There’s no guaranteed secret to sending a perfect email, but an added benefit comes on the timing side. If an email goes out at a bad time even if executed flawlessly the chances for good engagement will be incredibly low. Understanding when people are more prone to open, read, and respond to messages increases open rates and increased sales. While there may never be a universal “best” time to send for every industry and audience, email timing tests can give a generalized better time for a specified audience.
After the results are in, companies can determine what groups were the most likely to open or interact with the email sent at a certain time and determine a best practice from there. Additionally, measuring metrics over time can show companies when people are active so they can send in those windows to ensure their email arrives in the right place at the right time.
How Email Timing Affects Engagement Rates
The beauty of an email is that recipients have no choice but to interact with an email come the time they are reading it. People check their email at all different times throughout the day, whether they’re at work or home, on a bathroom break or sitting on their couch. Thus, an email that penetrates the inbox while people are most active, inclusive of time and engagement, will get opened and interacted with more so than an email that comes through at a busy or non-checking moment.
For example, sending emails in the morning tends to yield positive results with opened emails sent between 8 AM and 10 AM, as many users first check their emails upon waking (either in bed or right after showering) and starting their days. Sending emails around lunch works as well 12 PM to 1 PM as people take breaks and scroll on their phones. Emails sent later in the afternoon and early evening (5 PM to 7 PM) work as well, for customers who browse and shop after work hours, especially in a B2C realm.
Yet sending times are not one-size-fits-all; they must be assessed by industry. Those in a more professional realm may find morning emails more effective; those in the younger realm may find later to be more successful. Eventually, even more narrow research through testing for incremental change may be needed.
Industry Differences
Different industries have unique schedules for sending marketing emails because people’s daily routines and priorities vary depending on their jobs, lifestyles, and interests. Knowing when the target audience is most likely to check emails can make or break a campaign. Here’s a deeper look at how timing differs across industries, with examples and explanations based on audience habits.
Healthcare Industry
Healthcare workers—like doctors, nurses, or hospital staff—often have long, unpredictable shifts. A nurse working a 12-hour night shift might not check emails at 10 AM like an office worker would. Instead, they’re either sleeping or just finishing up. Studies and email experiments show that early mornings (5 AM to 7 AM) can work well because some healthcare pros check their phones before heading to bed after a shift. Late evenings (8 PM to 11 PM) also hit a sweet spot, catching day-shift workers winding down or night-shift folks just waking up. For example, a company selling medical supplies might send an email at 6 AM to reach a surgeon before their day starts or at 9 PM for a nurse off a late shift. The trick is targeting those off-hours when they’re free, not mid-shift when they’re busy with patients.
Retail Industry
Retail customers—regular people shopping for clothes, gadgets, or home goods—tend to browse emails when they’re relaxing, not working. Data from email platforms like Mailchimp shows evenings (6 PM to 9 PM) perform well because people are home, scrolling on their phones or laptops after dinner. Weekends, especially Saturday mornings (9 AM to 11 AM) or Sunday afternoons (1 PM to 4 PM), also see higher engagement. This is when folks have downtime to shop online or plan purchases. For instance, a clothing brand might send a “weekend sale” email on Friday at 7 PM to catch people planning to browse, while a home goods store could hit Sunday at 2 PM when customers are thinking about house projects. Timing here aligns with leisure, not work schedules.
Fitness Industry
Fitness brands often target busy professionals or health enthusiasts, and their email timing reflects that. Early mornings (6 AM to 8 AM) are a goldmine because many gym-goers check workout tips or sign up for classes before heading out. A fitness app might send a “start your day with this workout” email at 6:30 AM to catch someone before their morning run. Midday (11 AM to 1 PM) can also work for office workers sneaking a peek during lunch, especially if the email promotes a quick gym session. Evening slots (5 PM to 7 PM) appeal to people heading to the gym after work. For example, a protein shake company might test 7 AM versus 6 PM to see if their audience prefers pre- or post-workout offers. The focus is on syncing with exercise routines.
Travel Industry
Travel agencies or booking sites target dreamers and planners, so their timing leans toward when people think about vacations. Weekends are prime—Saturday or Sunday from 10 AM to 3 PM—because that’s when folks research trips or book flights. A study by Campaign Monitor found travel emails sent on Saturdays had higher click rates, likely because people have time to browse deals. Weekday evenings (7 PM to 9 PM) also do well, catching those daydreaming after work. For example, a cruise line might send a “last-minute deal” email on Friday at 8 PM to spark weekend bookings, while a hotel chain could hit Sunday at 11 AM when families plan summer getaways. The goal is to reach people when they’re in a planning mood, not rushed.
