Best time to send cold emails (Boost your open rates in 2024)

Does the right timing matter for cold emailing to get high open rates and responses?   

Our extensive case study, analyzing 95,000 cold email outreaches, says yes!  

If you ever wondered when is the best time to send cold emails, you’re not alone, as every email marketer and sales outreach professional looks out for the same.  

Our case study uncovers the best time to send a cold email to get high open rates. 

But did you know there are other influential factors leading to a good open rate for cold emails:  

• Subject line  
• Sender’s reputation  
• Mobile Optimization 
• Recipients’ time zone 

Our next section will explain in detail how these influential factors impact the open rates of your cold email campaigns.  

So, let’s begin our learning.

What can affect the cold email open rates? 

Getting high open rates for your cold email campaigns depends on more than just timing.

Here are the top factors influencing the open rate for cold emails:

1. Subject line 

A subject line is the first thing your recipient sees, making it the most essential factor influencing email opening decisions. 

Cold outreach emails with relevant and compelling subject lines often tend to catch the interest of your target audience.  

To craft attention-grabbing subject lines for cold emails, you must know what works and what spoils the magic.

Tip – Personalizing, creating a sense of curiosity, and keeping your cold email subject lines concise can improve open rates. 

2. Sender’s reputation 

If the sender is recognized and trusted, recipients are more likely to open the email.  

In general, emails from unknown or suspicious-looking email addresses are often ignored or filtered into spam.  

Using a familiar name, whether it’s a personal name or a well-known company name, builds trust and improves deliverability.

Read also: How to warm up email domains to boost deliverability?

3. Mobile optimization  

With nearly 49% of emails being read on mobile devices, ensuring that your email outreach campaign is mobile-friendly is essential. 

Our case study also discovered that over 35% of cold emails are seen via mobile phones. 

So, optimizing your cold emails for the mobile device is a must-do for every email campaign, to boost open rates.

4. Time zone of the recipient 

You need to be cautious about the recipient’s time zone when sending a cold email.  

For instance, you send an email at 8 AM from New York; it is the perfect time to reach out to your local recipients.

However, if your target audience is in London, that same email lands in their inbox at 1 PM – right in the middle of their lunchtime/worktime when they might be too busy to notice your message. 

Ensure the cold email send time aligns with the recipient’s typical working hours, increasing the chances of it being opened.

Complying with email regulations is also essential to avoid penalties. Here is our dedicated blog answer : Is cold emailing illegal? 

If all these factors are taken care of, then shooting cold emails at the right time will give you a high opening and click-to-open rate.

What is the best time to send cold emails? 

Our data analysis showed that the best time to send an email to get a response is in the early morning hours, specifically between 4 – 8 AM PST (Pacific Standard Time). 

This time frame delivers the highest rates of email opens and clicks, indicating a prime window for engaging with recipients. 

Here’s what our analysis illustrates as the best times to send cold emails: 

Let’s understand the psychology behind these time frames. 

• Peak open rates in early morning hours: 

The highest open rate is observed from 4:00 to 8:00 AM at 42.7%, making it the prime-time frame for sending cold emails. 

A possible reason could be that many professionals start their day by checking emails.

Another effective time slot includes 8:00 AM to 12 Noon with a 27.9% open rate. 

This is because the first half of the morning is often reserved for planning and organizing the day ahead, making it more likely for your email to be noticed and opened.  

The preference for early morning indicates that emails sent at this time appear at the top of recipients’ inboxes, catching their attention as they begin their workday.

• Decline in engagement and afternoon opportunity:  

Post 9:00 AM, there’s a dip in open rates as the day progresses, and recipients get busy with meetings, tasks, and other responsibilities, which can lead to emails being overlooked or deferred. 

• Worst engagement during evening and night:  

We found that there are very few open rates received for cold outreach emails sent during the evening time.

A possible reason is that, by evening, people are winding down and focusing on personal time, making them less likely to engage with work-related emails.

