For more than a year we emailed US small-business owners on weekdays and on Saturdays, at about 50,000 emails a day either way. Saturday's reply rate was more than twice the weekday rate, with about twice the positive replies. In six Western European countries, weekend reply rates were lower than on weekdays. In a separate newsletter test, the Saturday 9 a.m. issues had the best open and click rates.
Weekdays about 2.5% replies, Sunday similarSaturday about 6 to 7%
We wanted to know whether Saturday and Sunday outreach could match or beat weekdays with owners and founders. The campaigns went to small businesses, usually with 1 to 50 employees, in both B2B and B2C. The offers were business services that apply across many industries.
We sent about 50,000 emails a day on weekdays and the same on Saturdays, and tested Sundays too. The test ran for more than a year in the US and, separately, in Western European markets.
| Item | Setup |
|---|---|
| Daily volume | About 50,000 emails on weekdays and the same on Saturdays; Sundays also tested |
| Infrastructure | Gmail to Gmail, three sending mailboxes per domain |
| Message mix | About half new outreach and half follow-ups |
| Audience | Owners and founders of small businesses, usually 1 to 50 employees, B2B and B2C |
| Offers | Business services that apply across many industries |
| Markets | The United States; separately, six Western European countries |
| Duration | More than a year |
| What we measured | Overall reply rate and positive replies |
On a weekday, the reply rate was about 2.5%, and we usually saw 30 to 40 positive replies a day. On a Saturday, at the same volume, the reply rate was about 6 to 7% and positive replies came to about 70 to 80. Sunday's reply rate was broadly similar to a weekday's.
Ranges as our team reported them. The lighter part of a bar spans the reported range. Sunday had no separate figure.
| Sending day | Reply rate | Positive replies a day |
|---|---|---|
| Monday to Friday | About 2.5% | About 30 to 40 |
| Saturday | About 6 to 7% | About 70 to 80 |
| Sunday | Broadly similar to weekdays | Not reported separately |
That puts Saturday's reply rate at about 2.4 to 2.8 times the weekday rate, and its positive replies at 1.75 to 2.67 times the weekday count, or about 2.1 times comparing the middle of each range. Positive replies rose along with total replies. These are the ranges our team reported, not averages weighted across campaigns.
We still need to confirm whether a reply was counted on the day its email went out or on the day the reply came in. If it was the day it came in, some Saturday replies may have been answers to emails sent earlier in the week.
One possible reason for the Saturday lift is that US small-business owners have more time for business email on a Saturday, when weekday work eases off. We haven't tested that. The study also didn't separate the sending day from other differences between campaigns, such as the offer, the segment, time zones, which cohort a campaign belonged to, and how follow-up replies were credited.
The same test covered Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Norway, Finland and the United Kingdom. There, Saturday and Sunday sends got lower reply rates than weekday sends. We don't have the percentages or positive reply counts by country, so this is a direction rather than a measurement, and the US Saturday pattern can't be assumed to hold in Western Europe.
Recipients in the markets we tested may be less responsive to business email at the weekend. That's also untested.
Saturday issues had a 70% open rate, against 53% on weekdays. That's 17 percentage points higher, or about 32% more in relative terms. Saturday's click-through rate was 27%, against 14%: 13 points higher, or about 93% more. More meetings were booked from the Saturday issues too, though we don't have the counts.
Both panels use the same scale. Weekdays means the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday issues.
| Weekdays | Saturday | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Send time | About 3 or 7 p.m. | About 9 a.m. | Not the same |
| Open rate | 53% | 70% | 17 points, about 32% higher |
| Click-through rate | 14% | 27% | 13 points, about 93% higher |
| Meetings booked | Not reported | More than weekdays | No counts available |
Replies to the email itself and meetings booked through its link are separate outcomes, and we don't have figures for either.
Saturday's send also went out at 9 a.m., while weekday sends went at 3 or 7 p.m., so the day and the time of day changed together. Because the day rotated by week rather than splitting the list, differences between weeks, list fatigue, the content of each issue and the calendar could all have played a part. With 80% of the list in the US, we can't say how the 20% outside the US responded without a regional breakdown. Privacy features that open emails automatically can also distort open tracking. Nobody has independently checked how the open and click rates were defined or what they were divided by.
The two studies had different audiences, goals and measures, so their numbers shouldn't be pooled.
Whether a weekend send works depends on who you're emailing and where they are, what kind of email it is, and possibly the time it lands.
Neither study shows that Saturday itself caused the lift, or that one weekend schedule suits every list.
We'd test Saturday sends in selected US campaigns and warm-lead programs. We wouldn't move every market to a weekend schedule on these results, which come from live campaigns and don't show that Saturday works the same everywhere.
Spasovska, E. (2026, October). What happened when we sent cold email on Saturdays. Artemidos. https://artemidos.com/research/weekend-email-study/