Email delayed / capped

[MartaOrsini]

Hello - is there is a setting in Marketo that will delay an email by one day if the system can see that an email is scheduled to go out to a user already? I know about email frequency capping but that will just suppress the send while ideally we'd still like for the user to receive all the communications they're targeted with.

Thanks

[PeeyushSachdeva · Accepted solution]

You can  try a workaround that might help you achieve this:

Step 1: Create a Custom Field called "Next Eligible Send Date" in your lead database.

Step 2: Update This Field After Each Email Send

In the Flow of every email send campaign, include a step:

Change Data Value:
Attribute: Next Eligible Send Date
New Value: {{system.date}} + 1 day

OR maintain a centralized campaign

This sets a 1-day cooldown before the person becomes eligible for another send.

Step 3: Use Smart List Filters in Future Campaigns
In your smart list, include the following criteria to check eligibility:

Next Eligible Send Date is in past before 0 days
OR Next Eligible Send Date is empty

This ensures you're only emailing those who haven’t received another email in the past 24 hours — while still allowing them to get the message later.

Step 4: Another batch campaign for the delayed audience:
For people filtered out due to recent emails.

[SanfordWhiteman]

---

Next Eligible Send Date is in past
OR
Next Eligible Send Date is empty

Except “in past” isn’t a supported filter. You probably mean “in past before 0 days” or similar.

Also note “is empty” isn’t necessary: an empty Date field is considered to be in the past.

[PeeyushSachdeva]

Thanks @SanfordWhiteman for correcting. 😊

[Disha_Goyal6]

Hi @MartaOrsini, I feel this isn't something Marketo provides. However techincally this can be done using other tools available from Adobe. Like combination of AJO and RTCDP which can create flows that allows us to create a delay as you mentioned. 

[MartaOrsini]

Thanks Disha, yes I agree, the "issue" here is that different part of the business are using Marketo and sending comms to the same audience without necessarily talking to each other, so I'm not always aware if someone else will target my same audience on the same day. Thanks for your help anyway!

[Michael_Florin]

No, I don't think so.

Marketo can't see that an email is scheduled for a specific person. At least that's not a filter you could use, as being scheduled for something in the future is not an activity.

But I feel there should be workarounds for what you want to achieve. I could imagine solutions you could create within Engagement Programs and their option of pausing and skipping and such. What are these emails that are supposed to collide here? Are they in the same nurture context or just some totally unrelated emails? I guess if you could describe your scenario a little more, we might see options.

[MartaOrsini]

Hi Michael, thanks for your answer! Unfortunately the situation is that different parts of the business are using Marketo and sending comms to the same audience without necessarily talking to each other, so I'm not always aware if someone else will target my same audience on the same day. The business request is for these people to receive the second email on the next day so I was wandering if there was an option for this. I appreciate it was a long shot, but thanks for helping anyway!

[uditmathur]

Hi @MartaOrsini ,

A possible work around could be you can use communication limits to block same lead from receiving multiple communication & then create list of leads who were blocked because of communication limits & resend them the email.

But the best solution still to achieve will be to use EP as suggested by @Michael_Florin .

Hope this helps. 😊