Fresh eyes
When is the best time to publish content?
The world’s media and marketing channels are vying 24/7 to grab audience attention, with new content being broadcasted throughout the day, every day.
If you work in marketing and communications, you are responsible for producing relevant, informative and standout content, determining a channel strategy and devising a detailed plan to publish your content across owned, earned and paid-for media. It’s a complex job.
Here, three members of the Freshfield PR and communications team offer some useful insights into optimal times to publish content across all channels and media.
When’s the best time to publish website content?
Insight by Jacqueline Ballard, PR and Content Marketing Manager
According to an analysis of 170,000 blog posts by HubSpot, the best days to publish website content are Monday and Thursday. However, there’s a huge caveat here, because what works for one organisation, may not work for another. Much depends on your service, sector and when your particular audiences happen to be online.
Consistent publishing is important for boosting organic traffic, and publishers who post frequently tend to see more engagement with their content, leading to visitors and enquiries.
It’s important to stress that with website newsroom content, every piece you produce becomes a permanent asset. So, even if your timing is off, it still retains value, and can be repurposed in the future. And by using the right keywords, you will likely get increased visibility on search results.
As always, it’s important to keep evaluating and measuring your performance to discover your own optimal timings for posting content.
Again, you must consider your audience alongside the data; is your content aimed at other businesses, consumers or even international users? These factors can affect your results, depending on what time and day it is shared.
When to issue a news release and pitch to a journalist or influencer?
Written by Joel Durkin, Senior PR and Communications Manager
Like with all forms of marketing communications, it is important to understand your audience. In this case, it’s the journalist and the publication.
It is vital to understand your media and influencer contacts because many will operate differently, especially now when many people’s working patterns are different. Different media will have different deadlines for publication so you need to tailor your approach.
Generally speaking, Monday and Friday are not the best days to send a pitch to a journalist. As a former business journalist myself, I find the best days are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, when journalists are more focused, and open to new ideas.
The best times are between 10am and 2pm, when they are less likely to be on deadline – this also lines up with the suggested timings for social media.
According to Prowly, after lunch, response rates tend to decline, and pitching in the late afternoon or evening is not advised.
When is the best time to post on social media?
Written by Danny Green, PR and Communications Manager
When it comes to posting B2B content on social media, a simple rule to follow is post your content during workdays and work hours.
This means, for LinkedIn and X, you should be posting between Tuesday and Thursday from 10am until 2pm – avoiding weekends, especially Sundays – according to a report by Sprout Social.
Because LinkedIn is centred around professional content, most users will be engaged throughout the working day, particularly lunchtime.
For consumer-facing channels like Facebook, the recommended times are Monday to Thursday from 8am until early afternoon, and for Instagram it’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday between 9am and 1pm.
Again, you must take these suggested timings with a pinch of salt and keep analysing the data to find out what works best for your organisation. We would encourage you to experiment and use analytics to monitor not just likes and comments, but how many times your post has been seen and shared.
Define your objectives, monitor your results
We suggest sharing any B2B content within working hours, between 10am and 2pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, avoiding weekends where possible.
This is not a hard rule however, and there are many tools available that can help you measure the success of your content.
It’s important to define your objectives beforehand and use analytics to ensure you are reaching your audience and making an impact, whether that’s through comments, shares, website visits or gaining media coverage – make sure to experiment and see what works best for you.
Planning precision is key
With a strong journalism and planning heritage at Freshfield, we advise all clients to adopt a publishing mentality when it comes to PR and marketing communications planning.
Think like a BBC or Vogue editor. Think long term about your content and channel strategy, themes, features, deadlines and timetables. This ensured consistency of quality output adds long-term benefits to your brand.
Contact our PR and content specialists
Our specialist PR and communications team comprises senior PR and communications professionals, former senior business journalists, content marketing and social media professionals.
We operate in a number of specialist sectors. If you think your PR and marketing communications strategy needs some fresh eyes, we’d love to help. Please drop us a line here.