Knowing when to convey
remains a time-honored art

The best day of the week to send email in Q3 was Wednesday, according to the most recent eROI benchmark study of email-campaign clickthrough and open rates, reports MarketingCharts (via Direct magazine).

According to eROI's Q3 data:

• The average open rate on Wednesdays in the third quarter was 25.4 percent, and the average click rate was 3.9 percent.
• The second-best day for email was Monday, which had an average open rate of 24.7 percent and click rate of 3.1 percent.

• The highest average click rate — 5.0 percent — was Saturday, which also had the lowest open rate: 18.7 percent.
• The third-highest open and click rates were Thursday: 23.6 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively.

Time of Day

As for the best time of day for open and click rates, during the heaviest email volumes (8 AM to 5 PM), there's a marked upward trend as time passes, eROI said. That is, both open and click rates gradually increase:

• From a low of 2.6 percent at 8 AM to a high of 6.4 percent at 4 PM (down to 5.2 percent at 5 PM), in the case of click rates.
• From a low of 21.4 percent at 8 AM to a high of 34.1 percent at 5 PM, in the case of opens.

Consumer-Focused Industries

Benchmarks for various industries targeting consumers varied significantly in the third quarter, eROI found:

• The travel & lodging category was No. 1, with nearly half of email subscribers (46.7 percent) opening their emails and nearly 10 percent clicking through.
• Retail (brick and mortar) companies were at the back of the pack with a 19 percent open rate and a 1.6 percent click rate.
• In between were gaming, e-commerce, clothing, sports, food service, entertainment, publishing - in ascending order.

The Q3 report is available via eROI's Resource Center (see "Quarterly Studies" section). Also see the second-quarter study results: Wednesday Hump Applies to Emails, Too.