The overwhelming majority of recipients of business-to-business e-mail prefer to get it on Mondays and Tuesdays, according to a study released this week by e-mail service provider eROI. And Friday edged out all others as the day people would like to receive business-to-consumer e-mail. Their actual behavior, however, indicates that what they say and what they do are two different things.
Thirty-six percent of respondents said they want their business e-mail on Tuesday, and 33% said they want it on Monday, according to eROI’s study. Not surprisingly, the least popular days were Saturday and Sunday, with 1% and 3% of respondents, respectively, saying they would prefer to receive their business e-mail on those days.
Consumer e-mail preferences were more evenly distributed by day of week than business preferences, though. Thirty-one percent said they preferred their b-to-c e-mail to arrive on Friday, while 26% named Wednesday, 22% preferred Tuesday, 20% named Monday, and 19% said. Thursday. Once again, Saturday and Sunday came in last, this time with 16% and 11%, respectively.
Yet Saturday and Sunday lead the week in terms of open rates, while Thursday and Saturday lead the way in terms of click rates, eROI reported. Saturday had the highest open rate at 38.3% and the highest click rate at 5.4%,. The lowest open and click-through rates came on Friday, at 32.7% and 4.4%.
As for preferred frequency, the majority of both audiences said they prefer monthly e-mails, with 35% favoring b-to-b e-mail on a monthly basis and 36% saying they prefer their consumer e-mail to arrive monthly, eROI reported.
Sixty-five percent of respondents said they unsubscribe from lists because they aren’t getting relevant communications from the sender, making it the number-one reason for unsubscribes. The second most common reason — cited by 56% of respondents — was that they receive e-mail from the sender too frequently.