What’s the best time of day to send your marketing emails?

Does it matter what time of day you send your emails?

And what about days of the week—are some better than others?

I have 2 answers for this.

One is the tried and true response of all consultants:

“It depends.”

And truthfully it does.

Different markets have very different habits and patterns.

For example, if most of your customers are gum-snapping teenie boppers, you might get better open rates if your emails hit late in the day after school gets out.

But if your list is packed with white collar desk jockeys, you might find them most responsive in the mid-morning, after they’ve had a chance to settle in at work and put out whatever fires erupted in their inboxes overnight.

Same thing goes for days of the week.

I’ve found that programmers are most likely to open emails during the week, when they’re chained to their desks and stuck trying to track down some infuriating crash that only happens every 17th time the user clicks on the Submit button. Bored, frustrated people like distractions.

Other markets, like busy executives, spend all week just trying to keep their head above water. They use the weekends to catch their breath and catch up on their email.

So that’s my first answer: Look at your market’s habits and test, test, test.

But you have to have somewhere to start with your testing, right?

That’s where my “gun to the head” answer comes in.

If you put a gun to my head, I’d want to send my emails Tuesday through Thursday, after 10 a.m. Eastern time.

Monday is bad because people are slogging through a backlog of emails and crises from the weekend.

Friday—well, everyone is looking forward to the weekend.

And I’d shoot for later in the morning, when people are a little more awake and less distracted.

There are no hard-and-fast rules here, but this is a good starting point.

From there, get to know your market. Keep an eye on your open rates.

And most important—watch what makes you the most sales.

Cuz that’s really the point, isn’t it?