There really is only one way to know. Test. We’ve been working with a number of clients conducting A/B testing and refining the best time to send their B2B campaign emails. We have determined that certain times of day can, in fact, increase the open and response rate by a few percent. I’d tell you but it’s proprietary information. Actually, your audience will differ and our audience’s best time is not going to be your audience’s best time. So where do you start?

Audiences vary. One group may respond with higher rates during certain times of day while others may respond better on certain days of the week. Consider your own point of view. When do you read marketing emails? First thing Monday morning when your upcoming week is looming? Or Thursday afternoon, after you’ve addressed the week’s crisis issues and can spend some time on industry research or product offerings?

For myself, when I’m really busy I delete marketing and industry emails with reckless abandon. Over the past year, I’ve deleted marketing emails for months only to start reading them again once I was no longer so busy. First thing Monday typically involves sweeping deletions of my inbox. Note to my co-workers: I read all of your emails whether they come in on Monday morning or the end of day Friday (with the occasional exception of your forwarded funny jokes, cat pictures, and spam).

In summary, there is no official best time for all audiences. First, you need to try to understand your audience and how they process email. After that, run some tests to help narrow down the best time to deliver marketing email to your audience. Knowing the best time to send out your emails may not be a question you can fully answer in one week or even 6 months, especially if you only send one email a month. Which is even more reason to split your list and do multiple tests for each email.