When Is the Best Time to Send an Important Email?

Your email may never be opened. Sure, you wrote brilliant copy. You also took the time to craft a compelling subject line. You followed good email etiquette. But, unless you considered the best time to send an email, your message may still be destined for the trash bin.

By my conservative estimate, I’ve sent at least 100,000 emails since the early days of the Internet. (May Prodigy rest in peace.) It wasn’t until I started handling public and media relations a decade or so ago that I gave a second thought to how an email’s send time affects open rates. Time of day may not be important if you’re writing your grandma in Poughkeepsie to tell her you won’t be making it to Thanksgiving dinner (although, if she’s email savvy, she may wonder what on earth you were doing up at 3 a.m.), but it’s crucial for things like:

• Sales and marketing campaigns
• PR pitches
• Survey participation requests
• Newsletters
• Important business communication

Although strategically timing email deliveries is an art that requires intuition, testing, and knowledge of your audience, science can provide some guidance. Let’s take a look at what research says.

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READ: The 15 Most Common Email Mistakes of 2017

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What studies say about the best time to send email

CoSchedule, the team behind the marketing calendar software, compiled research from ten different email studies from sources like MailChimp, CampaignMonitor, and HubSpot.

What’s super cool about this sample of articles is that the research varies from studying billions (yes, seriously) of emails to more than 20 million, from case studies to roundups. The data is diverse, but there are dots to connect that’ll help you send emails on the best days and at the best times.

—CoSchedule Blog

Let’s look at the facts.

The best day to send email

According to the studies, Tuesday was “hands down the #1 best day to send emails.” So, if you’ve got a big email campaign coming up, or you just want to make sure your boss is going to open your pitch asking to be considered for a promotion, you can’t go wrong sending email on Tuesday. Research says your email is more likely to be opened then than any other day of the week.

The second-best day to send an email is Thursday. If you’re going to send an initial email and a follow-up, you could consider sending the first on Tuesday with a follow-up on Thursday.

Wednesday ranked as the third best day for sending email, clinching a win for the middle of the week. But there’s data to suggest that Saturday and Sunday are good days to send marketing emails. (I’ll admit to having opened a sales flyer or two on those days. Have you?) The data may be slightly skewed, though, because those are also the days when the fewest emails are sent. Although the open rates may be higher, the actual number of emails opened is much lower.

The best time to send email

According to the collective research, 10 a.m. is the best time to send an email. (11 a.m. ranked right up there, too.) Surprisingly, the time slot between 8 p.m. and midnight ranked as the second-best time. But think about it—how often do you check your email before heading off to bed? (Yeah. Me, too.) And, because half of us also check our email first thing in the morning, 6 a.m. is also a prime time.

Afternoon, at around 2 p.m., also seems promising. It’s toward the end of the workday, at a time when people are getting restless and looking for distractions.

Here’s a tip: Don’t forget to account for time zones! If you’re sending a mass email to an audience spanning several time zones, you might consider aiming for a middle ground. For example, if your audience is in both the Eastern and Pacific time zones, you could time your email so it hits the Pacific time people at 6 a.m., which would mean the Eastern time people would receive their email at 9 a.m.

What Grammarly learned about the best time to write email

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” That’s the old proverb often attributed to Ben Franklin. And, according to Grammarly’s analysis, it turns out he may have been onto something.

The Grammarly team wanted to know whether time of day had a measurable effect on the quality of a person’s writing, so we crunched over one billion words proofread by our app in search of answers. Ben Franklin might have been pleased with our discoveries. We learned that, although we can’t know the status of their health, wealth, or wisdom, Grammarly users do their best online writing early in the day.

Grammarly’s research showed that we do our best writing between the hours of 4 a.m. and 8 a.m., averaging 11.8 mistakes per 100 words. Night owls writing between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. didn’t fare as well, with 14.3 mistakes per 100 words.

