Changes to Wait Steps in Smart Campaigns Applying

[nhabischWings]

Have had a few cases where we have Wait steps in a batch or trigger campaign set to a specific date and time and then if we make edits to that Wait step before it actually hits - sometimes the change doesn't apply.

For example, I have a Wait step set to wait until April 12th at 3:00 PM CST and then send an email. I go in before 3 PM and change the Wait time to wait until April 12th at 2:00 PM CST, but even though I make this change, the email still waits until 3 to go out.

Is it something where the people in the Wait step get locked into what the Wait step was when they entered that phase? Like since it's a batch one-off campaign, the flow is set once the initial campaign is run?

[Darshil_Shah1 · Accepted solution]

Updates to the wait step won't apply to the people already entered in the wait step. When people enter a wait step, Marketo stamps the wait duration based on the wait step configuration at the time of their entry, any subsequent changes to the wait step won't transpire and change their exit time, and hence updates to wait step for the people already in it doesn't apply.

[nhabischWings]

Thank you! I figured this was the case, but was looking for confirmation.

[SGarg_YU]

If I set up a trigger campaign with multiple Wait steps in Flow that have specific dates, will the people who enter after the first Wait Step date, continue with the flow that is following that date or from the start.

E.g.

Trigger - 

Lead Status changes to 'Application started'

Flow -

1. Wait - Date Sep 26 , 3pm
2. Send Email1 - Open House invite
3. Wait - Date Sep 28
4. Send Email2 - Open House recording
5. Wait - Date Sep 30
6. Send Email3 - Last date to Apply

Question

People who enter between Sep 26 *3 pm onwards) and Sep 28, will they receive Email 2 and Email3?

[Darshil_Shah1]

Great question, @SGarg_YU! The person will skip the Wait step and will proceed to the following step in the flow if the Date specified in the Wait Step has already passed. The logic behind this is that if the time the lead is supposed to wait has already passed, the wait step can't be applied, so it will be skipped.

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@SGarg_YU wrote:

If I set up a trigger campaign with multiple Wait steps in Flow that have specific dates, will the people who enter after the first Wait Step date, continue with the flow that is following that date or from the start.

E.g.

Trigger - 

Lead Status changes to 'Application started'

Flow -

1. Wait - Date Sep 26 , 3pm
2. Send Email1 - Open House invite
3. Wait - Date Sep 28
4. Send Email2 - Open House recording
5. Wait - Date Sep 30
6. Send Email3 - Last date to Apply

Question

People who enter between Sep 26 *3 pm onwards) and Sep 28, will they receive Email 2 and Email3?

---

People entering b/w Sep 26 *3 pm onwards and Sep 28 will be sent Email #1 (Open House invite) immediately (as the Date in the first wait step has already passed before the person entered the flow), wait until Sep 28, will be sent Email #2 Open House recording, Wait until Sep 30, and finally will be sent Email3 - Last date to Apply.

[SGarg_YU]

Hi @Darshil_Shah1 thank you for your response 🙂

I am still trying to understand better, could you tell me what happens to people who get triggered between Sep 28 - Sep 30. Why I ask is that, we would not want leads who enter after Open house date on Sep 26th | 4pm to get Open house invite email. They should be straight away getting the recording (Email 2) or Email 3. What change should I be making to this setup?

[Darshil_Shah1]

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@SGarg_YU wrote:

Hi @Darshil_Shah1 thank you for your response 🙂

I am still trying to understand better, could you tell me what happens to people who get triggered between Sep 28 - Sep 30. 

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Well, people entering b/w Sept 28 and 30 would directly receive Emails 1 and 2 w/o any wait because the date specified in the first 2 wait steps would have already passed. They'll receive Email #3 after completing the wait step (that ends on Sept 30) before the Send Email 3 step (assuming they entered the wait step before Sep 30, if they enter the flow on/after Sept 30, they'll receive the all the 3 emails w/o any wait).

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They should be straight away getting the recording (Email 2) or Email 3. What change should I be making to this setup?

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Well, quite honestly, if it's just 3 emails and this one campaign, then you can just remove the send email flow step when the date to send each is passed, i.e., remove email #1 after Sep 26th | 4 pm so people entering the flow after that specific date time aren't sent the email by Marketo, and so on for the email #2, once the date to send the email #3 is passed, you can just deactivate the campaign.

[SGarg_YU]

Thank you @Darshil_Shah1 , this helps a lot. At this moment I was creating multiple Batch campaigns to address this. With this solution, I can replace with trigger campaigns and remove those emails at a later stage. Thank you 🙂