Email Marketing - Determining the Best Time and Day to Send Your Emails

By now, we've covered quite a bit of information about Email Marketing - How to Grow Your List, How to Get Your Emails Opened, Creating Valuable and Relevant Content, How to Get Your Readers to Forward Your Emails, and How Often to Send Your Emails. Now we're on to Determining the Best Time and Day to Send your Emails. I can’t really give you a definitive day and time that is best for your Email campaign. I can tell you how to get the best results for your campaigns.

Below are the pros and cons of sending Emails for each day of the week:

Monday
Pro: Office work has not filled inboxes yet
Con: Consumers are in “work mode” and won’t be focused on non-work tasks
Best Practice: Send emails late Monday morning, after consumers have cleaned the weekend spam from their inboxes

Tuesday
Pro: People have organized their week, and can find personal time for emails
Con: Emails poised for a weekend response may be too early
Best Practice: Use Tuesday for emails that request action during the workweek

Wednesday/Thursday
Pro: Consumers are planning their weekends and gearing up for personal time
Con: Time during the workweek is running short, and requested action may be pushed back to the following week, or even forgotten about
Best Practice: Focus leisure and weekend notifications during these key weekend planning days

Friday
Pro: Studies indicate fewer total emails sent compared to the rest of the week, increasing visibility among the myriad of other messages
Con: Consumers hurry to leave the office early, and may not take time to view non-work related emails
Best Practice: Send emails early in the day to give consumers more time to take action. An unopened email from Friday will sort to the bottom of an inbox on Monday, and is often discarded

Weekends
Pro: People check emails on weekends, too, so weekends may have untapped potential
Con: A weekend email may seem overly-intrusive to some people
Best Practice: If possible, try to avoid Sundays and focus on Saturdays, which may have a better response rate
Source: 60secondmarketer.com

Test and Test Again

• Before sending out a mass Email, set up 2 or 3 test groups - one for each different day that you are considering sending Emails.
• Send your email to each test group at three different times throughout the day.
• Monitor your success rate by tracking how many actions were made – clicks, forwards, purchases, etc …
• Thoroughly evaluate your test groups with each Email campaign.
• Send your mass Email campaign on the day and time that you achieved the best results.
• Test and test again with each Email campaign to refine your Email Marketing program and make sure your marketing dollars are well spent.

Email Marketing - Determining How Often to Send Your Email Campaign

The last thing you want is for your readers to get annoyed with you because you're sending them too many Emails. No one likes to see their inbox full, right? The key to determining how often you should be sending your Email campaigns is to first create a Marketing Communications calendar.

Determining How Often to Send Your Emails

Create a Marketing Communications Calendar
First, you will need a printed calendar that has each month on its own page and squares large enough to write in. Gather a highlighter marker, pen and pencil, and sticky notes.

1. Lay the calendar out on a flat work surface. This works best if you lay out the pages in a straight line, showing the entire year, in a single view.
2. Use the highlighter to mark the times of year that are generally slow or challenging for your business. For example: When is it hard to close deals or generate leads? Start your highlights about two weeks before the slow times start. This creates a visual clue to remind you of when to focus your marketing efforts.
3. Now use the pen to write down events during the year that you know will not change – regardless of what happened in your work or personal life. For example: If you always have a 4th of July sale, mark it on the calendar. Also, circle the holidays, since they are a given for you, your customers, and prospects.
4. Use the pencil to write in possible times you might want to do a customer survey. A best practice is to survey your customers at least twice a year and shortly after special events. While you can always change it, you’ve committed to following up with your customers, and gathering their feedback.
5. Write down your ideas for content on sticky notes and put them on the calendar where they make sense throughout the year. This is the flexible part of your plan. If something happens in your business and you need to change the content of your email, you can simply move the sticky note to another part of the calendar and keep going.
6. Put the calendar in a folder and keep it an arm’s length from your desk or chair. As you think of ideas for content over time, write them on a sticky note and add them to the calendar.
   Source: http://www.constantcontact.com/

Coordinate the timing of your campaigns for maximum impact.

1. Send your Emails or E-Newsletters at least two days before a major event or promotion. Give your readers enough time to prepare.
2. Consider sending information about your event or promotion at least a month in advance if your reader needs to arrange travel or meetings. Follow-up with reminders in subsequent Emails or E-Newsletters.
3. Include the frequency of your E-Newsletters, such as monthly or quarterly, in your online sign-up so recipients know how often to expect Emails from you.

We’ll close our series on Email Marketing next week as I discuss best times to send Emails.

