Best Time to Send Out Your E-News -- An Aha Moment

This is in the "why didn't I think of that" category, and I had to share it with you pronto.

Like me, you've probably heard 10 or more definitive takes on the best time to get e-mail readers (of your alerts, e-news, online fundraising, surveys....) to open and digest your missives.

For the bi-monthly Getting Attention e-news (subscribe here), I've always had success in late morning sends to make it easy for readers from coast to coast. I send the e-news out on Tuesday or Wednesday, figuring those are the days when 1)there's time on either side; 2)no Friday pressure to get stuff done before the week's over, and none of Monday's to push through an overflowing in-box; and 3) (I hope) the desire for something different than the work readers have been doing week to date.

How about this for a brainstorm? Look at when folks subscribe to your email list for the best time to reach them. Hat's off to the folks at Marketing Sherpa for researching this phenomenon (in a more specific context of how to get the most opt-ins in response to your e-news confirmation email).

Better yet, extrapolate this to figure out when is the best time for an e-campaign for online donations to a specific campaigns, post new blog entries and so on. Those are the times your people are doing what you want them to do. Make it easy for them to do it. Meet them on their time.

Aha.

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Comments

[Ruth Patton]

Love it! But tracking subscription times/days data sounds anything but easy, unless you're talking giving it the eyeball test. Do you have a great suggestion for efficiently & accurately finding trends?