How do I set time parameters to a trigger campaign?

[Anonymous]

I need your help!

My goal is to set time parameters to a nurturing trigger campaign that is currently live. It can still be sent 7 days a week, however, we think open rate would increase if we restricted the hours of delivery to 8:00 pm - 6:00 pm PST.

I've scoured but cannot find how to execute this. My feeling is that time parameters are only allowed in batch campaigns. If this is correct, then how do I switch a trigger campaign to a batch campaign without completely re-creating (cloning, setting flow, etc.) the campaign? This is a 6 email campaign with multiple landing pages, service emails etc, so I'd like to keep it easy, but also do it correctly.

Thank you Marketo power users!

[Devraj_Grewal · Accepted solution]

Koko,

Unfortunately, you cannot schedule to activate/deactivate triggered campaigns as of right now. You can vote for it here:

Include a wait step before the send email flow. Under Advanced Wait Properties, you can choose to wait until any day at a certain time (ex. 8a). So if it is 10p when a lead is on that step, they have to wait until the next possible 8am. However all emails will be sent at 8a, but at least you can choose the delivery time.

If you want to change to a batch campaign, just delete the trigger in the smart list and use it as a filter instead.

[Anonymous]

Hey Devraj Grewal​,

Thanks for the response, it's very helpful.     When you say "all emails will not be sent at 8a" does that mean that the leads will not get the email at all even after 8:00 am? Or do you mean that the email could be sent a little later than 8:00 am like 8:30a or 9:00m? (which would be fine).

[Devraj_Grewal]

That was actually a typo that I have edited now. Basically, all leads will wait until 8am to execute the next step in the flow. You can even choose which days. So if it is Saturday, you can make the wait step end on a Mon-Fri and the wait must end at 8a.

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much Devraj Grewal​ for the extremely quick answer.

That answers it!  Have a great Friday!

[Anonymous]

Hey Devraj Grewal​,

One more clarification question: If I set the advanced wait properties on "Must End On 4:00 pm" That means all applicable leads will get emails sent before 4:00 pm - and not after (those would get pushed to the next day).

I would assume that Marketo would automatically start sending the next email at 12:00 am the next day, since the advanced wait property doesn't specify.   How can I specify what time of day they START receiving emails?

[Devraj_Grewal]

So this wait step will be before the email flow step. What you have set up right now is that when a lead gets to this step, they must wait at least 7 days and then wait until the next 4pm, which could be the next day. Once the lead has waited 7 days and it is 4pm, the next step is the send email flow step, so emails will begin sending at 4pm.

Did you also mean to put "Any Day"? That means emails will be sent Saturday and Sundays as well.

[Anonymous]

Hey, this is clarifying. I'll end the wait step at 8:00am this way the emails start going out after 8:00 am. Makes sense. 

It does have to be "Any Day" scheduling right now because it's a 30-day free trial, which is time sensitive and we are telling people that they have X number of days left in some of the emails. We very well may take out the specificities to be able to constrain our campaign to only workday. It's something we'll have to test and see what the numbers say - but we are aware.

Good and cool. Thanks again.