Best Time to Send a Mass Email: Capturing an Audience and Assuring Security

best time to send a mass email capturing an audience and assuring security

What's the best time to send a mass email?

Have you ever wondered what’s the best time to send a mass email?

If you’re a company just getting started and need to send out mass emails to promote yourself to customers who opt in, it can be a challenge to determine when those emails are most apt to be read. That’s especially true if you’re sending these emails internationally as part of a global reach. In that regard, you may have an even bigger dilemma in reaching people in different time zones.

What does some of the evidence in the online world say is the best time? And what can you do to assure your customers that the email you’re sending isn’t spam or a phishing scam so it doesn’t get automatically deleted?

Is the Lunch Hour the Best Time of the Day?

Some evidence suggests sending a mass email during the lunch hour is the best time, because people are more apt to be reading email during this time of the day. Despite that, contradictions seem to exist on what day of the week mass emails should be sent. It seems that people read their emails on Monday mornings. However, click-throughs are more apt to happen later in the week or even weekends when people have more time to read emails carefully.

Much of the above, though, seems to deal with outside factors. Including what kind of people you’re sending to, and even where they live. If you’re catering to a foreign audience, then you’ll have to send your emails at odd times in your own time zone to accommodate the time zones overseas. It could mean getting up in the middle of the night your time to accommodate your foreign markets.

Capturing everyone at the best time will be much trickier. Trying to capture as many time zones as possible in the daylight hours will obviously be to your best advantage. Even if the email arrives in the early a.m. hours for some time zones, it might be read first by the customer. This is because it’s likely to be their top email in their inbox.

Avoiding Misunderstandings of Spam or Phishing

The worst nightmare of a mass email campaign is having a subject line that’s perhaps misconstrued as spam or a phishing scam. So many people and businesses are being duped by legitimate-looking emails. You can understand why the scrutiny is more intense now. That’s why you should always send your email with the name of your company in the subject line so people can readily identify you. If they don’t recognize your name, it gives them a chance to Google your company to see if you’re real.

Also, send your mass email from an address that looks familiar. An email address that sounds offbeat might set off alarms it’s some kind of phishing scam. Then, an employee will instantly delete.

Here at 4 Corner IT, we help companies deal with removing viruses all the time from suspicious emails. We can help manage all of that for you around the clock through our IT consulting service and IT support.

Contact us so we can start working with you to help you send and receive emails responsibly. Without having confusion over whether they’re safe or not.

To BCC, CC or To? Tis the question

to bcc cc or to tis the question

You’ve probably been sending emails for the better part of the past 15 to 20 years. They have become an essential communication tool, but did you know that there is a generally accepted etiquette when it comes to email? Most of us focus on certain rules when it comes to writing the body of the email, but few of us really look at the To; CC and BCC fields. Indeed, many people don’t use these fields in the right way, which can lead to trouble in the future.

Below are some tips on how to properly use the To; CC and BCC fields in emails.

To

The To field is typically used for contacts who you want to communicate directly with. If you add a few people here then you need to put their names in the salutation part of your email. E.g., Hi Tom, Neena and Irina. If you are sending out a company wide announcement, or an email to your team, you can put the individual addresses in the To field. Then, instead of addressing everyone individually use something like: Hello Team.

One of the unwritten but largely accepted email rules is that if an email address is in the To field, you’re saying it’s ok for other recipients to email one another regarding the email. There is a common perception that you should limit the number of people in the To field. There’s no real limit on how many addresses can be included. This is as long as all the recipients are directly involved in the subject of the email. Even if it’s 1,000 people you can still put them in.

Where this view of limiting addresses in the To box stems from is that more email addresses make the email look unwieldy. It could also anger people who want their email address kept private. Many users create groups and give each group a name which will show in the To field to all users. This will often eliminate the issue of people wanting their email addresses kept private. Also, simultaneously cutting the number of email addresses people have to scroll through.

CC

CC stands for Carbon Copy and is usually used for people who should know about the content of the email but aren’t directly involved. As such, contacts who are CC’d are not expected to be a part of the conversation. However, they can jump in if they want to. CC can also be used to tell the recipients that they aren’t the only people who have seen this email. If you CC management, most people will see this and will likely be more inclined to follow through on the content of the email.

BCC

Email addresses in the BCC, Blind Carbon Copy, will receive the email. However, recipients in the To and CC fields won’t see the address of those in the BCC field. BCC is most commonly used for mailing lists, or other periodicals. Additinally, for when recipients request that their email address be kept private.

You should be careful with BCC though. For example, if you are sending an email with sensitive information to one party, and you BCC another, you get in hot water if either party finds out and is not happy about what might be thought of as secret sharing.

These are just a few simple tips to ensure you follow email etiquette. If you would like to learn more about better ways to send emails, please contact us, we can help.