Patrick Sande October 8, 2019
Last month we kicked off a new blog post dedicated to digging into all the email data we have at our finger tips. I want to build on that effort with a summary of email trends from September, but also take a deeper dive into the trends. In this week's post, we're going to look at the overall trends from September and compare those to August. We will also look for trends in our stats to better understand when emails are being sent and see if we can uncover any new opportunities or questions to explore.
So, with that, here's your September Stats Summary:
There are a few subtle, but notable shifts from August. Up first is the increase in the Average # of Words per Email and also a decrease in the Average Spam Score. At some point I would like to explore this one more, I wonder if there's a bigger relationship at play here. ESP's are looking for a good ratio of images to text, optimally 40% image coverage with no less than 60%. If word counts are going up, that could positively impact Spam scores.
But, what really stands out is that the Most Common Send Day for September was Monday. Tuesday's and Thursday's have long been cited as the best days to send email. Fortunately, a quick glance at the calendar helps explain what we're seeing. There were five Monday's in September, giving it a leg up on the remaining days of the work week.
This peaked my interest. It's a simple finding but left me wanting to see what email volume looks like across the entire month of September. Intrigued? Me too so let's take a peek
This chart demonstrates fluctuations in email volume throughout the week and shows us to see some of the trends we'd expect to see. That said, I was surprised at how consistent the send volume was on Monday's. I also find it interesting that Monday, September 2nd was the strongest Monday of the month - potentially seeing a boost from Labor Day sales in the US?
That leads me to my final graph. I took send volume by date and then grouped it by day of week. I was curious to see how each day ranked in September. Here's what I found
Monday wins the month, but Tuesday is just behind. Were we to exclude one of the Monday sends, Tuesday would be top send day for September. Interesting, if you ask me. As I stated earlier, Tuesdays and Thursdays have long been cited as the best days to send. While we don't have a way to measure engagement from this data set, we can clearly see that the practice holds true. I'll be curious to see how these trends change over the coming months.
Do these trends support your sending practices? What stands out to you?