In the 6 months we have been publishing the AWCM [pronounced:آ aw-suhآ m] index we have noticed that email marketers appear to have a marked preference for sending emails on the second and third weeks of the month. With the exception of November (probably due to the Christmas effect) email volumes peak during the second or third week and tend to drop markedly at month end.

Could this mean that you are missing out on payday?

Analysis conducted by Alchemy Worx for a number of different clients has shown that the week of the month a message is sent has a far greater impact on revenue than other temporal consideration!

We discovered that the best weeks of the calendar month for generating sales are the last week and first week in that order. The analysis also showed that the middle two weeks of the month were the worst for sales. In some cases they generated as much as 20% less revenue.

The only reason we could come up with was the fact that in the UK most salaried people get paid monthly. We spoke to a company that processes payroll and were told that the vast majority get paid either on the first day of the month or the 5 working days prior to month end.

As any shopkeeper or bartender will tell you the best time to try to get someone to part with their money is on or just after payday. Should email marketers do the same?

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