The takeaway? If you’re going to write late at night, at least get help checking your grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Why you should consider your email’s audience

All this data analysis provides a helpful baseline, but the reality is that your audience ultimately determines the best day and time to send an email, whether it’s to an individual or a large group.

I’ve spent a good deal of my working life writing to journalists. Finding the best time to connect with the majority involved thinking about what their workdays might be like. Many journalists rise early and check email first thing. My message could be waiting in their inbox, and if it offers an intriguing hook (including a compelling subject line, clear and concise copy, and a strong call-to-action), it’s more likely to get a response. By getting into my recipient’s head, I’ve had PR campaigns with 55 percent response rates. (Which, in case you don’t know, is darn good!)

When it comes to emailing a specific audience, take their lifestyle and workday into consideration. When might they be most likely to check email? Aim for that time so your email stands a better chance of being at the top of their inbox. When might they be most likely to reply or click through to a link?

Consider the nature of your email, too. How easy is it for your recipient to accomplish what you’re asking for? It’s one thing to request a simple act like clicking through to a link, but another if you’re asking for something more complicated, like for the recipient to provide feedback or take a survey. Remember, your goal isn’t just to get your email opened (although that’s a good start), you also need your recipient to respond to your call to action.

Go ahead and use the mountains of email research as a guideline. After all, you probably can’t go too wrong sending important emails on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. But to truly optimize for a mass audience, consider your recipients, theorize a few of the best times to reach them, and then test your theories. Happy emailing!

9 Easy Tips That Will Improve Bland Writing

Just like food, your writing needs spice. Keep these tips in your cupboard to take your writing from bland to scrumptious.

About a year ago, I got interested in cooking. For most of my adult life, I’d been making things like spaghetti with sauce from a jar, macaroni and cheese complete with powdered “cheese,” and the occasional boxed meal (just add ground beef!). Sometimes, I went a little wild and threw some canned tuna into the mac and cheese, or added real frozen broccoli to the boxed meal. My family ate it. They didn’t know any better.

But then, spurred on by a retired chef I befriended, I decided to give cooking a try. Real cooking. I bought fresh veggies and meats. I practiced until I had the knife skills to slice, dice, and julienne. I learned that stovetop burners aren’t meant to be set to high heat unless you’re trying to boil something. (Who knew?) I learned that basic salt and pepper make everything delicious. Throw in some well-chosen herbs and spices, and I can elevate the taste of my food to a whole new level. The kind that makes another friend kiss the backs of his fingertips like a French chef in an old movie and declare my meals delectable.

Writing is a lot like cooking. You can string together bland, canned phrases and hope that readers who don’t know any better won’t mind, or you can pull some spicy new tricks off the shelf and make your content truly delish.

The Basics

Before you can improve your cooking skills, you’ve got to learn a few basics. It’s the same with writing. Keep your text lean, use flavorful language, and express yourself confidently.

1 Begin with lean writing.

Flabby writing is unpalatable. Trim excess adverbs and use strong verbs or adjectives instead. (The comedian wasn’t very funny, she was hilarious.) Learn what a preposition is and how to streamline prepositional phrases. (The car didn’t come over the top of the hill, it crested the hill.) Slash extraneous words and phrases.

2 But don’t make it too lean.

Just as a cut of meat can be so lean that it’s dry and lacking flavor, writing that’s overly sanitized can sound sterile. Using an occasional adverb as a conscious style choice can make your writing sound more natural and conversational. Just don’t overdo it. Every adverb you use should have to justify its existence. If you can’t explain why you think it enhances your text, then out it goes.

3 Write with confidence.

Timid knife skills are dangerous when cooking. Timid language is a danger to writing.

Are you hedging your bets, using language that sounds unsure and wishy-washy? Eliminate phrases like you may want to, it’s possible that, and they can try, and weasel words like probably and sometimes.

You don’t have to give your readers an out clause unless you’re truly sure that what you’re suggesting might not work. And, in that case, ask yourself why you’re suggesting it in the first place.

