Did you know that currently more than 330 billion emails are sent daily worldwide? With these figures, finding the best time to send email marketing becomes essential if you want to stand out among so much saturation.

The statistics don’t lie. Emails sent at 8:00 a.m. achieve an open rate of 20.32%, while those scheduled for 4:00 p.m. generate the highest number of purchases. Therefore, choosing the right time can be the difference between a successful campaign and one that goes completely unnoticed.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are positioned as the days with the best opening rates, although remember that each audience has its own habits. In terms of schedules, the best times to send newsletters tend to be between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., especially on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

We recommend avoiding Mondays and Fridays, as these days have significantly lower open and click-through rates. It is also best not to schedule mailings before 10 a.m. or after 2 p.m., as the results tend to be less favorable.

In this article you will learn when to schedule your campaigns to maximize their effectiveness, discover the differences between B2B and B2C email marketing, and learn how to adapt your strategies according to your target market in different regions.

Why does the sending time matter in email marketing?

Choosing the right moment to send your email marketing campaigns is not a minor detail. The timing of this communication channel represents a strategic factor that can determine the success or failure of your digital marketing efforts.

Impact on open and click-through rates

Sending an email at the right time can make the difference between capturing the recipient’s attention or your message going completely unnoticed. According to a study conducted by HubSpot, there is indeed a “perfect time” to send emails and maximize their impact.

The data reveal clear patterns of behavior that you should be aware of:

• Emails sent at 10:00 a.m. lead in open rates, a time when users, after attending to urgent tasks, review lower priority messages.
• 8:00 a.m. presents another important peak, coinciding with the start of the working day.
• The post-lunch period (1:00 p.m.) shows a significant spike in interactions
• Towards the end of the day (5:00 p.m.), many users check their inboxes again.

In terms of days, emails sent on Tuesdays have a 17% higher open rate than those sent on Sundays. This suggests that the start of the work week offers exceptional opportunities to capture attention, while Monday is usually saturated with messages accumulated over the weekend.

Remember that these patterns reflect established email consumption habits. An Adobe study reveals that people spend approximately 5.4 hours a day reading email (3.3 hours for work and 2.1 hours for personal emails), which explains why certain times of the day are more effective.

In addition, the Deloitte mobile consumer survey shows that 40% of consumers check their phones up to 5 minutes after waking up, 30% check their phones 5 minutes before going to sleep, and 50% even check their phones in the wee hours of the morning. This data confirms that, although there are optimal time slots, email consumption is more fluid and constant than we might imagine.

Relationship between visibility and conversions

The position of your message in the inbox has a direct impact on its effectiveness. If you send an email just before a recipient consults their inbox, your message will be placed higher, will be more visible and will be more likely to generate interaction.

This visibility translates into concrete results that directly affect your marketing objectives:

When your email arrives at the right time, you get:

• Improve open rates: Open rates are the foundation of email marketing. An email that is well positioned in the inbox is more likely to be seen and opened.
• Increase click-through rates: Even if all your contacts open your email, you won’t get an adequate return if no one clicks through. Sending at inappropriate times, such as during peak business hours, means that your audience will not have time to read or interact with your content.
• Increase conversions: The ultimate goal is to convert readers into leads or close sales. This process requires time to complete forms or browse products, so sending when recipients have that time is crucial.

We recommend that you understand that optimizing your email marketing delivery schedule is an ongoing process that requires data analysis and a clear understanding of your audience’s behavior. By implementing the right strategies and using the right tools, you can significantly improve the effectiveness of your campaigns, increasing engagement, conversions and, ultimately, ROI.

It is important to note that, although there are general trends, each audience segment has particular behaviors. An email intended for B2B will probably not perform well if sent on a Friday afternoon, while content related to entertainment or promotions might work perfectly well at that time.

Therefore, timing in email marketing not only influences immediate visibility, but also determines the entire value chain: from the initial open to the final conversion that generates revenue for your business.

Best days and hours to send email campaigns

By analyzing email open behavior you will discover clear patterns that can boost your results. Strategically choosing when to schedule your campaigns will not only increase your open rates, but also improve your final conversions.

Best days to send newsletters

Choosing the perfect day for your mailings can make a significant difference in your results. According to an analysis of more than 20 million emails sent over 10 months, emails sent on Tuesdays get 20% more opens than average.

