When Is the Best Time to Send an Email Campaign?

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Finding the best time to send an email campaign sounds simple. Search online, and you will quickly find recommendations such as “Tuesday at 10 AM,” “Thursday morning,” or “never send emails on weekends.”

The problem is that there is no single universal best time to send an email campaign.

Large-scale email studies do reveal useful patterns. Certain hours consistently produce stronger engagement, weekdays tend to be more predictable than weekends, and the first few hours after delivery matter enormously. But subscriber location, industry, email type, customer behavior, and previous engagement can shift the ideal send time significantly.

In other words, industry benchmarks give you a strong starting point. Your own campaign data tells you where to finish.

Key Takeaways

• There is no universal best time that works for every email list.
• Large email datasets show strong engagement both early in the morning and toward the end of the working day.
• GetResponse data identifies 4–6 AM and 5–7 PM as particularly promising engagement windows.
• The best time varies considerably by region. GetResponse reports that 7 PM performs particularly well in Central and Eastern Europe, for example.
• Weekdays are generally a safer starting point than weekends, but no weekday consistently wins across every dataset and audience.
• Most engagement happens shortly after delivery, making it important to send when subscribers are likely to check their inboxes.
• Subscriber-specific send-time optimization is more reliable than following generic industry benchmarks.
• Testing timing is useful only if your messages actually reach the inbox. Deliverability should therefore be monitored alongside opens, clicks, and conversions.

So, What Is the Absolute Best Time to Send an Email?

If you need a starting point before you have enough first-party campaign data, weekday mornings and late afternoons are the safest periods to test first.

More specifically, current GetResponse benchmark data highlights two notable windows:

• 4–6 AM
• 5–7 PM

Its analysis found higher engagement during these periods than at many other hours of the day.

At first, 4 AM might sound unusually early. But sending at 4 or 5 AM does not necessarily mean subscribers are opening your campaign immediately.

The strategy can position your email near the top of the inbox when subscribers begin checking messages after waking up.

The late-afternoon window works differently. Many people check email again as their working day winds down, creating another opportunity for visibility.

GetResponse’s more recent guidance also reports that its global data found 4 AM produced the highest open rate at 22.05%, while 6 AM generated the highest click-through rate at 3.24%. Importantly, the company stresses that these numbers change considerably between regions. The “best time” for open rates may not be the best time for clicks, purchases, registrations, or replies.

Why There Is No Single Best Email Send Time

Email marketing studies aggregate millions or even billions of messages from very different audiences.

A software company emailing IT managers is communicating with people under completely different circumstances from:

• a fashion retailer sending a flash sale;
• a restaurant promoting dinner reservations;
• a travel brand sending destination offers;
• a SaaS company distributing a technical newsletter;
• a fitness brand targeting consumers before work.

Consider a B2B recipient. They may actively check email between 8 AM and 5 PM while working. An email arriving at 10 AM could therefore perform well.

A consumer checking personal email, however, might be much more active before work, during lunch, or after 6 PM.

This is why benchmark studies sometimes appear to contradict one another. They are often measuring different audiences, regions, campaign types, and engagement metrics.

Best Time of Day to Send an Email Campaign

While individual results vary, several time periods are worth testing.

Early Morning: 4 AM–7 AM

Early morning is one of the strongest periods found in GetResponse’s global email data.

Its benchmark analysis identifies 4–6 AM as one of two major engagement windows. If subscribers begin checking their inboxes around 6, 7, or 8 AM, your campaign may already be waiting near the top rather than competing with dozens of messages sent during traditional business hours.

Early mornings may work particularly well for:

• newsletters;
• news and media emails;
• consumer campaigns;
• educational content;
• international audiences whose inbox habits differ across regions.

However, sending at 4 AM should not become an automatic rule. Test it against more conventional morning slots.

Morning: 8 AM–11 AM

Morning remains one of the most logical periods for business-oriented campaigns.

People arrive at work, review notifications, organize their schedules, and clear their inboxes.

You should align campaigns with the actual routines of the target audience rather than treating a single industry benchmark as definitive. Its research-backed guidance emphasizes audience behavior and analytics as the two central factors in timing decisions.

This period is particularly worth testing for:

• B2B newsletters;
• SaaS updates;
• webinar invitations;
• professional services;
• educational content;
• workplace-related products.

One potential disadvantage is competition. Many marketers know that mornings can work, so inboxes may also be unusually crowded.

Around Lunch: 11 AM–2 PM

Lunch hours can create another opportunity, particularly for B2C campaigns. Recipients may have more time to check personal messages, shop online, browse content, or use their phones.

Results here are highly audience-dependent, however. A corporate audience may be less attentive during lunch, while ecommerce subscribers may be more receptive.

Treat this as a secondary testing window rather than a universal recommendation.

Late Afternoon and Early Evening: 5 PM–7 PM

The second major engagement period occurs around 5–7 PM. 

This makes intuitive sense for many audiences.

People are finishing work, commuting, checking personal devices, and catching up on messages they did not have time to read earlier.

It’s important to remember considerable geographic differences. Its data suggests 7 PM is especially effective in Central and Eastern Europe, while optimal hours differ in LATAM and other markets. 

This window can therefore be particularly interesting for:

• ecommerce promotions;
• entertainment emails;
• personal newsletters;
• B2C campaigns;
• European audiences.

What Is the Best Day to Send Marketing Emails?

Finding the best day is even less straightforward than identifying the best hour.

Studies frequently point toward the middle of the working week, but there is no consistent winner.

Many sources discussed Wednesday and Thursday as strong options depending on the type of email. You basically need to match sending schedules to audience behavior instead of treating one weekday as universally superior. 

