What's the Best Time to Send Marketing Emails (and Why It Matters)

Timing Is Everything—at Least in Email Marketing

You (and your team) may have already asked the million-dollar question: What is the best time of the day to send marketing emails? A quick search online may have directed you to “email gurus” banging on about how a certain day at a specific time is the holy grail of send times.

However, the problem is that different "gurus" might be saying different things. That's because more often than not, they have different approaches and are coming from various industries.

A one-size-fits-all approach is not the best place to start. Saying Tuesdays at 10 a.m. based on mere anecdotal evidence ("I tested x emails and this is what I found out") sounds like flimsy, generic advice.

As with most things in marketing, the best place to start is data. That means looking at industry research AND diving deep into your own analytics, with an even closer look at your subscribers' behavior.

It's also important to understand that the best time to send marketing emails varies depending on your target audience, industry, and goals.

Why Timing Matters in Email Marketing

Billions of emails are flying around every day (this isn't an exaggeration—Statista reports that over 300 billion emails are sent and received daily throughout the world.)

And don't even get me started on people’s attention span. They can sometimes be too short for email marketers' comfort. In fact, the average is 47 seconds (which has shrunk from over a decade ago, the average of which is 2.5 minutes).

If you're running a campaign, nailing the timing of your emails isn’t just about boosting open rates. It’s about cutting through the noise and piquing your audience's interest in a split second.

It's all about earning your subscribers’ trust and making them think that every email from you is valuable. This isn't going to happen if they're receiving your emails when they're least likely to see them in the first place.

Email marketing without a timing strategy is like fishing without bait. Doesn’t matter how good the rod (or the copy) is… if you throw a line into the water at the wrong hour, you’re likely to leave empty-handed.

What are the Best Days and Hours to Send Emails: What the Data Say

Here's where the rubber hits the road. There are proprietary studies from email software companies that tell us the best days and hours to send emails. Here are a few of them:

• Hubspot: This email marketing giant had a chat with over 150 marketing and advertising pros in the U.S., and here’s the scoop: most think their emails get the best engagement between 9 AM and 12 PM or 12 PM to 3 PM. As for the best day to send? 27% of marketers gave Tuesday the thumbs up, 19% backed Monday, and 17% vouched for Thursday. A tip from Hubspot is to skip the weekend sends, especially Sundays, as they're a bit of a dead zone for engagement.
• Salesforce: It all depends on the industry. For instance, B2B emails see more success during the week, especially Tuesday through Thursday, between 9 AM and 11 AM. B2C campaigns are a different story altogether. Customers tend to have more downtime in the evenings and on weekends, making those prime times for your email sends. Friday afternoons are a winner too—perfect for catching their eye as they gear up for weekend plans and shopping sprees.
• Mailchimp: The top days for email blasts are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, no matter the industry or audience. According to Mailchimp’s data, the prime time to send those newsletters? Bang on 10 AM in your recipients’ own time zones.
• GetResponse: Two solid time slots to aim for—early morning, around 4-6 AM, or afternoon, 5-7 PM on a Tuesday. But honestly, there’s not a huge difference compared to other weekdays. The real takeaway is to send on whatever day works best for your list—just steer clear of the weekend.
• Mailerlite: Monday takes the lead for the highest average open rate at 51.90%, with Tuesday close behind at 51%. Surprisingly, Sunday also pulls decent numbers at 51.28%, though the lower volume of weekend campaigns might be skewing things a bit. As for timing, during the week, the sweet spot for engagement is between 3 PM and 7 PM local time. On weekends, campaigns sent around 9 AM tend to perform better—though, let’s be real, not many emails go out at that time.
• Moosend: Thursday takes the crown for the best weekday open rates, with Tuesday coming in as a solid runner-up. Saturday’s a bit of a flop with the lowest average open rates. As for timing, 8-9 AM is the sweet spot. After 6 PM, things start to fizzle out. That said, just like Salesforce, Moosend thinks that the best schedule really depends on your industry.
• Omnisend: Tuesdays and Fridays are your golden days as they’ve got the runs on the board with higher open rates, conversions, and click-throughs. And for the magic hour? Aim for 2 PM, 5 PM, or 8 PM. That’s when people are most likely to actually open and engage with your emails—prime time for inbox action!

