• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 15, 2016

According to a new study from Yesmail, with data from almost 7 billion emails deployed in Q2 2016 to identify the best day for email sends, marketers need to consider a number of factors including industry, conversion rates, engagement metrics and more. But, says the report, determining THE day of the week for major email deployments is not as black-and-white as many marketers think.

There are numerous theories on which day of the week generates the highest email performance for marketers, says the report.  In recent years, answering this question has become the Holy Grail for many brands who are constantly looking to tweak their strategies and deliver optimal results.

Some key  Yesmail findings from Q2 2016 spanning day of the week, overall email engagement, mobile performance and purchase behavior:

• In Q2 2016, emails sent on Thursdays generated the highest email  engagement; their open rates were 14% higher than the Q2 average, their unique click rates were 41% higher, and their CTO rates were 24% above average
• In terms of conversion (the percentage of email clicks that led to purchase), Saturdays performed best, generating 60% higher than average conversion rates
• While overall open rates have remained fairly consistent over the last year, unique click rates have fallen by 18% and CTO rates – by 16% year-over-year (YoY)
• Despite the overall drop in clicks and CTO, active subscribers (those who opened/clicked within 90 days) continued to be engaged: the number of opens per opener increased by 9% YoY as the number of emails sent to active subscribers grew by 11%
• While mobile CTO has dropped YoY, the proportion of mobile clicks to desktop clicks has grown by 15% since 2015
• Similarly, email-driven revenue from mobile has jumped by 32% YoY and email-driven orders from mobile have grown by 26%

Identifying the best-performing day of the week for email deployments has been a long-standing item on many marketers’ ‘to do’ lists. And while it might be easier to say that, according to the study, Thursdays are the best day for email deployment, the reality is that the answer is a little less straight-forward.

In Q2 2016 Thursday was, indeed, the day of the week that generated highest email engagement across all standard metrics – opens, unique clicks and click-to-opens (CTO). In addition, Thursday was also the most popular day for marketers to deploy campaigns – 20% of all emails in Q2 were sent on a Thursday. An important note though, says the report, is that day of the week performance varies based on a brand’s industry.

At first glance, it seems that brands got the day of the week right; Thursdays generated a 14% higher open rate than the Q2 average, 41% higher unique click rate, and 24% higher click-to-open rate; a great performance across the board, notes the report.

At the same time, if marketers took a look at a different set of metrics, specifically conversion rate defined as the proportion of unique clicks that resulted in a purchase, the picture looks quite different.

According to this data, Thursdays had the lowest conversion rate in Q2, about 23% lower than the average, and tied for last place with Mondays. Alternatively, the data shows that consumers were most likely to purchase on Saturdays and Sundays, despite the low click and CTO rates on those days. Saturdays generated a 60% higher than average conversion rate and Sundays drove 40% higher-than-average conversions. Yet, the weekend was least popular for email deployments, with Saturdays accounting for only 11% of Q2 email volume and Sundays making up just 10%.

According to the report, Thursdays had the lowest conversion rate in Q2, about 23% lower than the average, and tied for last place with Mondays. Alternatively, the data shows that consumers were most likely to purchase on Saturdays and Sundays, despite the low click and CTO rates on those days. Saturdays generated a 60% higher than average conversion rate and Sundays drove 40% higher than average conversions. Yet, the weekend was least popular for email deployments, with Saturdays accounting for only 11% of Q2 email volume and Sundays making up just 10%. One important thing to note here is that day of the week performance varies based on a brand’s industry.

A key finding to note, says the report, is that there isn’t a consistent day of the week winner when it comes to the best day to send emails. A quarter-by-quarter review of email performance over the past two years shows that the “best day” for deployment varied, though weekends seemed to consistently deliver the highest conversion rates. 

 The study suggests there are seasonal factors affecting the best day of the week for email deployment, especially for the holidays, says the report. In Q4 2015, Thursday was the most popular email deployment day because three major holidays fell on Thursdays – Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. The year before, in Q4 2014, Wednesday happened to be the most popular deployment day as the first day of Chanukah, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve happened to be on Wednesdays. Similarly, the second most popular deployment day in Q4 for both years was Monday, likely because on Cyber Monday many marketers opt out of targeting specific customers and instead send promotions to their entire email audience.

The major takeaway here is that the best day of the week for email deployment is often influenced by external factors such as shifts in consumers’ lifestyle or habits, seasonal events, weather, or simply the fact that a study comes out declaring a “winning” day of week. Identifying the optimal emailing day is a continuous process which depends not only on brand-specific factors like business goals and purchase cycles, but also on external factors like unique seasonal events, concludes the report.

Another factor to consider when testing email deployment days is a brand’s industry.

As an industry, retailers have the most consistent mailing calendars, as email volume is spread fairly evenly throughout the week. In line with the overall Q2 trend, email engagement in terms of opens, clicks, and CTO, spiked on Thursdays while conversion rates were highest on Sundays, when consumers had plenty of time to respond to marketing messages. In this sense, retailers could benefit from our earlier recommendation to send a ‘preview’ email on Thursday and follow it up over the weekend with a CTA-focused campaign that emphasizes purchasing, says the report.

CPG is a great example of the way a brand’s industry affects the context of its campaigns and the best days for them to be deployed. For example, while Thursday email engagement rates are highest, Sundays and Mondays have particularly high conversion rates; in fact, those conversion rates are higher than those of any other industry.

One reason for this, opines the report, might be that Sunday happens to be an errand day for many consumers, a time to do grocery shopping, buy household items, do laundry, etc. Since many CPG brands fall in those ‘home shopping’ categories, it might make sense that they are purchased at considerably higher rates on Sundays. Alternatively, Mondays might generate high conversion rates for exactly the opposite reason – a segment of consumers may consider weekends a time exclusively for relaxing and avoid focusing on household tasks during those days. For those consumers, Mondays might be the time to take care of business and purchase necessities, concludes the report.

More data and the complete report may be accessed here.