The most effective days to schedule your newsletters are:

• Tuesday: It is positioned as the most effective day, with the highest open and conversion rates in all sectors.
• Wednesday and Thursday: Ranked second, with 18% more openings than average, maintaining a strong effectiveness.
• Monday: Although some studies point it out as a day with a high open rate (42.61%), we recommend you to avoid it because inboxes are usually saturated after the weekend.

Remember that there is a general consensus about avoiding Fridays, as people start to disconnect and focus on their weekend plans, receiving new commercial proposals less favorably.

Best times to send newsletters

The time of day to schedule your mailings is equally important. The most effective time slots are:

• 10:00 – 11:00 AM: This window leads in open rates according to multiple studies. In particular, 11:00 AM has proven to be the winning time to increase the probability of receiving responses.
• Post-lunch (13:00 – 14:00): After lunch there is another important peak in opens, when many users check their mail before diving into the afternoon’s work.
• Early hours (8:00 – 9:00 AM): Many users check their emails as soon as they wake up or while having breakfast[91].

For B2B, the most effective time slots are between 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. or between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., coinciding with the most productive times in offices.

In addition, considering the peak of mental productivity, morning mailings are often preferable in the corporate environment, while mailings sent after 17:00 may lead to lower response rates.

Common mistakes in the choice of schedules

Avoiding these mistakes can significantly improve the performance of your campaigns:

1. Sending weekends: With special exceptions, weekends tend to have the lowest open rates, with Saturday showing an average rate of just 41.17%. This time is usually dedicated to private life and is considered “sacred” for many users.
2. Schedule mailings on Mondays: Typical Monday tasks include creating the weekly schedule, so new emails are not yet in the spotlight. Plus, many inboxes are cluttered after the weekend, which decreases your chances of standing out.
3. Sending at night: Emails sent at night are unlikely to have the desired effect, since this time is usually dedicated to recreational activities and important emails may be hidden among other messages.
4. Do not segment by audience type: The ideal time window varies by industry. In some cases, it may be advantageous to send early in the morning, especially if your audience leaves the office early.
5. Ignore regional differences: When your campaign targets a global audience, it is essential to consider time differences to optimize delivery.

An effective strategy is to perform A/B testing to determine the optimal time for your specific audience. This technique allows you to experiment with different sending times and analyze their impact objectively.

Differences between B2B and B2C in shipping schedule

Understanding how email consumption habits vary between professionals and end consumers is key to the success of your campaigns. Although some basic principles apply in both cases, timing strategies work very differently in B2B and B2C environments.

B2B email marketing: best practices

In the professional environment, office hours clearly determine email opening patterns. For B2B clients, the ideal time to send emails is before 8 a.m., achieving open rates between 20% and 35%. This ensures that your message is in the recipient’s inbox when they arrive at work, just when they usually check their pending emails.

The 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. time frame also shows a significant increase in opens, probably because your recipients are still at home with fewer work distractions.

Data on the best days for B2B shipments reveals the following:

• Thursday: Positioned as the best day to positively influence open rates according to CoSchedule
• Tuesdays and Wednesdays: Both show solid opening rates according to Wordstream and Intercom studies.
• Sunday: Surprisingly, it achieves the best click-through rate (2.6%), followed by Tuesday with 2.5%.

Remember that the B2B sales cycle is notably longer than B2C, which means that you must focus your email marketing strategy on the long term. This means nurturing the relationship with potential customers through relevant content sent at strategic times.

A decisive factor is that most B2B contacts use corporate email addresses, so it is best to schedule mailings during working hours. The best results are obtained specifically between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., as well as after lunch.

B2C email marketing: best times

B2C marketing, on the other hand, offers you greater time flexibility. End consumers regularly check their mail via smartphones, which considerably widens your window of opportunity for mailings. While in B2B you are mainly limited to office hours, in B2C you can try sending during afternoons, evenings and even weekends.

In fact, according to analyses, Sunday stands out as a particularly effective day for click-through rates in B2C environments, especially for e-commerce. This is because individuals have more free time to shop online over the weekend.

Other features that differentiate B2C email marketing include:

• More impulsive decisions: Sales in B2C markets are generally lower value and more spontaneous.
• Emotional approach: In B2C you can play with the end customer’s emotions and encourage quick decisions.
• Shorter conversion cycles: Unlike B2B, where several decision-makers are involved, in B2C you generally only need to convince one person.

