If you
are like many #bloggers and #email marketers, you finish writing your masterpiece and hit “publish”
as soon as you’re done. But have you ever stopped to consider that those
moments may not be the best time to reach the most readership for your blog?
Timing your post can have a huge impact on who will read your blog and who may
never see it.
How time zones affects blog readers
Since the American west coast is 3 hours behind the east, it’s safe to assume
that posting a blog early morning on the east coast would mean that the people
on the west are still sleeping. People are more likely to delete a blog post in
their inbox early in the morning because their inboxes are full and they are in
a hurry to get to work, drop the kids off to school or at the bus stop, and are
thinking ahead to their morning meetings.
Another reason inboxes
are cluttered in the morning, is because almost 40% of ALL email messages are
sent between 6 AM and noon. By afternoon, most people are starting to wind down
from the day, have ciphered through their emails, and have more time to read a
blog post.
Timing posts for
international readership is even more complicated and would be another post all
by itself. Therefore, since most of our readership is located in America and
Canada, we will concentrate on those areas.
Besides location,
another consideration is the industry of your target audience. For instance, if
you’re sending out an email to a list of child care professionals, the worst
time to send it would be early morning between 6-8 AM or late afternoon between
4-6 PM when most parents are dropping off or picking up their kids. An industry
of employees who work 2nd or 3rd shift may be best to
reach when it is least appropriate for everyone else. Remember the demographics
of the majority of your target audience and schedule your blog posts
accordingly.
What do the stats say?
Statistics show that
close to 24% of all emails are opened during the first hour of being received,
but open rates rapidly decline over the next 23 hours after that. Subscribers’
highest open rate is between 8 – 10 AM, which contributes to cluttered inboxes
in the morning. If that is when most people open and read email, then that is
when businesses will want to send email. The second highest open rate time is
between 3 – 4 PM.
The problem with
hitting these timing slots, is the risk of being sandwiched between hundreds of
other emails in overly cluttered inboxes. While the open rates are highest
during this time, the number of deletes are elevated as well, resulting in
subscribers receiving and opening a lot of emails—to glance at them, barely
scanning through them, and then hitting the delete button. It is much harder to
gain their attention when all your subscribers want to do is clear out their
inbox so they will feel more in control of their lives. This leaves the option
of sending your email at another high open rate time, to avoid some of the
highest clutter. Therefore, consider early afternoon.
If you have
subscribers from all over the globe, then you might want to try the Time Travel
feature that GetResponse provides or Time Warp through MailChimp.
They allow you to set the same time delivery for all your subscribers based on
their specific time zone regardless of where they are located. Check with your
current email provider to find out if they offer something similar. Most of
these features are only available through a paid service.
A/B Testing
This is an email
testing service that allows you to break up your subscribers into different
groups. You can choose different subject lines and headers, as well as
different times to send out your emails. It will allow you to figure out which
settings work for your particular subscribers. What works for other businesses
will not necessarily be the best fit for you, so it is a great way to test your
subscribers without actually having to poll and survey them.
What other timing
solutions have you tried?
To think that the "oppressed have no comforter" in their time of need was so overwhelming, I wanted to do something to bring the message of Jesus's love to them. It is my hope that these precious children will learn to sing "Jesus Loves Me This I Know." Perhaps some day when their tears soak their pillow, they can rock themselves to sleep at night with these words in their heart. The least we can do as followers of Christ is introduce them to the Comforter.
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