The overwhelming majority of recipients of business-to-business e-mail prefer to get it on Mondays and Tuesdays, according to a study released this week by e-mail service provider eROI.

However, their actual behavior indicates what they say and what they do are two different things.

Thirty six percent of respondents said they want their business e-mail on Tuesdays and 33% said they want it on Monday, according to eROI's study.

Not surprisingly, the least poplar days were Saturdays and Sundays, with 1% and 3% of respondents, respectively, saying they would prefer to receive their business e-mail on those days.

By contrast, Friday edged out all others as the day people would like to receive business-to-consumer e-mail, according to eROI. However, consumer e-mail preferences were more evenly distributed by day of week than business preferences.

Thirty one percent said they preferred their b-to-c e-mail to arrive on Friday, while 26% named Wednesday, 22% preferred Tuesday, 20% named Monday and 19% said. Thursday.

Once again, Saturday and Sunday came in last, this time with 16% and 11%, respectively.

However, as is often the case, actual behavior seems to contradict respondents' self reported preferences.

Saturday and Sunday lead the week in terms of open rates while Thursday and Saturday lead the way in terms of click rates, eROI reported. Saturday had the highest open rate at 38.3% and the highest click rate at 5.4%, according to the study. Also, actual behavior metrics were far more evenly distributed with the lowest open and click-through and open rates coming on Friday at 32.7% and 4.4%, respectively.

Meanwhile, as for preferred frequency, the majority of both audiences said they prefer monthly e-mails, with 35% saying they prefer b-to-b e-mail on a monthly basis and 36% saying they prefer their consumer e-mail to arrive monthly, eROI reported.

Sixty five percent of respondents said they unsubscribe from lists because they aren't getting relevant communications from the sender, making it the number one reason for unsubscribes. The No. 2 reason -- cited by 56% of respondents -- was that they receive e-mail from the sender too frequently, according to eROI.