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When is the best day to send cold emails? 

Our data illustrated Tuesdays and Thursdays as the best days to send cold emails with higher open rates. 

Here’s what our analysis sketches as the best days to send cold emails: 

• Tuesday and Thursday peak:  

The highest open rates are observed on Tuesday (27.5%) and Thursday (26%).  

These mid-week days are likely when recipients are most engaged and responsive to emails, possibly due to being well-settled into the workweek.

• Moderate Monday and Wednesday:  

Mondays and Wednesdays show decent opening rates of 16% and 18%, respectively.

The lower open rate on Monday may be due to professionals sorting through the backlog of weekend emails, which could delay engagement with new messages.

• Drop on Friday:   

The open rate dips to 13%. It is because people are probably starting to wind up and think about their weekend plans, so they’re not in the mood to read emails.

• Poor weekend engagement:  

Saturday and Sunday showed the lowest open rates, displaying typical disengagement from work-related activities over the weekend. 

The analysis also suggests that for maximum open rates, send cold emails during the middle of the week while avoiding weekends. 

We see how crucial it is to send cold emails at the right time. So, you can’t afford your reps juggling between multiple works and slipping the timing.

This is where email automation becomes a game changer for boosting the productivity of your cold outreach. 

An email automation software can help you automate and schedule cold emails to go out at those prime times – Tuesday or Thursday mornings.

It means you can set up your entire weeks or even months, worth of emails in advance.  

But it’s not just about sending emails at the right time. The best cold email tools offer features like – personalization, segmenting, tracking, and much more.

Reach your cold prospects with a personalized message!

Salesmate helps you craft winning cold email campaigns with smart CRM and analytics.

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When to avoid sending cold emails?

As much as it is beneficial to know the best time to send cold emails, you must also be aware of the poor engagement occasions to save money.

We received poor engagement or saw a considerable drop in open rates to cold emails sent during weekends and late nights.

This might be the reason that these are the times when people are starting to relax, maybe thinking about dinner plans, not in the best frame of mind to entertain a cold email.

Also, lunchtime is not the best idea either. It’s the universal break time – a moment for sandwiches and salads, not for pondering over your unsolicited email.

Holidays are also a poor choice, as people are less focused on work and more likely to ignore business emails.

As a B2B brand, we see lower opening rates during weekends and holidays. While this could be different in the case of B2C businesses. So, test and try to see the engagement for your brand.

Insightful read: How to send cold emails? 12 Proven tactics to know

What insights did we get upon comparing our study with others?

To give you a broader and more definite answer to the best time to send cold emails, we have checked what other case studies got as results.

The majority of the resources have voted the best time to send cold emails on Tuesday early morning (including us).

However, there is one study by Siege Media that voted for Monday as the best day to send cold emails. But, the timing is almost similar as of morning.

Further, it suggested and we also noted similar results.

We received a drop in the open rates for cold emails on Wednesday, but according to Cience’s study, Wednesday is the best day of the week to send an email.

GetResponse study reveals that the best evening time to send cold emails is around 5-7 PM, however, we received very poor engagement around these hours.

Tip – To discover the best time of day to send cold emails precisely, experiment by sending a small batch of cold prospects. 

Moving to an interesting discussion on the ideal number of cold calls you can send per day from your prospect list.

How many cold emails to send per day?

The number of cold emails to send each day is influenced by many factors, including your cold email campaign goals, content, and the quality of your cold prospect list. 

Here’s a structured approach that you can take for sending cold emails:

1. For beginners: Start with a smaller batch, say 20 to 50 or up to 100 emails daily. This scale helps you assess your email list hygiene, refine your email copy, and learn to prevent triggering spam filters by reducing bounce rates and spam complaints.
2. Experienced senders: Once you’re confident in your strategy and your sending domain has established credibility, gradually increase your volume. A typical range for effective cold emailing is between 100 and 500 emails per domain per day.
3. Bulk cold email: Some companies send over 1,000 cold emails daily. This requires sophisticated systems, a high-quality cold prospect list, and continuous monitoring to ensure deliverability remains high.

