The Best Time to Send Emails for Replies

Crafting the perfect email or LinkedIn message is one thing, getting a top candidate to reply is (sadly) quite another.

It's getting harder and harder to get through the the best talent, so timing your messages to perfection is essential if you're interested in responses.

Most candidates will read your messages within the first 60 minutes, (after 24 hours there is little to no chance your email will be opened). If you send your email at the wrong time, you could be seriously handicapping your chances of success.

Here's the data on the best time to send emails for recruitment:

Should you send emails on weekdays or the weekend?

Is it easier to make yourself heard in a crowd of people or in a small group?

The answer is obvious. If you do not have to compete with other people talking, you're far more likely to get noticed.

Getting replies to your emails is no different:

According to data gathered by Yesware, you've got a better chance of having your email opened and replied to if you send it on a weekend when there is less competition.

From our research at Beamery, we've found that Sunday evening works the best. People tend to be preparing for the week ahead, and have time to read and respond to your messages.

If you still want to send your emails during the week...

If you feel uncomfortable sending candidates emails over the weekend don't worry, you can still get great results by sticking to Monday to Friday.

Bear in mind that the competition is much fiercer, and it could be harder to stand out in a candidate's inbox. Not only are you competing with all of their "work" emails, but also a multitude of marketing emails, special offers and other recruiters.

If you're set on sending during the week, research suggests that Thursday is the best day to hit send.

On Thursdays, you can expect the highest open rate:

And the best click rate:

An important misconception that this data illustrates is that Fridays are no worse then any other day for sending out emails. In fact, messages sent on Fridays may be more effective than those sent on Monday!

If you're a team that "saves" Friday emails for Monday, maybe it's time to reconsider that plan.

Should you send emails in the morning or evening?

Yesware data indicates that emails sent in the early morning and evening perform better than during the middle of the day.

As you can see by the graph below, by sending emails at these times, you're avoiding the huge volume of messages sent through the day.

There's less competition in the morning and evening, so your messages are more likely to get opened and replied to (data indicates that the reply rate hovers around 45% at these times...)

Don't take all this data as gospel though, we recommend that you track your own open and reply rates to work out when the candidates that you're trying to reach are most responsive.