4 Use powerful words and imagery . . .

If you use a lot of “to be” verbs (be, am, is, are, was, were, been, being) or other linking verbs (appear, feel, look, seem, remain, sound), search for opportunities to spice up your writing with livelier verb choices.

Weak Verb

Alex felt anxious when it was time to give his speech.

Rather than telling the reader that Alex felt anxious, paint a word picture. Help the reader see Alex and recognize the feelings Alex is experiencing. The example below uses strong verbs and the time-honored advice given to writers: show, don’t tell.

Strong Verb

Alex’s hand trembled as he adjusted the microphone. His heart hammered in his chest.

5 . . . but keep your language simple.

Yes, use colorful, expressive language. But no, don’t hunt through your thesaurus in search of exotic words no one’s going to recognize. Don’t use fancy words just for the sake of it.

Keep your audience in mind. I had a colleague years back who regularly used SAT words that sent even those of us with stellar vocabularies scrambling for our dictionaries. We wrote for the video game industry. The average gamer is plenty intelligent, but most don’t flock to read articles full of words like cynosure, excogitate, and perspicacious. What a sesquipedalian that guy was!

How to Find Your Writing Style

Now that you’ve got the basics of lean, expressive writing down, it’s time to add some serious flavor. To spice up your writing, find your style. Here are some ways to develop it.

6 Emulate other writers you admire.

Yes, you should develop your own voice. But a great way to start finding it is to write in the style of another writer you admire. Learn their language, techniques, and patterns. Then, start adapting that style to make it your own.

When I was a young, green fiction writer, I idolized Stephen King. (Who am I kidding? I still do.) I tried my best to write like him. I didn’t become a rich and famous Stephen King clone, but I did learn a thing or two about style. If there’s one thing I have to thank Mr. King for (in truth, there are many things) it’s the fact that I can write solid, authentic dialog.

7 Try creative formats.

I could’ve made this article into another dull treatise on how to write better. The Internet is full of them. Instead, I decided to use cooking as a metaphor for spicing up bland writing. You certainly don’t have to search for a gimmick for every article you write, but do try to change things up on the regular. Maybe your article on ways to learn a new language is better suited for a listicle. Writing up a history with lots of dates? Maybe it would work well as a timeline.

8 Be a storyteller.

Storytelling isn’t just for fiction. I’ve shared my experience with learning to cook and related it to liven up your writing. I offered an anecdote about a sesquipedalian (it means one who uses long words) games journalist. We relate better to writing that seems to come from a real person, and also writing that’s about real people. If your content reads like a textbook, consider whether adding an anecdote or story, or just revealing some of your own thoughts, would give your post flavor.

9 Be interested in what you write about.

Being interested in your topic is one of the best ways to make your writing sizzle. Even if you’re faced with a topic you find dull, odds are good you’ll be able to find some intriguing facts you didn’t know before you started researching. Once you’ve uncovered something fascinating, write about it in a way that says “Look at this cool new stuff I learned!” Explore what captures your interest, and your content will be less like a box of mac and cheese and more like a nourishing gourmet meal.

These 7 Posts Will Help Your Job Search Pursuit

Your dream job is out there.

You can and will find it soon. How do we know this? Because you are driven, focused and have come to the right place for job-seeking advice. Grammarly is here to help.

Don’t be mistaken. Finding an ideal career path isn’t easy. Job interviews are tough. Plus, figuring out your perfect fit can be challenging. All of this is what makes the job-search process something most people dread.

Not you, though.

The necessary motivation, inspiration and practical tips on how to best position yourself to be successful and reach your long-term goals can be found here.

Grammarly’s blog has made it a priority to offer our readers actionable insights on how to approach a job search. Below you’ll find seven recent posts that cover the fundamental aspects of finding your ideal place of employment.

