Report: Friday Was the Best Day for Q3 Email Marketing Engagement Rates

Previous research published in the second quarter of 2016 showed that email marketing campaigns performed best on Thursdays, but this trend shifted in the third quarter.

The “Email Benchmark Report Q3 2016” from Yesmail has revealed that in terms of open rates, click rates, and CTO rates, Friday was the best day for email marketers to launch campaigns in the quarter.

A total of 16.6 percent of emails sent on Fridays were opened, and 2.9 percent were clicked. The click-to-open rate for Friday in Q3 was 12.4 percent, which was also the highest in comparison to every other day of the week. However, the highest conversion rate (4.5 percent) was recorded on Saturdays.

“Keep in mind that while engagement rates were higher on Fridays this quarter, brands must develop email schedules that are best for their unique industry and audience,” wrote the authors of the report.

For B2B companies in particular, email marketers saw an average open rate of 9.1 percent, and a median CTO rate of 8.7 percent.

Looking Back on Q2 Email Marketing Benchmarks

A similar report from Yesmail recorded email marketing statistics for the second quarter, and Thursdays appeared to yield the highest engagement rate for marketers. On Thursdays, emails had an average open rate of 16 percent and a CTO rate of 12.2 percent. The median unique click rate was 2 percent.

In comparison, Fridays in the second quarter had an average open rate of 13.1 percent, and a median CTO rate of 9.2 percent.