It was 4.30am.
I opened my eyes… Light was beginning to seep into my room, waking me up.
Most people would have rolled right back over and gone back to sleep…
But me? I reached for my phone… First, I had to check my email 🙂
It’s a pretty standard story for me. I’m an email addict.
So you can send me an email pretty much any time of the day – or night! – and chances are, I’ll read it.
(And yes, I know this is a problem… I know I need to keep my phone out of my room… And I know I need blackout blinds!).
But how about your patients? If you send them marketing emails, does it matter when you hit that ‘Send’ button…?
Or are there some times during the day when they’re more likely to check their Inbox…
…And therefore that’s when you should email them, to maximize responses?
It’s one of the most frequent questions we get from owners of aesthetic clinics and medspas. In fact, it’s safe to say it’s one of the most frequent questions asked by business owners in any market.
People seem to be convinced that getting the timing right on your emails is key to their success…
…and that it makes a great deal of difference whether you send your emails at 10am on a Monday or at 11am on a Thursday.
They’re not completely wrong…
I try to avoid sending out marketing emails both for ourselves or for the clinics we work with in the evenings and on Saturdays. (And definitely not late on a Saturday evening!)
Many years of experience in email marketing have shown me that you always get around 25-30% of email opens in the first couple of hours after sending…
…And whilst it’s true that people’s Inboxes are less crowded at night time and on Saturdays, people just aren’t glued to their email the way they are during the day or during the week.
So while you’ll still get some opens at that time, your open rates are likely to be noticeably lower than usual…
…And if you have something important to say, that’s a shame.
But during the week?
I don’t think it’s worthwhile obsessing about whether you should send your emails at 9am or 10am….
I mean, you might see a % difference here or there…
If your emails don’t capture your patients’ hearts or imagination…
Then worrying about sending it out at 12pm vs 3pm is really missing the point.
Some practices will definitely swear that one time works for them better than the rest.
But if you really want to maximize engagement and impact, switching from 9am to 10am is not going to be what makes the major difference.
There’s only one thing that will make people regularly read and absorb your emails…
…And that’s writing great ones!
If your emails aren’t as good as they could be…
Or if they don’t capture your patients’ hearts or imagination…
Then worrying about sending it out at 12pm vs 3pm is really missing the point.
Your time, or the time of whoever handles the emails in your practice, would be better spent working on creating better emails –
Learning how to write engaging, heartfelt, authentic messages that your patients truly love…
Which make them want your treatments (not just wait for the latest discount)…
…And which build relationships with you, and your practice, no matter when they’re sent.
Want to send emails just like that – but don’t have time to learn to write them yourself?
That’s why we created Inbox Express, our library of marketing emails for aesthetic clinics and medspas.
Click here to get the details.
Miriam Shaviv is creator of Inbox Express, the library of marketing emails for aesthetic clinics and med spas, designed to make your marketing effective and easy – and send the right messages to your patients as you re-open after Coronavirus! Find out more here.
She is Director of Content at Brainstorm Digital, which helps aesthetic clinics and med spas get patients through their doors again and again – without the headache of costly online advertising.
