Updated February 24, 2026

TL;DR: Send meeting requests Tuesday through Thursday between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM in your prospect's time zone. Avoid Monday mornings (inbox purge) and Fridays (mental checkout). Use Instantly's Schedule settings to lock in time zones, then track reply rates in "Analytics" to find what works for your niche.

A meeting request sent at 4 PM Friday gets buried under weekend noise. The same message sent Tuesday at 10 AM lands when your prospect is caffeinated, focused, and ready to decide. Industry benchmarks give you a starting point, but your optimal send window comes from testing and measurement, not guessing.

The best time to send meeting scheduling emails

Send Time Optimization (STO) means putting your email at the top of the inbox when the prospect is ready to read and respond. You want to catch them in work mode but not crisis mode.

Mid-week wins: Research analyzing cold email campaigns found Thursday yields the highest reply rate at 6.87%, with Wednesday and Tuesday close behind. Another analysis showed Wednesday delivers a 7.2% reply and 37% open rate for B2B cold outreach.

Why does mid-week work? By Tuesday, people have cleared Monday's backlog and are executing. By Thursday, they haven't mentally checked out yet.

The baseline window: B2B emails sent between 9-11 AM yield higher rates. Data also shows open rates peak at 41% in the afternoon between 2 PM and 4 PM. Aim for 10 AM to 2 PM as your baseline. Prospects have finished their morning standup, cleared urgent fires, and are working through their task list. Your email hits when they have bandwidth to evaluate new conversations.

Set your baseline in Instantly by navigating to the Schedule tab and selecting Tuesday through Thursday with send windows between 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM. For a detailed walkthrough, watch Instantly's campaign creation video.

Send times by industry

Different industries have different rhythms. Use this table as a starting point, then test your specific niche:

Track your performance in Instantly Analytics to validate these patterns for your audience.

"The ability to schedule emails at specific times and zones is incredibly convenient, especially for cold outreach in multiple regions." - Verified User on G2

Worst times to send meeting requests

Some send windows actively hurt your results. Avoid these timing traps:

Monday mornings (inbox purge): Prospects open their inbox, scan 50+ weekend messages, and bulk-delete anything that looks like outreach. Mondays less optimal for B2B.

Fridays (mental checkout): By Friday afternoon, decision-making bandwidth is gone. Data shows least replies on Fridays at 17% when people are setting off for weekends.

Weekends (boundary violations): Sending B2B emails Saturday or Sunday signals you don't respect boundaries. Weekend sends show low rates.

Major holidays (automatic pause): Pause campaigns during US holidays (New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas) and UK bank holidays (Good Friday, Easter Monday, Early May Bank Holiday, Spring Bank Holiday, Summer Bank Holiday, Boxing Day). Email timing and psychology. When your prospect is in vacation mode, your email faces an uphill battle.

How to handle time zones and global prospects

Sending at 10 AM EST hits a London prospect at 3 PM (acceptable) but a California prospect at 7 AM (risky). Time zone misalignment buries your message.

The segmentation fix: Build separate campaigns for each major time zone: US Eastern, US Pacific, UK/Europe, and Asia-Pacific if relevant. This keeps send times aligned with local working hours.

Setting timezone in Instantly:

1. Navigate to your campaign and click the Schedule tab.
2. Select your target days (Tuesday through Thursday recommended).
3. Set your send window (9:00 AM to 2:00 PM in prospect's timezone).
4. Choose the timezone from the dropdown that matches your lead list.
5. Review campaign start and end date settings.

The Schedule tab timing settings allow you to adjust days of the week to send campaign emails. Instantly's help docs note: "If you have leads in different time zones, we recommend separating them into different CSV files and creating separate campaigns for each group."

If you need different send windows for different days, you can add multiple schedules to your campaign so emails go out at different times each day.

Timing your follow-up sequence

Your first email is just the start. Follow-up cadence determines whether you stay top-of-mind or become noise.

First follow-up: 2 to 3 days

Wait 2 to 3 days before your first follow-up. Research shows your first follow-up email can boost response rates up to 50%. If your first email went out Tuesday at 10 AM, schedule the follow-up for Thursday or Friday mid-morning.

Subsequent follow-ups: increase spacing

After the first follow-up, increase spacing to 4-5 days. A typical sequence includes 3-7 touchpoints spaced over 10-25 days. Analysis of cold email campaigns found 58% of replies from step one, with the remaining steps contributing another 42%, which means every follow-up matters.