For best results, it is essential to adapt your strategies to each type of audience. The 8 p.m. to bedtime time slots are especially effective for end consumers, when many people check their emails after the end of the workday.

We recommend that, regardless of industry, you use A/B testing to find the most effective timing. Only through systematic testing will you be able to determine exactly what works best for your specific audience, whether B2B or B2C.

Regional factors: Chile, Colombia and other markets

When your email marketing strategy extends to different countries, the regional factor becomes a determining factor for the success of your campaigns. Differences in culture and habits between Latin American countries can significantly influence the effectiveness of your mailings. Let’s see how you can optimize your campaigns according to the target market.

Best time to send email marketing Chile

In Chile, the early morning hours are particularly effective for mass mailings. The time between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. has proven to be optimal for capturing the attention of Chilean recipients when they take short breaks from their usual work. During this period, professionals tend to check their pending mailings.

Another window of opportunity is just before lunchtime, between 13:00 and 13:30, when many users check their devices before lunch. We recommend avoiding Mondays for campaigns targeting the Chilean market, as most people are planning their week or processing emails accumulated over the weekend.

Specifically for Chile, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays show higher receptivity to commercial messages, so scheduling mailings during these days will increase the chances that your message will be read.

Best time to send email marketing Colombia

For the Colombian market, you must adapt your timing strategies to local habits. In Colombia, as in other Latin American countries, professionals tend to check their emails early in the morning. This tendency makes the 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. slot particularly effective.

On the other hand, the period from 15:00 to 16:00 also shows good results in Colombia, coinciding with a break time after lunch when many professionals check their inboxes again.

As for the best days, there is a clear preference for the middle of the week, with Wednesday being the optimal day, followed closely by Tuesday and Thursday. These patterns reflect similar work behaviors across the region, although with minor variations by country.

Adapt shipments to time zones

An often underestimated factor is the impact of time differences. For example, scheduling an email for 10:00 a.m. in Spain means it will arrive at 3:00 a.m. in Mexico, which will obviously negatively affect your open rates.

To optimize your international campaigns:

• Segment by geographic location: If your audience spans multiple countries, divide your lists according to the location of your subscribers.
• Use time zone scheduling tools: Most email marketing platforms allow you to schedule mailings according to the recipient’s local time zone.
• Schedule in ‘local time’: When you set up a campaign for 9:00 a.m., make sure it arrives at that time in each recipient’s time zone.

Remember to consider country-specific cultural variations. For example, in Spain working hours are later with long breaks at midday, while in Mexico it is common to check e-mails before starting the workday.

As a best practice, perform region-specific A/B testing, as general trends can vary considerably by industry, demographics and other market-specific factors.

How to find your best schedule through A/B testing

General statistics are useful, but the truth is that only through specific tests will you discover the perfect timing for your particular audience. A/B testing is the most accurate tool to determine the optimal timing of your email marketing campaigns.

What is an A/B test in email marketing?

An A/B test in email marketing is a strategy that consists of sending two different versions of an email to small groups of your subscriber list to determine which one works best. In the context of sending schedules, you would send the same email at different times to identify which time generates better results.

This technique allows you to objectively compare the performance of both versions and, from there, send the winning variant to the rest of your audience. The interesting thing is that A/B testing helps you make decisions based on real data and not on assumptions.

How to design an effective test

To correctly implement an A/B test of delivery times, we recommend you to follow these steps:

Step 1: Define a clear objective before starting the test, such as increasing the open rate or increasing conversions.

Step 2: Select only the time variable. Limit your tests to a single change to obtain conclusive results. If you modify multiple items, it will be impossible to determine what caused the differences in results.

Step 3: Divide your audience evenly. For reliable results, send each version to at least 100 recipients.

Step 4: Determine a suitable period for the test, such as 24 hours, to collect sufficient data before analyzing results.

Step 5: Set a criteria to select the winner, such as open rate, clicks or conversions.

Mistakes to avoid in testing

Common pitfalls to avoid when performing A/B testing include:

Stopping the test prematurely. Although it is tempting to end a test when one version shows better performance in the first few days, this can distort the results.

Conduct tests without clear hypotheses. Don’t make random changes just to see what might work. Always start from a specific assumption that you want to verify.

Ignore statistical significance. Remember that your test results are only valid if the differences between the versions are statistically significant.

