SECRETS OF EMAIL

PROSPECTING
THE WHEN AND HOW OF
INCREASED OPEN RATES
 SALES EMAIL SECRETS
What 18 million emails tell us about email
prospecting

Sales reps are relying more and more on email as a form of communication in
prospecting and closing activities. In fact, our data shows that the average sales rep
sends 34 emails per day, up 20% from 2017. As this communication method
becomes increasingly important, sales reps are constantly working to discover the
best practices that surround it. This year, XANT analyzed over 18 million emails
(which excluded marketing emails) to find that on average only 31.29% of were
opened. That means that out of three emails, less than one is being opened by
prospects. We also tried to find out what day and time result in the best open and
download rates, and what subject-line best practices we could extract. In this study
you’ll find the day, time, and subject-line content secrets that will help boost your
open and download rates and fuel your business development efforts.

1
Best time for open rates was 4-5PM, for download rates
it was 5-6PM
People most frequently (10.86% of emails we looked at) send email between 8:00 AM and
9:00 AM. Optimal time for getting the best open rates was between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM,
which produced an open rate of 35.73%. For the best download rates, the optimal time was
between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM, resulting in a 77.78% download rate when emails contained
attachments.

Open rate, by send hour

40%
35.73%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Hour of the day

Download rate, by send hour

90%
77.78%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Hour of the day

2
Optimal send time produced 21% better open rate, 64%
better download rate
Both open and downloads rates during optimal times were significantly better than during the
most common time, between 8 and 9 AM. The optimally timed (4 PM-5 PM) open rate was
35.73%, 20.71% higher than during the most common time (8 AM-9 AM), at 29.60%.
Download rate showed an even steeper (63.72%) difference, from 77.78% during the optimal
time (5-6 PM) to 47.51% during the most frequent send window.

Open and download rate,

most common send time vs optimal send times
90%
80%
70%
60%
+63.72%
50%
40% +20.71%
30%
20%
10% 4 PM 5 PM
0%
Open rate Download rate

Most common - 8AM Optimal

3
Monday best day for open rates, Wednesday best for
download rates
At 21.1% of our sample, Tuesday was the most common day to send emails. Interestingly, the
best open rate was achieved by sending on Monday, with 31.96%. The best download rate was
for emails sent on Wednesday, with 53.79%.

Open rate, by day Download rate, by day

35% 31.96% 0.6 53.79%
30% 0.5
25% 0.4
20%
0.3
15%
10% 0.2
5% 0.1
0% 0

ay
ay
y

ay

ay
y

ay
ay
ay
y

ay

ay
ay

da
da
da
da

rd
sd

sd

id
nd
rd
sd

sd

id
nd

es
on
es
on

Fr
Fr

tu
tu

ur
ne
ur
ne

Su
Su

Tu
Tu

M
M

Sa
Sa

Th
Th

ed
ed

W
W

4
Optimal send day increases open rates 2%, download
rates 9%
When compared to the most common send day, the open-rate optimized day was slightly
better, while the download-rate optimized day yielded significantly better rates. While the
average open rate on Monday (the best day for open rates) was 31.96%, just 1.87% higher
than Tuesday (the most popular day for email sends), the average download rate on
Wednesday (the best day for download rates) was 53.79%, or 8.50% higher than on
Tuesdays.

Open and
and download rate,
most common
most common send
send day vs optimal
optimal send
sendday
day
60%
60%
53.79%
49.58% +8.50%
50%
50%

40%
40%
31.38% +1.87% 31.96%
30%
30%

20%
20%

10%
10%
Monday Wednesday
0%
0%
Open rate
Open rate Download rate

Most
Mostcommon
common -- Tuesday
Tuesday Optimal
Optimal

5
Shorter subject lines get more opens
We not only looked at the best time to send emails, but the content of those emails as well.
Optimal subject lines were short, consisting of 1-3 words, with 6-10 characters. This contrasts
with normal practice, which we found to be 5.7 words made of 35.1 characters on average.
Compared to the average, emails with the optimal number of characters had 32.8% higher
open rates and 62.8% higher download rates, while those with the optimal word count had
17.7% higher open rates and 36.7% higher download rates.

Email subject line best practices - characters

50%
41.8%
40%
31.5% 31.8%
30%
19.5%
20%
+32.8%
10% +62.8%
35.1 6-10 35.1 6-10
0%
Open rate Download rate

Average Optimal

Email subject line best practices

Email subject line best practices - - words
characters
50%
50%

40%
40% 36.9%
31.3%
30%
30% 27.5%
20.1%
20%
20% +17.7%
10%
10% +36.7%
5.7 3.0 5.7 1.0
0%
0%
Open rate
Open rate Download rate
Download rate
Average
Average Optimal
Optimal

6
Subject lines beginning with “FWD:” got opened more
than 2X as often as regular emails
Emails with subject lines beginning with “FWD:” were most opened and downloaded, versus
those beginning with “RE:” or normal emails. “FWD:” emails were opened an average of 57.2%
of the time, versus 44.9% for “RE:” emails and 26.2% for all others. “FWD:” emails with
attachments had those attachments downloaded 36.8% of the time on average, compared to
“RE:” emails with 21.9% and 13.5% for all others.

Subject line best practices -

Subject line best practices -beginning text
beginning text
70%
70%

60%
60% 57.2%
rate

50%
Open/Download rate

50% 44.9%
Open/Download

40%
40% 36.8%

30%
30% 26.2%
21.9%
20%
20%
13.5%

10%
10%
normal RE: FWD: normal RE: FWD:
0%
0%
open_rate
open_rate download_rate
download_rate

7
Emails with attachments 10% more likely to be opened
than those without attachments
Emails carrying attachments were 10.33% more likely to be opened than emails that were not.
With attachments, emails were opened 34.34% versus those without attachments at 31.13%.

Open rates, with and without attachments

37%
34.34%
+10.33%
34%
31.13%
31%

28%

25%
No attachment With attachment

Conclusion

Email is a staple of every marketer’s toolbox, and it has been increasingly adopted by sales
reps as an e ective outreach tool. While there are surely dozens of variables a ecting your
open rates, the timing and subject line of your sends don’t have to remain an enigma. For
increased open and download rates, try to send Monday or Wednesday around 4PM-6PM,
and include attachments when possible. Sales reps often wonder when to send emails and
when to call instead of emailing, or how long they should wait between attempts. XANT has all
these answers, and they have all been collated into the book “The Definitive Guide to Sales
Cadence.” Pairing best practices with smart sales technology that automates mundane tasks
and rs behavioral data is the key towards significantly improving sales rep’s productivity.

XANT Playbooks is the cadence tool that allows sales reps to include these best practices into
their workflow seamlessly. Click here and fill out your name, email, and company to talk to one
of our solution experts about how XANT can help you increase your pipeline by 30%!

encorporating these email best practices into their workflow.

LEARN MORE >
See how you can easily create email templates, incorporate merge fields, track
opens, track clicks, track attachments, and much more using email in Playbooks™.