One of the very first things I do every morning is check my email. (In fact, I do it while I’m still lying in bed.)

What do I always find? An enormous amount of emails!

Then I start deleting

When I first check my email and see 30+ new emails I delete everything in one mass sweep that isn’t from someone I know or isn’t a personal email. Anything that looks like a mass mailer, whether I signed up for it or not, gets deleted. I’m betting there are 50+ that meet the same fate on a Monday morning.

When I have that much new mail I just want to get through it, not take the time to read articles or find out about specials. And there’s no point in thinking I’ll get back to it later, because I know I just won’t.

First thing isn’t when they want to hear from you

Many businesses schedule their emails for 7am or earlier so that they’ll catch their audience first thing in the morning. The idea is that they’re fresh and that people spend time reading and catching up on things first thing in the morning.

And they might, but often not their emails. You’re better off skipping that mass email crunch time and waiting until later. When they check their email at 10:30 while they’re topping up their coffee and they only have a few emails waiting and they’re ready for a break for example.

There are no hard and fast rules

There really isn’t ever a rule that can apply to every audience so you need to play around with this. If you’ve been sending your emails first thing in the morning, try a couple at different times. My suggestion is Tuesday – Thursday between 10 and 3. Try one in the morning and one in the afternoon and then compare your stats.

Are you getting better open rates during one time over another? Or better click through rates? You can find out so much about your audience from analytics.

Leave a comment below and let me know if you find one time frame works better than others for your audience.