Am I the only one who spent 8 months sending follow up emails at the wrong time?

I was sending all my B2B follow ups at 9 AM like everybody says, but nobody ever replied. Last week a client told me she deleted everything before noon because she's swamped with morning meetings. Has anyone else tested specific send times and seen actual results from it?

3 comments

3 Comments

sagesingh4d ago

Used to think timing was overblown too. I figured if your subject line and content were solid, it didn't matter when you hit send. But then I ran a test on two different lists with the exact same email, just sent at different times. The one going out around 10:30 AM got almost double the opens and triple the replies compared to the 9 AM batch. Turns out people are either in meetings or still waking up at 9, but by 10:30 they're settled in and actually looking at their inbox. So yeah, I completely changed my mind on this one. It's not just about what you say anymore, it's when they see it.

schmidt.amy4d ago

@sagesingh nailed it with that test. I've seen similar patterns with my own email lists where 10:30 to 11:00 AM consistently outperforms earlier time slots. Afternoon sends around 2 PM can also work well since people check their inbox after lunch again.

jason_robinson4d agoMost Upvoted

That 10:30 slot is interesting but what about B2B vs B2C? I run a small ecommerce store and my best times are totally different, usually around 7 PM when people are winding down and actually scrolling their personal inbox. I've tested morning sends and they absolutely tank for us, like way below average open rates. Have you found that the optimal time changes a lot depending on if you're selling to businesses versus regular people, or do you mostly stick to one type?