Jun
28
howard | 
06 28th, 2007| 
Jun
20
Jun
13
-
good article on the way digital is changing the landscape. OK, so it’s not exactly new thinking, but it’s a good read and it makes it’s point well.
Jun
4
Email marketing, as with other elements of digital, is often regarded as a dark art by those who don’t do it on a regular basis. One of the main things that people often think of as being a great mystery is the notion of "when should I send my emails for maximum effect?"
Whilst there isn’t, in my opinion, a hard and fast rule as to what works best, there are several different camps with regards to "don’t send on a ***day…" that I have discovered over the years…
Don’t Send On A Monday
Possibly the one that most people will hear when doing an email campaign, the Don’t Send on a Monday rule is based upon the notion that when people get into work on a Monday morning, they’re not all that happy to be back in work after a nice weekend off. As such, if they come in and find their inbox stuffed full of emails trying to sell them something, they’re likely to just delete them all in an attempt to clear them out and get down to work as quickly as possible so that they can get out the door as quickly as possible at the end of the day.
…or a Friday
The same people who will often tell you not to send on a Monday will almost always tell you not to send on a Friday either, for very similar reasons. The logic goes that as it’s Friday, and people are a few hours away from binge drinking and the other things people like to do nowadays at the weekend, they will simply skip over or delete your emails as they arrive in an attempt to just clear out their inbox and jump out of the door onto their scooters and drive home, so a Friday is just as useless as a Monday.
Tuesdays is out
Tuesday is a no go day for a lot of email marketers because it is the day after Monday. Yes, it’s better than Monday, but it’s still really close to the start of the week, and as such should be taken in the same way as it’s predecesor. Whilst you may be tempted to send on this day, don’t, as you’ll only be disappointed.
Wednesday - limbo day!
Wednesday is sometimes seen as a brilliant day to send emails to your list. It’s smack bang in the middle of the week, and the most likely day for people to feel all chilled out and happy. 50% from Monday, 50% from Friday. Perfect? Well, depends who you speak to. Some say that Wednesday is the day that people start to think about the weekend and make plans again, and so it’s really one of the worst days for them to receive spam because they’re too busy looking up 4* breaks on last minute. Wednesday is a day where people are too busy, so forget about it.
Thursday
The perfect day? Well, if the amount of marketing emails I get on a Thursday is anything to go by, then as far as a lot of people are concerned it’s the perfect day for you to let the monkeys loose. This week alone I got emails from Apple, Boo.com, White Company, Expedia, several digital marketing sites I subscribe to, and others, far more than on any other day of the week. Most of these arrived in the evening as well, telling me that as I am in London, that’s when the yanks are waking up and think they should send them out so the workers can get them in their inbox as they trundle into the office. To be honest, I don’t know anyone who says Thursday is a bad day - but for me, if you want to get stand out from a sea of other emails that your seed list could end up receiving, I’d steer clear of Thursday because everyone else is sending their emails on the same day.
Saturday and Sunday
Oh come on. Do I even have to spell this out? Everyone is drunk! Either that or having a BBQ, at the beach, shopping or having sex. They’re not going to open your emails. Forget about it.
Ok, so basically what I am saying is that I have heard a lot of different reasons as to why this day or that day is the best. But, in reality, I’ve only ever seen solid evidence for this on a case-by-case basis and it can change from month to month. For your own campaign, you should pick an arbitrary day of the week to start sendning on, and then track the data you get back from your email service provider to see if it works. Then, next time you’re due to send, pick the next day of the week and compare the data. Do this several times to get a good feeling for it and then come to your own conclusion as to what works best for your audience.
Howard
–
Jun
1
-
Brent Schlender completely misses the point of the Apple TV and goes on and on about it. Brent - try really using and living with it for a while and then come back. Dud? No way - works like a charm.