B2B (Business-to-Business) Industry
Companies selling to other businesses—like software or office supplies—stick closer to work hours. Tuesday through Thursday from 9 AM to 11 AM works best because decision-makers (managers, executives) are at their desks, clearing inboxes before meetings pile up. Afternoons (1 PM to 3 PM) can also hit a lull when people check emails between tasks. Mondays are risky—too much chaos after the weekend—and Fridays taper off as people mentally check out. For instance, a SaaS company might send a demo invite on Wednesday at 10 AM to catch a CEO during a quiet moment. Timing here is about work rhythms, not personal downtime.
Education Industry
For schools, tutoring services, or online courses, the audience splits between students and parents. Students might check emails in the late afternoon (3 PM to 5 PM) after classes or late at night (9 PM to 11 PM) while studying. Parents, though, are more like retail customers—evenings (6 PM to 8 PM) or weekends (Saturday 10 AM to 12 PM). An e-learning platform could send a “new course alert” to students on Thursday at 4 PM when they’re done with school, or to parents on Saturday at 11 AM when they’re planning kids’ activities. The difference comes down to who’s the decision-maker and when they’re free.
Why It’s Different
Each industry’s audience has a unique rhythm. Healthcare workers are tied to shift schedules, retail shoppers to relaxation, fitness buffs to workout times, travelers to planning windows, businesses to office hours, and education to learning cycles. Experiments prove this—open rates and clicks shift when emails match those habits. A retail email at 2 PM on a Tuesday might flop, while the same email at 7 PM soars. A B2B email at 8 PM might get ignored, but at 10 AM, it’s gold.
How to Nail It
Start with industry norms—like mornings for fitness or weekends for travel—then test specific times. Use A/B testing: send half the list an email at 7 AM, the other half at 6 PM, and see what sticks. Check open rates (who saw it), click rates (who acted), and even sales tied to the email. Audience surveys can help too—ask when they prefer to hear from the business. Over time, the data shows what works for that exact group.
Why Timing Matters
Sending emails at the right time means they’re more likely to be seen and opened. If they land in an inbox when someone’s too busy or not checking, they get buried. Experiments show that even a few hours difference can change how many people open or click through. For example, a study of over a billion emails found that Tuesday at 10 AM had high open rates, while Thursday at 5 PM got more clicks—people actually interacting with the email.
The Impact of Time Zones on Email Deliverability
Companies with a nationwide or worldwide scope need to consider time zones, too. When it’s 9 AM to send an email for one group of recipients, another group, on the other side of the country or in a different part of the world, finds it sent too early in the morning or too late in the day for any significance to be made.
This is why geographically segmenting an email list allows such businesses to ensure that when they send an email blast, it’s at the best time for this portion of the audience and not for them. Certain features within most email marketing systems allow companies to send at recipient local time; therefore, no one group of the audience loses out.
Furthermore, testing various time slots across various time zones can ultimately pinpoint which groups respond best at what times. Analytics can help guide businesses to decide for future correspondence when to best reach each group.
Weekdays vs. Weekends: Which Drives Better Results?
Is it better to email on weekdays or weekends? It depends on your audience. For example, B2B campaigns are best sent during the week since people check their work email related to work. The best days to send B2B emails are thus Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Monday is spent trying to catch up from the weekend, and Friday has people logging off early to avoid weekend plans. B2C brands can send emails any day; however, weekends tend to provide some decent success if the email relates to weekend activities, shopping intentions, or entertainment, as people have more leisure time on weekends, too, to read. Warmy.io can help optimize your email timing and deliverability strategy by ensuring your emails land in the inbox when your audience is most likely to engage.
However, testing should show whether or not your subscribers prefer weekend or weekday emails. Some brands report much better conversions on weekend outreach, while other brands find that weekday emails are much better and leagues ahead. The best practice is to A/B test and assess what’s better and create a calendar from there.
A/B Testing to Determine the Best Sending Time
One of the greatest ways to determine the best time to send emails is through A/B testing, so companies no longer need to guess but instead rely on hard data. A/B testing means that the same email is sent to different sections of your audience at different times. For example, if one goes out at 9 AM and one goes out at 3 PM, the marketer can see which one did better, what the open rate was, and if conversions happened more at one time than the next.
For example, if the 9 AM click-throughs were greater than the ones sent later in the day, then one can assume that people are more engaged in the early mornings than in the late afternoons. However, if 3 PM engagement exceeds 9 AM, then perhaps people are more interested in opening and engaging with emails later in the day. A/B testing some days of the week can also help determine the best day to send emails. Is it better to send on Tuesday or Thursday? Do our customers engage more on Saturday because they have free time? Some companies might need to send emails during the week, while others might find success sending communications out over the weekend.
