleaning feature to maintain a healthy email list. This translates to high deliverability rates and better sender reputation.

We are laser-focused on elevating your email deliverability rate to ensure your email campaigns reach the right audience at the right time. And to boost engagement, you can use our unique gamification feature and flash sales. 

Flash sales allow you to offer the perfect offer accompanied by scarcity to boost your email engagement rate. You can also integrate a third-party countdown timer to emphasize urgency. The good news is we are building a native countdown timer that will help you build evergreen countdown offers for your email campaigns. 

Look at our user reviews to understand what we can do for you.