Morning Email Send Times | Consumer Device Usage in the MorningSending Early Morning E-Mails to Your Customer Base May Yield More Benefits Than Previously Thought

These days, most consumers and business professionals can’t get out of bed without checking their emails and social updates on their phone. I know I’m guilty, and now there’s even more evidence pointing towards how connectivity and checking messages has become more important than your first cup of joe.

According to a recent eMarketer report and survey by Adestra and Flagship Research, 61% of US-based internet users under 35 and over the age of 55 check email, social media, texts and or voicemail before they eat anything in the morning. 39% of which did some or all of the above before sipping on their first cup of coffee.

That says a lot, given that many noteworthy email services such as Mailchimp have disclosed data that indicates the best time to send out newsletters and eBlasts is around lunch time on a Wednesday. Of course, this varies by demographic, device and other factors. But lunchtime on Wednesday or Thursday in recent years has largely been the send time of choice.

Test Morning Email & Social Campaigns

So how can brands and marketers capitalize on this relatively “untapped” window of opportunity in the morning?

First, they can and should start A/B testing emails between the 6 a.m. – 9 a.m. hours.

When to send emails in the morning | Digital Marketing

However, you need to put yourself between the sheets of the consumer you’re looking to send an email to. I know that when I first get up in the morning, I’m not the most sprightly. That being said, I wouldn’t want to read any heavy, information packed newsletter. Instead, I’d love to see a catchy headline on a topic that interests me, mark it as unread, and then open it again and click out to the website when I arrive in the office. This is, however, a millennial perspective.

Conversely, your demographic may involve consumers or business professionals between the ages of 40-55. While I’m not saying that all millennials prefer to sleep in, I know myself and many of my friends are slow to start in the morning. 40-55 year olds on the other hand, tend to wake up a bit earlier as they may be dealing with kids, or simply have a more established morning routine. For this demographic, I’d send earlier emails (around 6 a.m.), potentially with more in-depth and value-added information as I know they’re more likely to read it and engage with it before heading into the office.

Marketers have other windows of opportunity as well. Millennials are likely to check their social feeds prior to their emails, so posting a Facebook update to your fans with morning motivation or linking out to a sale could potentially be the first thing they’ll see if you time your post right.

 

Bottom Line

This new research is encouraging for marketers as it opens up a new window of opportunity to reach their respective target audiences. It’s well worth running a couple of campaigns either through social media or via email marketing in an effort to test open rates and CTR (click-through-rates).

Remember, however, that send times should only play a small part in much larger marketing strategy. Be sure you know who your audience is and what type of content they prefer to engage with. Slowly escort them down the sales funnel with a welcome email, expectation email and then more content rich emails. Once you’ve established better brand equity, begin to play around with your send times and consider A/B testing earlier sends.

Greig Santos-Buch is the Digital Services Strategist at bfw Advertising+Interactive in Boca Raton, Florida. bfw is a tight knit collection of writers, artists, designers, technologists and thinkers who share a common passion for doing great work that makes things happen.  For more information call (561) 962-3300 or visit www.gobfw.com.