Opt-in emails (e.g., newsletters, emails from retailers) are far more likely to be opened within the first hour after delivery than at any hour after that, according to GetResponse findings released in October 2012. Some 23.63% of all email opens occur within the first hour after delivery, and 9.52% in the second hour. Another 6.33% occur in the third hour, and 4.8% in the fourth. Five hours after delivery the results drop more than 90%, and less than 1% of opens occur 24 hours later.
But, these results likely reflect actual message sending times, and open and click rates do vary substantially by time of day. According to the study, messages sent in the afternoon and evening have the best chance of being opened or clicked, with an average open rate of 10.61% (between noon and 6 PM) and click-through rate (CTR) of 2.38% (between 6 PM and midnight). These correspond to subscribers’ top engagement times, which are between 3PM-4PM (6.8% of total opens and 6.2% of total clicks). A “second wind” occurs between about 7 and 8PM, when almost 6% of clicks occur. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.
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