1 Organization is essential in beginning any job hunt.

Pro tip: Let technology be your friend. Spending endless hours searching is fine, even encouraged, but don’t be shy about using job sites to populate your inbox with relevant opportunities.

Now that you have an idea of what you’re looking for, you can start digging into job boards. Many will send you email alerts with new positions that match your skills.

Source: How to Get Organized During Your Job Search: 6 Helpful Tips

2 Your LinkedIn profile is becoming just as important as your resume.

Pro tip: Most job seekers overlook the value of a profile summary on LinkedIn. Use it wisely to add deeper context to your work experience.

The top of your LinkedIn profile is an opportunity to summarize what you’re about—to make an impression beyond the array of jobs you’ve held. You might try thinking of it as an opportunity to answer the question “What makes me an outstanding candidate for my next career move?”

Source: We Studied 750 Top LinkedIn Profiles. Here’s How to Write Yours Better.

3 Resumes, cover letters, and email correspondence will be the difference-maker in your dream-job pursuits.

Pro tip: In most cases, how and what you write is often the first interaction you’ll have with future employers. Make sure you spend extra time crafting your personal copy before applying for a new job.

In today’s competitive job market, how you communicate with potential employers can make your skills stand out. Making sure you effectively express yourself, accurately represent your abilities, and stay present throughout the process is what makes the difference in ultimately receiving a job offer.

Source: Red Flags to Avoid During Your Job Search in 2017

4 Once you’ve landed a job interview, what you say and how you say it will further demonstrate your abilities to perform the tasks required by a potential new company.

Pro tip: Don’t show up to an interview without any preparation. Thinking your way through potential interview questions ahead of time will give you comfort when having to talk about important topics like work experience and expected salary.

Taking the time to prepare can mean the difference between walking away from an interview with a sinking feeling and landing the sweet gig you’ve been hoping for.

Source: 10 Things You Should Avoid Saying in a Job Interview

5 The way you frame your skills is critical in the job-search process.

Pro tip: Demonstrate your enthusiasm for the position and explain why your experience aligns with the responsibilities that are needed by the company.

Remember that everybody starts somewhere, and hiring managers interview inexperienced candidates all the time. When you’re still growing in your career, there’s one positive quality you can emphasize to help you win over a potential employer—enthusiasm for learning. Show the employer that not only are you able to learn, but you’re excited by the possibilities.

Source: This Is How to Put a Positive Spin on Weaknesses in a Job Interview

6 Your professional-self and personal-self should be very much aligned during a job search.

Pro tip: Be cognizant of what you’ve posted on social media and how you present yourself in public forums, especially if your social-media activity is tied directly to the line of work you seek.

According to a CareerBuilder.com survey, 60 percent of employers research job candidates on social media, and over half are reluctant to hire candidates with no online presence. They’re mainly looking for professionalism, whether you’re a fit for the company, and proof of your qualifications. If your social media profiles show you in that light, you’re golden.

Source: 9 Things to Avoid on Social Media While Looking for a New Job

7. You’ve done everything correctly in the job search and now an offer is in your hands. What happens next?

Pro tip: Research the company you’re looking to join. Remember, you’re hiring them, too, in a sense. Sites like Glassdoor can show a glimpse into a company’s culture by offering candid reviews from current and former employees.

The important part when researching a company is to take into account themes you uncover from a variety of employees, and looking for reviews and details related to what’s important to you and your life in and out of work. What’s a bad review to one person may not be a bad review to someone else, so it depends on what’s most important to you.

Source: The Ultimate Guide to Analyzing a Company’s Glassdoor Page

Simple Past Tense–Grammar Rules

The simple past is a verb tense that is used to talk about things that happened or existed before now. Imagine someone asks what your brother Wolfgang did while he was in town last weekend.

Wolfgang entered a hula hoop contest.

He won the silver medal.

The simple past tense shows that you are talking about something that has already happened. Unlike the past continuous tense, which is used to talk about past events that happened over a period of time, the simple past tense emphasizes that the action is finished.

