That stat about email open rates decaying by 20% in the first hour caught me off guard

I was reading through some Campaign Monitor data last night and apparently if you don't send your email within the first hour of when people check, your open rates drop by like a fifth. Has anyone else seen real numbers on timing making that big a difference?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancycooper3d ago

35% drop after 30-45 minutes on weekends" I had to read that twice because that honestly sounds insane. I knew timing mattered but I never thought it could be that brutal, especially on a Saturday or Sunday. Sounds like you really have to dial in your schedule or risk losing a third of your audience just from hitting send ten minutes late.

dianaanderson6d ago

Oh I've been tracking this with my own list and it's wild how much smaller the window is than people think. What nobody talks about though is that the 20% decay might actually be way worse for certain industries or segments (like B2B vs B2C). For example, my data from last year showed if you miss the first 30-45 minutes for a weekend send, the open rate drops by nearly 35% not 20%. And here's the thing nobody considers: the decay curve isn't linear, it's more like a cliff. If you're competing with 50 other emails in someone's inbox, the first 15 minutes are basically everything for getting that initial click. So the real lesson is don't just look at an average decay stat, figure out when YOUR specific audience checks email and then time your sends to hit that exact window.

mila_campbell256d ago

Competing with 50 other emails" sounds like my inbox on a Monday, @dianaanderson, except mine are all from Groupon asking if I need a teeth whitening kit.