Remember, the effectiveness of cold emails isn’t just in the numbers; it’s also in the quality of the content and how well you target and engage with your recipients.

So, a well-crafted, personalized email to 100 carefully selected contacts can be more impactful than a generic blast to 1,000 addresses.

Here’s something interesting: Sending 4 to 7 follow-up emails can triple your chances of getting a response compared to just 1 to 3. But, 70% of people don’t send follow-up emails, missing out on a chance to connect more.

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How do you pick the best time to send cold emails for your business? 

Choosing the best time to send cold emails for your business involves considering several factors that can influence the open and response rates.

Here are key considerations and steps to help you determine the optimal time:

1. Understand your audience

Knowing the typical schedule of your target audience is crucial.

For instance, if you’re targeting B2B business professionals, they might be more likely to check their emails during work hours on weekdays.

If your audience is global, consider time zone differences. 

2. Leverage industry data and trends

Different industries may have varying optimal times.

For example, sending emails to teachers works best during school hours, while for those in hotels or restaurants, off-peak hours are better.

To get what your audience needs, try making profiles that help you figure out their main problems, what they need, or what they want.

Tip – Follow your industry-specific trends and audience behaviors to receive good open rates for cold emails.

3. Personalization and segmentation

Research shows that most people only glance at a cold email for 10-15 seconds.

So, if you’ve managed to get your email opened, make sure its content is captivating enough to make every second count.

Now, if you have a diverse audience, segment your email list and personalize the sending time based on the segment’s characteristics. 

The criteria could be anything like industry, size of the company, designation of the prospects, etc. This could help you craft a more subtle tone for your cold emails.

4. Test and analyze your cold email campaign

Conduct A/B testing by sending emails at different times and days of the week (you can begin experimenting with the best time to send emails stated in our study).

Track metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and response rates to identify patterns of when your emails perform best. 

Insightful read: How to create an effective cold email that works! 

How does Salesmate help in boosting your cold email outreach game?

Consider Salesmate your one super solution to manage tasks under marketing, sales, and customer relationships.

The platform eases relationship building with cold prospects, potential leads, and clients through built-in tools for emailing, text messaging, and calling.

Salesmate is a robust CRM and email marketing software that lets you:

• Create beautiful campaigns with a drag-and-drop email builder and offer a range of customizable email templates.
• Sandy AI tool enhances productivity with cold emailing through AI writing, predictive analytics, and more.
• Segment prospects and personalize your emails at scale thus improving engagement rates.
• Automate outreach and follow-ups with Sequences (text and email).
• Perform A/B testing on your emails to determine the most effective subject lines, content, and sending times.
• Track key metrics like your open rate, click-through rate, reply rate, etc. to boost email marketing.
• Visualize sales process with multiple Sales Pipeline Management to never miss any deal closing opportunity.
• Track sales activities goals and your rep’s performance to work towards improvement within the teams.
• Make data-driven decisions with Campaign Analytics to optimize strategies for powerful results.

Salesmate offers Mobile CRM facilities to help teams manage campaigns, communications, and overall business activity from anywhere at any time.

Salesmate CRM offers Automation Suite and scheduling, saving time and managing work a month or week ahead.

Want to grow more business opportunities?

Salesmate CRM lets you connect with the right prospects, nurture them on auto-pilot, and improve decision-making with analytics.

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Wrap up on the best time to cold email

Cold email outreach is the first step in the outbound sales process, highlighting the importance of understanding the optimal times for sending cold sales emails and marketing emails.

Our extensive research pinpoints the best time to send cold emails:

Leveraging Salesmate’s advanced capabilities like automation, scheduling, and analytics tools, can significantly transform your cold outreach efforts.

Take your 15-day Salesmate CRM FREE trial and witness the growth on your own! 

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