When Is The Best Time To Send A Cold Email (According To Data)

The best time to send a cold email is from 8am to 9am.

The best day is Thursday.

I analyzed data from Moosend to find out when you should send your cold emails to get the highest open rate.

In this article, I will cover the following:

• When is the best time to send a cold email?
• What is the best day to send a cold email?
• Should you send cold emails on weekends?
• Final thoughts

When is the best time to send a cold email?

8am to 9am is the best time to send cold emails.

Moosend looked at 10 billion emails that were sent through their platform to conclude that this is the best time for open rates.

Their data also showed that there was no significant difference in open rates between 6am to 7pm.

If you send your emails before 6am or after 7pm, then open rates start to decrease.

The reality is that the time that you send your emails is just one out of many factors affecting the success of your cold email campaigns.

There are factors that are significantly more important, such as your email deliverability and offer. Even the number of follow-up emails that you send will impact your response rate more than the actual time of sending.

What is the best day to send a cold email?

According to Moosend's data, the best day to send emails is Thursday.

The second best day is Tuesday.

However, email open rates from Monday to Friday are similar, meaning that you will be fine sending your cold emails any day during the work week.

The weekends are by far the worst days to send emails from an open rate perspective.

Saturday is the worst day, with Sunday being slightly better (but still significantly worse than Monday to Friday).

The day of the week is a more important factor affecting open rates than the time of sending. However, both affect open rates, so it’s important that you consider both when sending your cold email campaigns.

To clarify, Thursday is the best day of the week to send cold emails, but all days from Monday to Friday perform similarly well. Do NOT send emails on weekends as they are less likely to be opened by your recipients.

Should you send cold emails on weekends?

I recommend that you do NOT send cold emails on weekends (Saturday & Sunday).

Moosend’s data shows that open rates for emails that were sent on weekends are lower than those sent during the week (Monday to Friday).

However, open rates on weekends are still relatively high, so if you need to send on weekends, it’s not the end of the world.

If you decide to send on a weekend, then I recommend that you send on Sunday evening, as your open rate will be higher compared to earlier in the weekend. You’ll be able to reach people that are getting ready for the week.

Frequently asked questions

Final thoughts

The best time to send a cold email is from 8am to 9am.

The best day is Thursday, followed closely by Tuesday. However, all days Monday to Friday perform similarly well.

The main thing to understand is that the time and day that you send your cold emails is a relatively small factor affecting your campaign’s success.

Your email deliverability, copy and offer are significantly more important.

I recommend that you read my article How To Improve Your Cold Email Deliverability.

I also recommend that you read my other article How To Write A Cold Email (4-Step Process).