When Is The Best Time To Send Newsletters?
Email marketing is a tough thing, but still one of the best tools we have to promote and sell our golf course and services. We are always testing the best days and times to send email newsletters to achieve the best open rates and click through results.
No Secret Sauce To Email Marketing
Here is what we have learned over the past 14 years of doing email marketing… there is NO magic bullet. Every golf course, client and customer database is different.
Test Your Newsletter Send Times
In the old days, yup that is only a dozen years ago, Google would tell us that 10am Tuesday to Thursday was the best time to send emails. That was likely true back then but as mobile becomes a larger and larger part of our lives that is changing! Email is more frequently being opened on the weekends and in the evenings. We continue to find this evolving and it varies by golf course.
Experiment With Your Email Marketing
We see too many golf courses sending their email the same dates and times each and every month… on the 1st (regardless of the day) and at 4pm. Consistently! Change it up, do some experimenting. Test your email sending habits and do it often. Keep track of every email you send, what time, what day and the corresponding open and click rates. We are sure you will find a new sweet spot and increase your opens and clicks! Regardless of what you do make sure you follow-up on all the leads your email generates.
Other Experiments
Open and click rates are not solely a product of the day and time an email is sent. We also encourage you to experiment with subject lines. In some cases, bland subject lines (such as Golf News) might seem boring but they likely help your email avoid spam filters. Try some engaging subject lines too but avoid words like sale, deal and discount for the same reasons. You should also move your clickable links to various areas of your newsletter. Most newsletter programs offer a map of ‘hot spots’ to see where readers clicked the most or spent the most time.
Don’t listen to everything you read online. Do your own experimenting. As we said at the beginning, every customer database is different.
We, Jeff and Tara Ciecko of CK Golf write two blogs, one is our 19th Hole Blog where we share personal experiences and the other an Industry Blog where we comment on general business and internet marketing best practices, sales strategies and give golf industry related opinions. We have owned CK Golf for 14 years and provide business services to the golf and other industries. As of July 31, 2016 our life and our business became ‘location independent’. Our 19th Hole Blog is about the places we visit and the things we do. If you have any questions or comments, or happen to be in the same location as us please reach out and contact us anytime.
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