What’s the Best Time To Send Cold Emails?

Throughout history, we’ve seen the rise of obelisks—slender, tapering monolithic structures—that cast a shadow on the ground based on how the sun moves through the day. Ancient Egyptians, who first made these structures, used them as reverential monuments. But, it also told them time. In short, even back then, nearly 4000 years ago, people wanted to spend their days productively.

Today, not much has changed. People want productivity—a better use of their time. And considering that 44% of people in North America check their inbox 1-3 times a day, most would have blocked at least 10 minutes a day to read emails. 

What we’re trying to say is, finding the best time to drop your cold emails is an important question. Sending it during odd hours is probably the culprit for your emails not getting responses or opens. 

There is, in fact, a taut window of opportunity to grip their attention, you should know when that is. It could be your outreach sequence’s trump card.

Here, we will answer that question through in-house and external research. But we request you take a trial-and-error approach to find the best time to send cold emails since everyone’s outreach strategies and circumstances vary.

When Is the Best Time To Send Cold Emails?

Multiple reports suggest that the best time to send a cold email is either 7-8 A.M., between 11 A.M. and 12 P.M., and between 1 and 4 P.M. 

During these times, people are typically at work; they’re more alert and therefore chances are high that they’ll pay attention to an email that delivers value. Dropping emails post 5 P.M. may yield lower response rates as people are probably winding down for the day.

Note: Take the above numbers as base timings for your email outreach. The best time to send cold emails could actually vary depending on your products or services, the time zone you prospect in, the industry, and your target audience.

When Is the Best Day of the Week To Send Cold Emails?

If your target audience is 9-5 workers, this report from PropellerCRM suggests Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best days to send cold emails. 

These days are less hectic than Mondays or Fridays, so people may have more time to read and respond to emails. It’s highly dependent on who you’re reaching out to. For example, in B2B, workaholics, c-level executives, or founders would check their email more often over the weekend. But don’t expect millennials or gen Z workers to check their emails during the week offs. 

Because the best timings change according to audience and industry, we found which timings work best for different circumstances and different scenarios.

Best Timings To Send Cold Emails Based on Industry and Audience:

With a bit of digging into the depths of the internet, a number of in-house studies conducted by email software businesses, and some understanding of the way different industries work, we came up with the best times to send cold emails depending on the industry you’re doing outreach in.

1) Technology and Software Industry

The best time to send cold emails to professionals in the technology and software industry are weekdays, preferably Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays between 10 A.M. and 11 A.M. or between 2 P.M. and 4 P.M. 

During these times, technology and software professionals are usually at their desks and more likely to check their emails.

2) Finance Industry

The finance industry is typically busiest on Mondays and Fridays. 

Therefore, the best time to send cold emails to prospects in this industry is on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays between 10 A.M. and 11 A.M. or between 2 P.M. and 4 P.M. These times are typically less busy and may free up time for prospects to check emails.

3) Healthcare Industry

Professionals in the healthcare industry are often busy during the day, making early mornings and evenings ideal for sending cold emails. 

Therefore, the best time to send cold emails to this industry is on weekdays between 6 A.M. and 7 A.M. or between 7 P.M. and 8 P.M. 

Our suggestion here is to test out a lot of different times to find out when’s the best time, considering medical professionals may have varying shifts throughout the 24 hours.

4) Education Industry

For K-12 or higher education institutions, early mornings and evenings are the best time to send cold emails. Avoid sending cold emails during school hours when teachers, professors, and administrators are the busiest.

5) Real Estate Industry

Professionals in the real estate industry have busy schedules that often include appointments and site visits during the day. 

Therefore, the best time to send cold emails to this industry is on weekdays between 8 AM and 9 AM or between 4 PM and 5 PM. 

Tips To Remember When Choosing a Time To Send Your Cold Email

i) Do Not Send Emails on Weekends

• Because of lower response rates: 9-5 workers are less likely to respond to emails on weekends, as they may be spending time with family or friends, running errands, or taking a break from work-related activities. Your email will likely be pushed down throughout the weekend until the prospect resumes working, thus lowering the open and response rate. By then your email would’ve been buried by a sea of emails.
• Because it may show a lack of professionalism: Receiving a work-related email on the weekend can be perceived as unprofessional and intrusive, especially for prospects with a strict separation between work and personal time. 

ii) Do Not Send the Emails Before 7 AM

• Lower Open Rates: Regardless of how well-written and relevant a cold email is, the prospect may never find it if it’s sent too early in the morning. Because there will be a barrage of business, cold, and marketing emails inundating your prospect’s inbox between 7 and 10 A.M, so chances are that your email will be buried.

iii) Do Not Send Emails on Mondays

• Because of the sheer volume of emails: People receive many work-related emails, newsletters, and other types of emails on Mondays. Plus, due to the fact that Mondays are reserved for catching up on left off work or conversations, little attention will be paid to emails. 
• Negative associations: Mondays are often associated with the start of the work week, and some people may feel a sense of dread or negativity. Sending a cold email on a Monday may inadvertently contribute to these negative associations and make it more likely that your email is ignored or deleted.

iv) Do Not Send Emails at Night

Because prospects are winding down for the day: Cold emails sent at night can be ineffective because recipients aren’t actively checking their email or may be too tired to engage with the content. This could lead to your email being forgotten, your email never being read, or even getting marked spam. 

Suggested reading: The Ultimate Guide To Nailing The Timing of Your Outreach

How to Effectively Send Emails at the Best Time of the Day

With the correct process in place, you don’t have to get up early to craft the perfect cold email. You can draft your cold email months in advance. How? Using a cold email software. 

Klenty is one such cold email software (but don’t just do emails, we also help you do cold calls, automate cold messages on LinkedIn and give you the ability to send texts at scale). Inside the software, you can create hundreds of emails and follow-ups for hundreds of prospects and schedule them to be sent out between certain times of the day. Here’s how you can do it.

a) Schedule Emails To Be Sent on Specific Days

b) Send the Emails Only During a Certain Time of the Day

c) Send the Emails by Detecting the Time Zone of the Prospects

Bottom Line

The ideal time to send cold emails is whenever you think your prospects would check their emails. So this will depend on their industry and their work hours. But most 9-5 workers, managers, and senior executives would check emails first thing in the morning and during lunch and evening break hours. And stay away from Mondays when reaching out to prospects. 

We highly recommend you to A/B test email sequences sent at different timings to prospects in the same industry. 

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