Configuring wait steps in Instantly:

1. Open the sequence builder in your campaign.
2. Add a follow-up step by clicking "Add step."
3. Define wait times before sending the next step (2-3 days for first follow-up, 4-5 days for subsequent).
4. Set a minimum time gap between each email sent (default is 9 minutes).
5. Add a randomized delay on top of the base wait time (default random delay is 5 minutes).

Instantly recommends a maximum of 3-4 steps for most cold outreach campaigns. For a deep dive into follow-up strategy, watch Best Follow Up Strategy.

How to find your specific optimal send time

Generic benchmarks give you a starting point. Your niche has different rhythms. B2B vs B2C send times vary. Your send time strategy should reflect your specific campaign type and audience.

A/B testing workflow:

1. Clone your campaign in Instantly to create Campaign A and Campaign B.
2. Set Campaign A schedule to 9 AM - 12 PM send window.
3. Set Campaign B schedule to 1 PM - 4 PM send window.
4. Split your lead list evenly between the two campaigns.
5. Let each campaign run for 2-3 weeks (aim for at least 200-300 sends per variant).
6. Compare reply rates in the Analytics dashboard.

Instantly offers automated A/Z testing feature that analyzes and identifies the best-performing variant based on defined winning metrics: reply rate, click rate, or open rate. This feature is available on the Hyper Growth and Light Speed plans. Step Analytics allows you to measure the performance of each step and variant in the campaign.

Using Instantly Analytics:

Navigate to the Analytics tab to view performance across all campaigns. You can see emails sent, opened, link tracking, and replies. Filter campaigns by status (Active/Paused/Completed) and use the custom date range to check stats for specific time frames. Click the gear icon to show or hide specific metrics.

Note that reporting in the UTC timezone, which ensures analytics numbers remain timezone-independent for clients running campaigns in different zones.

Best practices for meeting invitation emails

Timing gets the open, but content gets the meeting. Apply these rules:

Clear, single-question CTA: Ask one specific thing. "Are you free Tuesday at 10 AM?" beats "Let me know when works." Your prospect can answer yes or no, not wrestle with calendar math.

Low-friction scheduling links: Include a Calendly or Cal.com link to avoid back-and-forth. "Book a time here" removes decision friction.

Context reminder: State why the meeting matters in one sentence. "Quick call to show you how we reduced bounce rates 18% for [similar company]" gives them a reason to say yes.

For copywriting frameworks that convert, review Instantly's cold email copywriting guide and access 600 templates for cold emails.

Even perfect timing fails if your email lands in spam. Instantly's deliverability network of 4.2M+ accounts helps warmup and engagement. Use the Inbox Placement test to verify where your emails land before scaling sends.

"I use Instantly for warming up and sending cold emails, which helps automate my outreach. I like its ease of use and the fact that the support team is there to help." - Antonio K. on G2

Put timing data to work

You have the baseline times and the testing framework. Log into Instantly, configure your campaign schedule settings, and split-test two time windows. Track reply rates in Analytics over 2-3 weeks, then double down on the window that converts.

For a complete campaign walkthrough from setup to first booked call, watch speedrunning cold email.

Timing is a variable you control. Stop guessing and start measuring. Try Instantly free and use the schedule features to automate your optimal send windows.

Frequently asked questions about email timing

What if my niche works non-standard hours?
Test it. Use the A/B workflow in this guide to compare standard business hours against early morning or evening windows. Analytics will show you the truth for your specific audience.

How many follow-ups should I send?
3 to 4 is the sweet spot for cold outreach. Data shows 42% of replies come after the first email, but diminishing returns set in after the 4th touchpoint.

Does open rate matter more than reply rate?
No. Reply rate is the only metric that converts to meetings and revenue. High opens with low replies means your subject line works but your offer or copy does not.

Should I send at the same time every day?
No. Vary send times slightly (9 AM one day, 11 AM the next) to avoid pattern detection by spam filters and to test different windows within your baseline.

Key terms glossary

Send Time Optimization (STO): The practice of scheduling emails to arrive when prospects are most likely to read and respond, based on their work patterns and timezone.

Send window: The specific hours during which a campaign is permitted to send emails. Set in Instantly's Schedule tab to align with prospect work hours.

Reply rate: The percentage of leads who responded to your email sequence. The primary success metric for cold outreach campaigns.

Warmup: The process of gradually increasing send volume from a new email account to build sender reputation and avoid spam flags. Instantly includes unlimited warmup on all plans.

A/Z testing: Instantly's automated testing feature that runs up to 26 variants of subject lines or body copy simultaneously, tracking performance by variant to identify winners.

Inbox placement: The percentage of emails that land in the primary inbox versus promotions or spam folders. Test using Instantly's Inbox Placement tool.