For a new campaign without historical data, a reasonable testing sequence could be:

Day	Typical Use Case
Monday	News, updates, weekly content
Tuesday	B2B campaigns, educational content
Wednesday	Newsletters, launches, engagement campaigns
Thursday	Promotions, product campaigns, follow-ups
Friday	Roundups, lighter content, B2C promotions
Saturday	Lifestyle, ecommerce, leisure-focused audiences
Sunday	Planning, media, lifestyle, selected B2C audiences

This table should be treated as a testing framework, not a rigid schedule.

Should You Send Emails on Weekends?

Weekend campaigns are often dismissed automatically, particularly in B2B marketing.

For many professional audiences, that assumption is reasonable. People may be less interested in work-related email on Saturday or Sunday. But B2C behavior can be completely different.

Weekend sending may work for:

• restaurants;
• entertainment;
• ecommerce;
• travel;
• events;
• hobbies;
• lifestyle brands;
• media newsletters.

There is also potentially less competition in the inbox because fewer brands send campaigns on weekends.

Instead of excluding weekends entirely, compare them with weekday campaigns when your audience and offer make sense.

Geography Can Completely Change the Best Send Time

One of the biggest mistakes marketers make is sending an international email campaign according to the sender’s time zone.

Imagine scheduling a campaign for 9 AM in New York. At that moment, subscribers in London, Berlin, Dubai, and Singapore are all at very different stages of their day.

Regional benchmark differences support the importance of localization. There are different optimal hours across LATAM, Central and Eastern Europe, and Asia-Pacific, including particularly strong results around 7 PM in CEE.

For geographically distributed lists, marketers should therefore consider:

• segmenting subscribers by country or time zone;
• scheduling separate sends;
• using local-time delivery;
• using send-time optimization.

Best Send Time by Email Type

The purpose of the email should also influence when it is sent.

1. B2B Marketing Emails. 

Start by testing: 8–11 AM on weekdays

Professional audiences are typically interacting with their work inboxes during business hours.

Also test late afternoon if your audience tends to read newsletters after completing high-priority work.

2. Ecommerce Campaigns.

Useful test windows include: early morning and 5–8 PM

Consumers may browse promotions before work or during evening downtime. Purchase data should ultimately determine the winner.

3. Newsletters.

Newsletters often benefit from being sent immediately before habitual reading periods.

Try: 6–9 AM or late afternoon/early evening.

The right choice depends heavily on whether the newsletter is professional, educational, entertainment-focused, or lifestyle-oriented.

4. Flash Sales.

For flash sales, timing should be built around the offer rather than generic email benchmarks.

A restaurant promotion might work immediately before lunch. A fashion sale may perform better in the evening. A Black Friday campaign may require an entirely different schedule because inbox behavior and competition are unusual during major shopping periods.

5. Event and Webinar Emails.

These emails should be scheduled according to the event timeline.

Useful sends can include:

• an initial invitation;
• a reminder several days beforehand;
• a reminder the day before;
• a final reminder shortly before the event.

For time-sensitive communication, predictable delivery is usually more important than waiting for an algorithmically optimized engagement window. 

Perfect Timing Cannot Fix Poor Deliverability

Send time matters only after your email successfully reaches a location where subscribers can see it.

A perfectly scheduled campaign that lands in spam at 9 AM is still worse than an email reaching the inbox at a slightly less optimal hour.

Inbox placement depends on factors including sender reputation, email authentication, content, infrastructure, and recipient engagement.

Before an important campaign, GlockApps can be used to test inbox placement across major mailbox providers and identify whether messages are landing in the inbox, spam folder, or other categories before the full campaign is sent.

Timing tests should therefore be considered part of a broader optimization process that includes authentication, list hygiene, sender reputation, content, and deliverability.

A Practical Strategy for Finding Your Best Send Time

Rather than searching endlessly for one magical hour, use a structured testing process.

Step 1: Start With Benchmark Windows

If you have little historical data, begin with proven engagement periods.

Test:

Morning: 6–10 AM
Late afternoon/evening: 5–7 PM

Step 2: Segment by Time Zone

Do not send a global campaign according to one headquarters time zone. Deliver the campaign according to subscribers’ local time whenever possible.

Step 3: Separate Different Audiences

Your enterprise buyers and ecommerce customers may behave completely differently.

Segment by:

• geography;
• customer type;
• industry;
• engagement history;
• lifecycle stage.

Step 4: Test One Variable at a Time

Compare different send times while keeping the rest of the campaign consistent.

Step 5: Measure Business Outcomes

Track more than opens.

Prioritize:

• CTR;
• conversions;
• revenue;
• registrations;
• replies;
• other campaign-specific goals.

Step 6: Test Deliverability

Use GlockApps before important or high-volume campaigns to verify inbox placement and detect potential deliverability problems that could distort your timing results.

Step 7: Keep Testing

Subscriber habits change. A schedule that worked six months ago may not remain optimal forever. Continue comparing performance and updating your sending strategy.

Conclusion

So, what is the absolute best time to send an email campaign?

There is no single hour that guarantees maximum engagement for every audience.

Current benchmark data provides useful starting points, with early mornings around 4–6 AM and late afternoons around 5–7 PM showing particularly strong engagement. 

But geography, audience type, industry, email purpose, and subscriber behavior can completely change those results.

The most effective strategy is therefore to use benchmark data to establish your first testing windows, segment subscribers by location and behavior, measure clicks and conversions rather than opens alone, and gradually build a sending schedule based on your own campaign history.

The absolute best time to send an email is ultimately the time when your specific subscribers are most likely to engage with it.

FAQ