Wolfgang admired the way the light glinted off his silver medal.

You can also use the simple past to talk about a past state of being, such as the way someone felt about something. This is often expressed with the simple past tense of the verb to be and an adjective, noun, or prepositional phrase.

Wolfgang was proud of his hula hoop victory.

The contest was the highlight of his week.

How to Formulate the Simple Past

For regular verbs, add -ed to the root form of the verb (or just -d if the root form already ends in an e):

Play→Played Type→Typed Listen→Listened Push→Pushed Love→Loved

For irregular verbs, things get more complicated. The simple past tense of some irregular verbs looks exactly like the root form:

Put→Put Cut→Cut Set→Set Cost→Cost Hit→Hit

For other irregular verbs, including the verb to be, the simple past forms are more erratic:

See→Saw Build→Built Go→Went Do→Did Rise→Rose Am/Is/Are→Was/Were

The good news is that verbs in the simple past tense (except for the verb to be) don’t need to agree in number with their subjects.

Wolfgang polished his medal. The other winners polished their medals too.

How to Make the Simple Past Negative

Fortunately, there is a formula for making simple past verbs negative, and it’s the same for both regular and irregular verbs (except for the verb to be). The formula is did not + [root form of verb]. You can also use the contraction didn’t instead of did not.

Wolfgang did not brag too much about his hula hoop skills. Wolfgang’s girlfriend didn’t see the contest.

For the verb to be, you don’t need the auxiliary did. When the subject of the sentence is singular, use was not or wasn’t. When the subject is plural, use were not or weren’t.

The third-place winner was not as happy as Wolfgang. The fourth-place winner wasn’t happy at all. The onlookers were not ready to leave after the contest ended. The contestants weren’t ready to leave either.

How to Ask a Question

The formula for asking a question in the simple past tense is did + [subject] + [root form of verb].

Did Wolfgang win the gold medal or the silver medal? Where did Wolfgang go to celebrate? Did the judges decide fairly, in your opinion?

When asking a question with the verb to be, you don’t need the auxiliary did. The formula is was/were + [subject].

Was Wolfgang in a good mood after the contest? Were people taking lots of pictures?

Common Regular Verbs in the Past Tense

Common Irregular Verbs in the Past Tense

Not-So-Sweet 16: Emoji Overload vs. The One-Word Line

Welcome to the Not-So-Sweet 16 round of March MADness! In our quest to find the most annoying work pet peeve, we’ve had some real battles. Some were obvious choices, while others were more evenly matched. And now, we’re out to determine the winners of each of our “conferences:” chat, email, phone calls, and old-fashioned, in-person talking. Which horrible habit will reign supreme?

Emoji Overload:

��������☠️ These people like to send a string of seemingly useless emojis in work chat, especially in public channels. While they may think it’s cute, it actually shows they have nothing to say.

The One-Word Line:

This Chat Habit Is Annoying. When you receive one word per line over chat, it takes longer to read and is 100 times more irritating.

11 Risks of Not Proofreading Your Application Essay

Guest Post from Leslie Anglesey, Professor at California State University, Sacramento

Writing an application essay is no easy task, but reading it should be. College admission boards consider a number of things when reviewing an application. While most students understand the importance of extra-curricular activities and GPAs, the admission essay often gets overlooked. As a result, admission boards may skip reading the essay altogether or, worse yet, actually read the entire thing and determine you never made it past English 101.

In order to clearly get across to students everywhere just how important it is to proofread your college application essays, I’ve put together a list of eleven hazards of poor editing that could negatively impact your chances of being accepted to the school of your dreams.

1. No One’s Going to Read it!

That’s right. At the first sight of egregious grammatical errors, or issues with syntax and coherency, admissions offers will send your essay straight to the paper shredding machine. Competition to get into top schools is fierce, and it is important to do all you can to stay in the running.

