September 22, 2021
Designing the best email or LinkedIn message is essential for getting higher responses but not sufficient. Timing matters! Studies show that the average office worker receives ~121 emails per day. More than 50% of the prospective candidates open emails within the first 90 minutes of sending them. After 24 hours there is little to no chance your email will be opened.
If you’re not intentional about your send times you could be derailing your outreach success. If you are looking to improve reply rates, here are a few data points that can help you time your outreach:
Candidates are more likely to respond to emails they receive early in the morning between 6 and 7 AM or later in the evening (around 8 PM). The vertical grey colored bar in the below chart shows the number of emails being sent during different hours of the day. During early mornings and evenings your message is more likely to stand out with less competition and get noticed by candidates resulting in higher open and click rates.
A study from Yesware shows that you’ve got a better chance of having your email opened and replied to if you send it on a weekend than during the week. Again, this likely has to do with the fact that inbox competition is lower on weekends. You’ll be competing with fewer messages on the weekend hence making your messages stand out.
A study from GetResponse shows that you can expect the highest open rates and click rates on Thursday.
How are click rates(% of candidates who clicked on a link present in the email) on different days of the week:
Employer Branding
