This is a question we get asked all the time and there are plenty of industry anecdotes about what works for different people and I guess that is the problem, it is often very dependent on your target audience.
When is the best day to send email?
While initial industry analysis suggested Monday was the best day and sending from 6am-10am was the best time of day, according to CampaignMonitor and other leading email marketing companies, this may no longer be true and emails sent from Wednesday to Friday now had maximised open rates.
For the Australasian real estate market, Thursday and Friday have often been identified as the best days for click rates, as people plan their weekend property viewing. So if you are looking to maximise your return on new listings, identify leads or send out property inspection invites, these days may prove to give you better results.
It is generally agreed that the weekends are the worst days to send an email campaign.
When is the best time?
One thing that is consistent across all major email marketing companies is that mornings between 9am – 12pm is where email readership is at its peak, due to people getting into their work for the day and not yet fully immersed in their daily tasks..
However, in a report by Mailerlite, there is evidence to suggest that on Thursday’s and Friday’s, a secondary peak occurs between 1-3pm as motivation wanes at the end of the week. This may help to gain a longer engagement time as readers are reluctant to kick off new tasks.
In more recent times, it has been shown that there can still be quite high open rates right through to 8pm at night.
Segment to create consistency
A big challenge with marketing emails in a real estate office is the large variety of demographics in your customers that you are communicating with. This variety results in inconsistent behaviour and a database of customers that are going to interact with your emails at varying times of the week & day.
One of the easiest things we can do to help create some consistency in the way our customers interact with our emails is to segment our database into key customer groups. As a bare minimum you should be segmenting your database into Sellers, Buyers, Landlords, Tenants.
Once you have a segmented database you can send separate, targeted emails to each of these key customer groups that focus on the content & topics they want to see.
Test to track what works for you
Not every customer or database will behave the same. There are so many factors that contribute to the performance of a campaign. To find the right time & day that works for you: test and compare similar campaigns sent on different times and days.
We would suggest keeping this simple to begin with by sticking to a morning send times and trialling different days. So if you are currently sending your buyer campaigns on a Thursday morning, trial a Friday morning instead and compare the reports from both campaigns. Once you narrow down the best day for you, trial some different times on that day.
Be consistent
Once you have decided what works for you, no matter when you send your newsletter, the best practice is to keep it consistent. We are all creatures of habit, and we subconsciously crave consistency. By maintaining a regular email schedule, you can build trust and anticipation. Your audience will expect to receive your content during a designated time.
The takeaway
- Emails sent in the middle and second half of the week tend to perform best
- Try and send your email in the morning
- Make sure your database is segmented
- Test results and find what works for you
- Once you find what works for you, keep consistent to build trust and anticipation