A/B testing only gets better when other elements of the email remain constant as well, such as subject lines, bodies, and CTAs. Thus, the only variable is when it is sent, and if the email goes unopened or unengaged, one cannot assume fault of the content but only that send time may not be ideal. Thus, sending this test multiple times over the course of weeks ensures that one day is not marred by a holiday where no one is engaged.
Testing and retesting give the power back to the companies. Audiences do not operate in a vacuum; they have different access at different times; back-to-school months give students different opportunities than summer Fridays. People check their email in December differently than in February based on the weather and holidays. Therefore, constantly assessing this information and changing based on information gained keeps the companies in charge of their situation, relaying relevant information to their audiences.
In addition to standard A/B testing, some more sophisticated email marketing software equips users with predictive analytics, analyzing historical behavior to find when the best times to send are. While this type of software is more advanced and likely more costly, over time, consistent experimentation provides the most custom, educated solution to sending. The ultimate goal is that every email gets sent at a time when the sender is available to read and engage with it to ensure the campaign effort comes to fruition and the email marketing campaign works.
The Role of AI and Automation in Optimizing Email Timing
With artificial intelligence and automation increasingly integrated into the business world, the timing of emails is easier to control, and therefore, the opportunity is greater. For example, where manual testing used to be required, some email marketing software now has access to AI-based algorithms that analyze subscriber behavior and determine when a unique email should be sent to a specific person.
For instance, with predictive analytics, a marketer can determine a future send time based on past engagement, eliminating the manual testing step. When someone opens every email from a specific company sent at 6 PM on Fridays, that company will learn to send emails at that time in the future.
In addition, automation sequences allow companies to have better integrity of timing across the board. For example, with drip campaigns, a marketer can ensure that the person who opened the first email at 6 PM on Fridays will have the next email sent at the same time for uniformity.
How Seasonal Trends Influence the Best Time to Send Emails
Email timing strategies must remain static seasonally as engagement trends occur at certain times of the year. People work on certain days, take vacations during specific times, and shop during certain holidays meaning when someone is more inclined to open an email and convert at a particular time of year, a business must do so to understand what’s happening in the world. By addressing these seasonal adjustments, email open rates become exponentially more purposeful and achievable marketing efforts.
For instance, engagement increases during the winter holiday season. People look for gifts, seek presents, and look for discounts or sales for the inevitable holiday ahead but there are specific peaks within specific dates. For instance, businesses need to send their Black Friday or Cyber Monday emails overnight so early risers on the actual day can access and use them; yet at the same time, emails associated with December 15th to get gifts delivered by Christmas should be sent early in December so people know the cutoff dates.
Yet where certain months may be more successful for engagement, other seasonal considerations work against engagement. Summer is a slower time for many. In regions where people tend to vacation or be outside more, it makes sense to adjust sending times based on what’s typically a modified schedule for more out-of-home activities. Instead of early morning engagements, maybe mid-morning or early evening is better to provide access to emails during leisure times. But for travel and leisure/entertainment industries, summer engagement might be higher and require a more engaged sending situation to build demand.
Another significant time to consider is back to school. Any brand aligned with children, parents, or teachers should blend this with the earlier findings for parents who return kids to school, and engagement increases for any product/service needs for back-to-school. Late summer and early fall see engagement increases for school supplies, technology, and tutoring services. For this seasonal blending of engagement, industries should use late summer and September as the best time for outreach with the highest successful sending times based on earlier engagement findings.
Therefore, since campaigns and subsequent email timing can change year after year based on performance, this awareness is cumulative. Tracking year after year and analyzing engagement data from prior seasons and years allows companies to more accurately follow how consumers in real-time dictate when the best time to send an email is. The people in the game can compare open rates, click rates, and conversions for summer versus winter and if spring has the lowest all around email timing strategies can more appropriately adjust for the other three seasons.
Conclusion
Determining the best day and time to send a marketing email comes down to testing, tweaking, and responding. There are some general trends sending during the weekdays in the morning potentially with time zone adjustments if applicable but since audience activity is all over the map, the more A/B tests and automation, and consideration for seasonal activity are sent, the better one is bound to pinpoint specific sending times.
Of course, the more a brand analyzes its findings and changes something, the more likely they will be able to reach their audiences when it’s best for them to get a particular message. Increased engagement will come naturally from this process, leading to excellent conversions and positive email marketing.
