Stemming from a previous post on 10 Cool Things I Learned About Twitter, today I wanted to talk about my learnings on e-mail marketing. I can’t give enough praise to Hubspot’s seminar on the Science of Timing. I thoroughly enjoyed all of it. Here’s what I learned:
- Most people report reading email in the morning and afternoon.
- E-mail abuse reports peak on weekends, and are lower during the work week. In respect to time, abuse reports peak in the early morning hours (apparently we have less patience for spam in the mornings), and are at their lowest at 3-4pm.
- E-mail click-through-rates peak on Saturdays and Sundays, likely due to reduced e-mail competition/volumes.. So don’t be afraid to send out your e-newsletters and e-mails on weekends.
- E-mails are most commonly opened in the early morning hours (5-8am), which corresponds directly with abuse reports. In terms of clicks, early morning e-mail gets the most play as well – during the same timeframe. Afternoon e-mails (3-4pm) get the least amount of notice.
- Generally, there isn’t a significant difference in click-through-rates based on the frequency of e-mails you send per month. However, the e-mail campaigns that get the most attention are in the 1-3 per month range.
- When it comes to subscribers, don’t be afraid of sending them too many e-mails. Unsubscribe rates actually go down the more e-mail you send, however make sure you’re sending good content.
- Unsubscribe rates are highest within the first week of subscription. The longer the subscriber is on the books the least likely they are to unsubscribe.
- Subscribers are much more likely to click through your emails early on in their subscription. The longer they are on the books the less interested in your e-mail they become. What does this mean? Consider sending your best e-newsletters to new subscribers.
