The Best (and Worst) Time to Send Email
Whether you’re trying to get someone to respond a third time, or sending out an important piece of potential job correspondence , when you send that important email can be just as important as what you say in it. Here’s what you need to know.
Send an email at 10:00
There is a surprising amount of research on when to send an important email. For example, in 2022, Brevo , HubSpot , and Omnisend released some data. The year before, MailerLite and Mailjet did the same. Interestingly, the optimum time changes every few years, so it’s important to be familiar with the most recent available data. What works now won’t be the same as what worked during the pandemic when we were all on our devices 24/7. Work-life balance is back, baby, and the research proves it.
But what does it all come down to? It comes down to 10 o’clock in the morning. According to most studies, this is the best time to send your note. This is a great time because your recipient is probably at work, fed up with breakfast and already typing away, fully in the zone. For this reason, morning was generally recommended in all data, so don’t feel pressured not to send before 10am if it’s urgent.
Other suitable times are 13:00 and 15:00. The trick is to catch people as they sit at their tables, preferably after standard meal times, so they are full, happy, and focused on work. Any time that is too close to breakfast or the commute, lunch, or the all-important meeting point (usually around 5:00 pm) is less helpful.
Best days to send an important letter
Yes, according to the data, some days are better than others, and you can guess which ones. Mondays are bad and we can assume that people catch up after the weekend. Fridays are also bad, which we can assume is due to the fact that people are discharged before the weekend. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday rank well, so try to send important messages in the morning.
Things to Keep in Mind
First of all, you can actually send an email whenever you want, which you know. Just be prepared to send a reply if it goes unanswered and try to schedule it for the best time. Think also about your recipient’s time zone and schedule your email to arrive at 10am (or one of the other optimal times) for them , not for you. If the email isn’t urgent, get into the habit of scheduling it to be sent at a specific time, especially if you’re writing it at non-standard times like evenings or lunchtime.
When I plan to send an email the next morning, I usually set it to around 10:02 to make it look more organic, but it’s unlikely that your recipient actually checks for a double zero at the end of the send time. If you’re not using a scheduler, make sure your “unsend” timer is set to its maximum so you can call back an email if it’s missing an attachment or has glaring spelling errors that you only notice the second it slips through through old internet tubes. .