Interesting article on times to send emails. The research included 21 million different emails and the findings are similar to what I have seen in my career.

One of the most important conclusions is that sending newsletters during readers’ top engagement times of 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. can increase their average open rates and CTR by 6%.
However, optimizing email timing takes more than awareness of top engagement times. As our research points out, it’s a combination of many factors, including knowledge of time zone differences, your subscribers’ daily routines and the practices of other marketers. Find out more for yourself:

Remember to test on your own data. I have seen different optimal open rate times between properties in the gaming industry, so test many different times and days and determine what the optimal time for your organization.

Emails have the best results within the 1st hour after delivery. This is when 23.63% of all emails are opened. But 24 hours after delivery, the average open rate is close to zero.

Almost 40% of all messages are sent between 6 a.m. and noon. This can result in inbox clutter, and significantly decrease results for these emails.

Messages sent in the early afternoon have a better chance of being noticed and consequently achieve better results: up to 10.61% open ratio and up to 2.38% CTR.

Subscribers’ top engagement times are 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.- 4 p.m. with up to 6.8% average open rates and CTR.

I like the afternoon hours. It has a high engagement rate and most emails are sent in the morning hours. The more you can stand out, without being too late to be stale, the better success your email campaigns will have.

Remember, once an email sits for 24 hours, there is hardly any chance you will get a conversion.