Certifying a hypothesis before validating it. One of the biggest mistakes is to design A/B tests when you have already made a decision.

Using too small a sample. To obtain truly valuable results, the sample must be sufficiently significant, never less than 10% of your database.

Mistakes to avoid when scheduling your shipments

Timing is key to the success of your campaigns, but it’s not the only factor. There are several common mistakes that can ruin your email marketing efforts, even if you have chosen the perfect timing. Knowing these mistakes will help you avoid them and improve your results.

Ignoring the opening hours of the post office

Not paying attention to your audience’s habits is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Statistics show that more than 20% of emails are opened within the first hour of receipt. If you schedule your mailings when your subscribers are not checking their inbox, you will waste many opportunities.

Analyzing your own open data will allow you to identify exactly when your audience reads your messages. Remember that it is not enough to follow general recommendations; each sector and each subscriber list has unique patterns that you must discover and take advantage of.

Do not segment by audience type

Lack of segmentation drastically reduces the effectiveness of your campaigns. Did you know that segmented emails achieve click-through rates up to 100.95% higher than generic emails? Sending the same content to your entire database means losing valuable connection opportunities.

Personalization goes far beyond using the recipient’s name. To maximize results, you should segment according to:

• Specific interests
• Purchase history
• Position in the sales funnel
• Previous behavior with your emails

Messages without proper segmentation are more likely to end up marked as spam or automatically deleted. This damages your reputation as a sender in the long run.

Send during busy schedules

Scheduling mailings at times of high competition for attention is another common mistake. For example, on Monday mornings, inboxes are often overloaded with emails accumulated over the weekend, which significantly reduces your visibility.

You should also avoid falling into a total routine with your schedules. If you always send on the same day at the same time, your communications may be perceived as automatic and less authentic.

Finally, be careful with frequency. Bombarding your contacts with too many emails in short periods of time not only generates fatigue in your subscribers, but can also trigger spam filters, reducing your delivery rate.

Conclusion

Choosing the perfect time to send your email marketing campaigns is not a simple detail, but a decisive factor that can completely transform your results. Throughout this article you have discovered how Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays stand out as the most effective days, while the time slot between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. tends to offer the best open rates for most audiences.

Remember that optimal timing varies significantly depending on the context. B2B campaigns work best during business hours, especially between 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., while B2C strategies can take advantage of evening and even weekend hours. Each region presents particular behaviors that you should consider when expanding your efforts to markets such as Chile or Colombia.

A/B testing is undoubtedly your most powerful tool for discovering exactly when your specific audience is most receptive. Through these controlled experiments, you can identify unique patterns that will allow you to continually optimize your mailings.

You must avoid common mistakes such as ignoring opening habits, forgetting to segment properly or scheduling mailings at saturated times. No timing strategy will work if you don’t take care of other fundamental aspects of your campaigns.

Although choosing the right time to send an email marketing campaign is key to improving open rates, we recommend that you verify emails before sending them. This practice helps to avoid blockages, improve deliverability and protect your sending reputation.

The recommendations we’ve shared offer a solid starting point, but true success will come when you combine this knowledge with an in-depth analysis of your specific audience. General statistics will guide you, but your own data will reveal the ultimate path to truly effective email marketing campaigns.

FAQs

Q1. What is the best time of day to send marketing emails?
Studies indicate that the best times to send marketing emails are between 10:00 and 11:00 in the morning, as well as between 13:00 and 14:00. These times tend to coincide with times when people check their email during work breaks.

Q2. What days of the week are most effective for email marketing campaigns?
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays generally show the best open and engagement rates. Tuesday in particular stands out as the most effective day, with 20% more opens than average.

Q3. How do the optimal shipping schedules vary between B2B and B2C?
For B2B, the best times tend to be during the workday, especially between 8:00 and 11:00 am. For B2C, on the other hand, there is more flexibility, including evenings, nights and weekends, with Sunday showing good click-through rates.

Q4. What factors should I consider when sending emails to different regions?
It is crucial to adapt mailings to the local time zones of each region. You should also take into account country-specific cultural differences and work habits, as these can significantly affect email opening patterns.

Q5. How can I determine the best time for my specific audience?
The best way to find the optimal schedule for your audience is to A/B test. Send the same email at different times to segments of your list and analyze which one gets better results in terms of open rates, clicks and conversions.