2. You Miss a Moment to Shine

Your application essay is an incredible opportunity to speak directly to admissions officers at your dream school. Don’t take this lightly. This is your chance to show the college who you are, what you’re made of, and how you’re a great fit for the school. By not proofreading, you’ll blend into the background and get lost in the shuffle of other applicants.

3. You’ll Undermine Your Hard Work in Other Areas

You ran track, volunteered at soup kitchens, ran for student council and participated in drama, chess, and sports throughout your high school career. On top of all that, you did it while maintaining an impressive GPA. You’ve worked hard for four straight years and turning in a poorly written admission essay can derail all that hard work. It won’t matter how many extra-curricular activities you have under your belt if your essay is riddled with misspelled words, poor grammar, and word choices that are on par with a junior high writing level.

4. You Seem Less Than Serious

If your writing is sloppy or incoherent and messy, what does that indicate about how serious you are? Application boards look at essays not only to determine how well you can communicate, but also how much attention to detail and independent work you can put into a small assignment. Your admission essay is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the work that will be expected of you. If you slack off and rush through even this simple assignment, it implies you’ll treat subsequent assignments the same way.

5. Your Abilities Look Amateurish

Maybe in the passionate drive to write an epic essay you forget to highlight certain skills that you’ve garnered over the years that would be a perfect fit for your intended area of study. By proofreading your work, you can go back and showcase these skills more effectively. It also gives you a chance to polish your writing, making you look as professional as possible.

6. You Increase Your Waiting Period

Applying to any college is time consuming. First you have to take the time to produce an application and an essay, then send it off and wait for a reply. What happens if you get denied? How much longer will you have to wait and how much will this set back your education or career goals? By proofreading your essay you’ll increase your chances of acceptance and fast-track your application through the admissions process. Poorly written essays may earn a debate among admission boards, but that time to discuss a student takes additional time. Polish your work, put your best foot forward and you’ll be a clear-cut winner.

7. You Are Not Being Concise

One of the most powerful tools that proofreading provides is the ability to be concise, critical, direct, etc. There’s only so much room in any essay, and you need to make a great argument/presentation without overtly weighing it down with too much abstraction. Choose your words wisely!

8. Your Opener is Weak

Often, potential students focus far too much on the body of their essays. The two most important parts of your essay are the opener and the closer. Proofreading gives you a chance to really home in on both of these sections. Your opener should engage readers, while presenting them with an overview of the topic you plan to cover. Your closer should seal the deal.

9. Avoid Cliches Like the Plague

Don’t proofread your essay directly after you write the first draft. Give yourself some time to disengage and refresh. Sleep on it. When you return you’ll likely find all the more generic or cliché statements that sounded brilliant yesterday are not as witty today.

10. You Devalue Future Applications

First impressions are a big deal. That’s no joke. You only get one . . .  so don’t risk ruining it with a college you’re really trying to get into. Most people know they need to dress a certain way or present themselves in the best possible light at a job interview. When it comes to applying to schools, however, it won’t matter how well you do your hair or how great you look all dressed up. Your essay is your first impression. How well or poorly it’s written gives the admission board their initial impression of you, so make the most of it.

11. You’re Wasting Application Fees!

Didn’t anyone ever tell you money doesn’t grow on trees? Most applications have an ever-so-lovely application fee that comes along with them. Should you be denied, your second application will include another fee. Don’t throw money away on something you could have easily avoided through a quick proofread.

Your admission essay carries more weight than you may think. Simply put, your essay is your first impression. As such, it’s something you should put energy, time and focus into, just as you would for your first appearance at a job interview. Proofreading your essay to ensure it is error free and showcases your ability to communicate effectively is your best bet in convincing your school of choice that you are the kind of student they want and the professional of tomorrow the world needs.

Happy applying!

About the Author

Leslie Anglesey, Ph.D., is a writing coach and a professor in the University of Southern California.

She blogs on her website and has been featured in Chicago Tribune, Business Insider, Live Write Thrive and other publications.