The Race Goes to the Swiftest – Not Always!
“If you’re not first, you’re last!”
This is one of the smug wisecracks delivered by Ricky Bobby (played by comedy legend Will Ferrell) in the movie “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”.
And while this declaration is not entirely accurate, it does highlight a principle that is highly relevant when it comes to effective email delivery.
There is both an art and a science to the timing of email – and good list providers know all too well the pitfalls that can present themselves when timing is off.
For example, say one ignores external factors and rushes to get an email out the door before the message may be optimally effective. It may be quickly opened and discarded, or worse yet never opened at all. Or say one sends an email late at night or in the early morning hours without any real justification – it will likely end up buried deep in email accounts, thus being zapped by the dreaded delete button as part of the increasingly common morning clean-out ritual.
The bottom line? Finding the “Sweet Spot” of when to send your emails will make a world of difference in how well they perform.
Hitting the Sweet Spot
Fortunately, there are many options available that can help your email hit that delivery “Sweet Spot”:
- Not Too Early, Not Too Late: Sending an email the night before you’d like recipients to see it, while ensuring it gets to them early, will also often result in it being buried deep in inboxes. The flip side to this is if you send an email later in the day, and it runs into trouble being delivered, it may hit inboxes at a time when many folks are busy with meetings, commutes, dinner and other daily routines. Most people sort through and open their emails first thing in the day to see what is important. That’s why getting emails delivered between 6:30 AM and 8:30 AM is optimal in the pursuit of achieving high open rates. All things being equal, this is the time to shoot for.
- Beating Others to the Punch: If your goal is to be the first one to announce something before anyone else does, the timestamp on the email will matter. Keep this in mind when making a decision of how quickly you want the email to go out. In some cases, being first matters!
- Get Copy Approved in Advance: Sending email copy back and forth for approval can take time. The sending company has to mock it up and send it to you… you make revisions, they implement them and send back… and this could even go a few rounds. That’s why having final, approved copy as early as possible in the process is so important.
- Get Contracts Signed On Time: Sometimes the email delivery process gets slowed down because a client fails to realize a contract must be signed before anything can be sent. Depending on the timing involved, not getting a contract signed and sent back to the email sending company can kill an otherwise great opportunity. Get contracts signed in a timely manner – and if you are not the individual that is authorized to sign a contract, make sure the person that is authorized is available.
- Approve Test Emails Quickly: Just as it is critically important to provide final, approved copy in a timely manner, it is also crucial that you respond quickly to test emails sent your way for approval. If your response time is slow, you could jeopardize the timeliness and effectiveness of your email.
Mustard Seed Interactive is an expert email provider, ready to help you to make the right choices regarding the timing of your campaigns. We’re here to help you optimize the deliverability of your email, which will greatly increase the likelihood that your audience will open it and act upon your message.
Of course putting this expertise to work for your organization could not be more important… because just like Ricky Bobby, you don’t want to end up last!
Roger Rayburn is the Operations Director of Mustard Seed Interactive. He can be reached at roger@mustardseedinteractivellc.com