What is the Best Day of the Week to Send Marketing Emails?

Based on these studies, the majority of the email software companies are saying that Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday are consistently strong performers, with open and click rates peaking on these days.

Although depending on the industry, Saturdays and Sundays could be something to consider, especially if you want to take advantage of the typically lower volume in weekend campaigns.

What Is the Best Time of the Day to Send an Email Blast?

• Late mornings rule: Most studies find the prime window is between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.(recipient’s local time). That’s when people actually check inboxes proactively.
• Early afternoons (1–3 p.m.): A second spike as people return from lunch and start clearing messages before the day’s end.
• Best time to send email blast? Test between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. for most business audiences.
• Sales and prospecting emails: Aim for minutes before the workday starts (or early evenings), so you land near the top of the next inbox check.
• Very early morning: You can also experiment with early morning sends if your audience trends toward early risers.
• For weekends: Stick to morning slots like 9 AM and avoid sending too late in the day.

Before You Optimize Send Times, Clean Your List

Trying to find the best day and time to send marketing emails on a dirty or outdated list can be a waste of time, effort, and resources.

This is where email verification comes in. Tools like VerifiedEmail give marketers an edge in terms of the following:

• Real-time list cleaning: Purge inactive, fake, or undeliverable addresses before you test send times.
• Bulk and continuous cleaning: Keep large lists fresh, with automatic monitoring.
• Precision verification: 99%
• Proprietary technologies from experienced professionals
• Seamless integration with popular platforms like Zapier, Hubspot, and Klaviyo

Testing the best time to send sales emails and the best time to send prospecting emails? Avoid skewing results with bad data. Start with a clean, active, and engaged list so your testing reflects real-world engagement.

Want to try it? VerifiedEmail offers 200 free verifications for new users.

Check if your email is valid with VerifiedEmail.

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How to A/B Test Your Own Best Send Time

Now that you have an idea on what the email software companies see—more as a trend than advice specific to the nature of your business, industry, and audience—the next step is to look into your audience’s actual behavior to find your best time to send email blasts (or any campaign).

You can always have baseline data—just start on an email campaign with what you think is a good time to send that specific email. You can also be guided by your industry's benchmark and the proprietary studies tackled above.

Then you can perform an A/B test to determine your own email marketing metrics and find out the best schedule. Here's how you can do that:

1. Segment your list: Pick a statistically significant sample (1000+ emails is ideal).
2. Choose your variable: Test different send times (e.g., Tuesday 10 a.m. vs. Thursday 2 p.m.).
3. Send identical emails: Aside from the send time, change nothing.
4. Measure results: Open rate, click rate, conversion rate. Ignore ego; pay attention to what actually works.
5. Iterate: Try new days, times, and segments periodically.

Most major platforms like Mailchimp and HubSpot offer automated A/B timing tests.

Pro tip: You can combine A/B test results with ongoing list validation via email checkers like VerifiedEmail for accurate data. You can also test across multiple time zones for global lists. Recipient localization is a game-changer.

Final Tips for Optimizing Timing and Deliverability

Want to max email marketing ROI? Here’s how to go beyond send time:

• Personalize beyond “Hi [Name]”: Use segmentation to tailor topics and offers to send time habits.
• Warm up new domains before hitting large lists to prevent spam tagging.
• Clean your list quarterly to keep bounce rates down and engagement rates pure.
• Monitor email deliverability like a hawk. A killer send time is useless if you’re filtered out before landing.

The Best Schedule For You? Listen To Your Subscribers

Getting the best time to send marketing emails right isn’t about following someone else’s “magic hour.” It’s about understanding your audience, testing relentlessly, and never assuming what worked last year will work today.

Treat send time as a living, breathing experiment. Brands that dare to challenge outdated norms (and dirty data) will always outperform the batch-and-blast crowd.

And above all, make sure you’re testing on a clean, verified list so your data is real. If you haven’t validated your list lately, now’s the time.

Check if your email is valid with VerifiedEmail.

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