When is the best time to send marketing emails?

We’ve scoured the latest benchmarking reports from a range of CRM and ESP organisations to try and find the answer…

It’s a question that never seems to get old. So, we decided to analyse a wide variety of data and viewpoints on the best time to send marketing emails. After looking through recent benchmarking reports from CRM and ESP (Email Sending Platform) organisations, we discovered that…there’s no easy answer.

But the good news is, we did find a lot of useful information on best practices for successful email marketing. Keep reading for a summary of the latest tips and insights from leading platform providers.

(Read our 2025 Email Marketing Benchmark Reports Summary.)

Email send times

Across the reports we analysed, there was no golden rule for the best time to send marketing emails. However, most of them strongly recommend using AI to identify the best time to send an email to individual customers. And, despite the lack of a clear consensus on email marketing send patterns, we did pick out some interesting insights.

GetResponse’s research suggests two key time slots for strong email engagement: early morning (4-6am) and late afternoon/early evening (5-7pm). In other words, shortly before people wake up and around the time they finish work.

Dotdigital’s only recommendation on optimal timing is to send abandoned cart emails within 1-3 hours. Paperboy, meanwhile, advises sending your emails four minutes later than the platform’s preset times – so 9:04am if the preset time is 9am – to put them at the top of your customers’ inboxes.

Brevo reports that, by a small margin, Monday and Tuesday are the most effective days to send marketing emails. Mailmodo’s survey also shows that marketers have voted Tuesday as the best time to send marketing emails several years in a row. According to Brevo’s research, Saturday and Sunday have the lowest open and click-through rates, but the differences across key performance metrics aren’t big enough to be significant.

Behaviour-triggered email automations

Automation, automation, automation. That was the number one takeaway from our analysis. Describing CRM automations as the secret conversion weapon in email marketing, Klaviyo revealed that automated flows generate up to 30 times more revenue per recipient than campaigns.

Behaviour-triggered email automations include abandoned basket, repeat purchase and browse abandonment emails. Many of the reports we looked at call out AI as a key tool in optimising these CRM automations.

Bloomreach noted that AI can help to strike a balance between SMS and email in marketing campaigns by learning each customer’s preferred channel and identifying the moment(s) when they’re most likely to engage and convert. Targeted messages can then be automated to send at the right time on the right channel.

Email personalisation

90% of respondents told Optimove they want more control over the frequency and type of messages they receive. Effective email personalisation – alongside behaviour-triggered automations – can help to alleviate people’s frustrations with receiving too many emails that aren’t relevant to them.

Audience segmentation and trend analysis are essential for email personalisation that delivers results. Avoid blanket sends and track open and click-through rates, as well as spam issues.

A test-and-learn approach is also crucial to optimising email engagement through personalisation. From send time to content, what works for one brand or audience won’t necessarily work for yours. Make use of AI to help you analyse data and monitor customer behaviours.

The key takeaways

• There’s no consensus on a general rule for the best time to send marketing emails. But, you can use AI to estimate optimal email send times based on your audience data and do tests to find the most effective pattern for your customers.
• Timing is just one of several factors that affect email engagement, with frequency equally or even more important. Ultimately, successful email marketing comes down to quality over quantity. Your focus should be on sending compelling, relevant and personalised content to the right people at the right time.
• AI is an increasingly useful tool for effective email marketing. Most marketers are already adopting it and seeing increases in their engagement and conversion data.

Need support with your CRM programmes?

We’re proud to be platform agnostic, working with a wide range of platform providers to deliver CRM solutions for top brands. With around 80% of strategic CRM planning happening outside of a platform, we can help optimise your customer journeys to ensure the right message reaches the right audience at the right time.

Get in touch to find out more and ask about a free email marketing audit.