How do I set up a chain of wait steps with specific end times?

[Anonymous]

I'm setting up a 30 day mail program with 6 e-mails to match our 30 day product trials. I want to send the first e-mail the day after the start of the trial, at 10 am. And then the next email the day after at 10 am, etc. On day 23 I want to send a trial expiry reminder "Your trial ends in 7 days", so it is important I get the wait steps right so the e-mails are sent on the correct days.

I've set up wait steps with specific end-times but I want to make sure that the wait-step and sending of e-mails doesn't add an extra day to match the end-time.

I've set the first wait step to 10 hours, that way if someone registers at 23.59 they will get the first e-mail the next day at 10, but if they register anytime after midnight it will be sent the following day. If I had chosen "wait 1 day" anyone registering between 10 am and 23.59 would have to wait two days for their first e-mail, since the wait step lasts for one day plus additional time to meet the end-time criteria.

For the next e-mail, I want to make sure that the "Wait 1 day" wait step works, so that the first wait step and sending e-mail doesn't add time to the flow, hence maybe starting the one day wait at 10.15 and then an extra day will be added.

Any thoughts on how this works or if I should solve it differently?

[Anonymous]

If I understand this correctly this is what you want:

• Day 1: Start Trial
• Day 2: Send first email at 10am
• Day 3: Send second email at 10am
• ...
• Day 23: Send final email

If you add a wait step of one day after email 1, they should all send just after 10am.  If you add a time on the emails after email 1, any delays in email sends may impact the date of the emails you send.

One alternative approach:
Create a program for your trial that sets progression statuses for each email, ie "Pending Email 2".  Then run batch campaigns at 10am everyday, sending Email 2 to members who's status matches "Pending Email 2" and then change the status after it is sent.  This will have the advantage of ensuring emails are sent on the right day, even if one gets delayed due to unforeseen circumstances.