Email Marketing - How to Get People to Forward Your Lists

A great way to grow your customer base is to encourage your loyal following to forward your Email or E-Newsletters to their friends.

Get People to Forward Your Email or E-Newsletter

Forward to a Friend

• Use the “Forward to a Friend” feature of your Email Marketing software. When people click on this link, it’s traceable. You can see which recipient opened your Email and how many people they forwarded it to. You can’t see who they forwarded it to, however, because of anti-SPAM laws. But this information is valuable nonetheless.
• If your readers just use the regular Forward button of their Email system, you won’t see if they forwarded your Email and to how many people.
• Put your request in a text link rather than a graphic or button. 35% of Email recipients don’t see pictures in their Emails and will miss your request.

Where to Ask

• Place your request within the body of the Email or E-Newsletter.
• Ask to "Forward to a Friend" at the top and towards the bottom of your Email or E-Newsletter.
• If your Email or E-Newsletter is long, insert the request before the scroll line to increase the chances of your reader seeing it.

How Many is Too Many?

• Ask specifically to send to 1, 2, or 3 people. People will typically send to more than that.
• Don’t ask for 5 or more – your reader will likely not forward it at all.
• It’s reverse psychology, I guess!

Next week, I’ll show you how to create a Marketing Communications Calendar and how you can use it to schedule your Email Marketing campaigns. This is fun stuff!

Email Marketing - Creating Valuable and Relevant Content

In the last two weeks we talked about growing your Email Marketing list and how to get your Emails opened. Let’s say your recipient has opened your Email or E-Newsletter. Success! Now what? Well, you don’t want him or her deleting your Email or unsubscribing to your E-Newsletter, that’s for sure. Keep your target audience happy and wanting more by providing valuable and relevant information that he or she can’t get anywhere else.

Create Valuable and Relevant Content

Be a resource

• You want people to save your Emails or E-Newsletters so they can refer to them time and time again when the need arises.
• Provide information that is not available on your website so your E-Newsletters are more valuable to your target audience.
• Share your knowledge on a particular topic that your customers may not already know about.
• Share information that you have access to that your customers don’t.
• Make sure your topics are relevant to your target audience. It can be related to seasons, holidays, financial or economic factors, etc . . .
• Keep your articles short with a “Click here to learn more” which can take them to your blog.

Shorten the decision cycle for your customers

• Recommend a best option or highlight a special promotion.
• When you give several options for a product purchase, your recipient won’t be able to decide right away and put it off until later . . . or never.

Preferred Customer Program Rewards

• Include a coupon as a “thank you” for being a loyal customer.
• It can be a discount or dollar value off a product or service or admission fee to a special event that you are hosting.
• Make sure it truly is a special “thank you.” Don’t offer the same discount on your website to any casual visitor.

Check back next week when I share some tips on how to get people to forward your Email or E-Newsletter.

Email Marketing - How to Get Your Emails Opened

Last week we discussed how you can grow your Email Marketing list. Now, we must talk about getting your Emails opened. If you’re like me, your inbox is probably full of Emails. What’s the first thing you do? Most likely, you scan your unopened Emails for urgent matters and leave less important Emails unopened until you have more time later. Then, you do a quick review of Emails from addresses that you don’t recognize with subject lines that scream SPAM and delete them right away. So how do you prevent your recipients from deeming your Emails SPAM?

How to Get Your Emails Opened

The From Line

• It’s important for your Email address to represent you and your business in a professional manner. If you’re using an Email Marketing software like iContact or Constant Contact, you can determine what your recipients see in the From line. For instance, you can say “Arni from Adams & Adams Enterprises, Inc.” The shorter your Email address the better.


• Be consistent. If you’re using an Email Marketing software, you have the ability to change the From line depending on the lists you’re sending to. Just remember what From address you’re using and for what recipient list.

Subject Line

• Keep it short and simple. You have 3 seconds or less to capture your audience’s attention. Keep it to 30-40 characters, including spaces.
  
• Capitalize and punctuate appropriately. It’s OK to capitalize some words to grab your readers attention, like “ACTION REQUIRED” or “PLEASE RESPOND.” If you capitalize everything, it will look like you’re yelling.

2-2-2 Principle

• You have 2 seconds, with the first 2 words, to tell your reader why your Email/E-Newsletter matters today.


• Is it urgent, time sensitive, important, or relevant?


• Make sure your subject line appropriately describes the content of the Email/E-Newsletter and why it needs to be opened today.
  

Join me next week as I talk about creating valuable and relevant content for your target audience.