Send emails in batches?

[Anonymous]

Can you send emails in batches instead of all at once?

We have developed an online tool - we'd like to send an email out about the tool, but would like to stagger the email in batches so (in case of wild success) we don't overload the tool with too many visitors at the time same.

Does Marketo allow for this? If yes, how?

[Anonymous]

It is available, but done probably a differently way then you may think. I had to set this up because we host a conference and I needed registrants to sign up for breakout sessions, those registrants often call into our call center for help signing up, but we only have 2 people staffed to help out, so to minimize the number of people calling in for help all at once I needed to send my session registration email in batches. I decided to send 4 batches each that made up 25% of my program members. Below is how I accomplished this.

In your campaign under the "Flow" tab setup the flow as follows:

1. Send Email - "Add Choice" - Random Sample "is" 25(%). Email = XX

2. Remove from Flow - "Add choice" - Was Sent Email "is" XX. Campaign "is" XYZ (This is the campaign you are currently working in)

3. Wait "1 hour"

4. Send Email - "Add Choice" - Random Sample "is" 25(%). Email = XX

5.  Remove from Flow - "Add choice" - Was Sent Email "is" XX. Campaign "is" XYZ

6. Wait "1 hour"

7. Send Email - "Add Choice" - Random Sample "is" 25(%). Email = XX

8. Remove from Flow - "Add choice" - Was Sent Email "is" XX. Campaign "is" XYZ

9. Wait "1 hour"

10. Send Email "is" Email = XX (This last send should send to all in the list that are left. All others would have been removed from the flow in previous flow steps)

I hope this helps!

[Seth_Wood]

Hi Colby, I found your post very helpful! Your process works, but am just curious if that would send uneven batches? Say we had 10,000 contacts we wanted to send evenly in four batches, wouldn't it be more accurate to send in 25% for the first  batch, 50% for the second batch, 75% for the third and 100% for the last?

Otherwise, I'm wondering if it's just 25% every time, then it's 25% of the remaining 75% after the first batch, etc...

Either way, I'm glad I found your post and I was at a loss without it.

Thanks!

[ttrinh]

Hi Seth,

I used colby's steps but was stuck on the smart list for this campaign.

Would you be able to assist with this?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Hi,

As this post is 4 years old you would do better to open a new thread in Products describing your situation.

[Colby_Holbrook]

Hey Sanford
This is actually my post from several years ago when I was with a different company! It is funny that I found it again as I was experiencing the same problem with batch sends that I did then. Although this post is old could you tell me if it is actually a viable solution? I only ask since you are a highly respected and well seasoned Marketo user.
I am trying to send to a list of roughly 4.2k in 20% random sample increments and I have created the send steps just like I previously mentioned here in my above post. After all of the emails are sent (next week sometime) then there is a short wait step and then a "Request Campaign" step so that I can move them to the next step in my Marketo program (there is a second email based on their activity with the first email).
Anyway, if this is a solution to the normal "create multiple static lists with your random sample people" answer, to batch sends, then I was just wondering so that I could update it and repost it here under my new Marketo user account. There is a screenshot below of the campaign and flow steps I am currently working on. I had to zoom out quite a bit, sorry. I'd appreciate any feedback or help. Thanks. 
-Colby H.

[Michael_Florin]

I'd say your setup will work somehow, but it's not really accurate and you will have a pretty big leftover cohort on day 6.

Full List 1000

20% random sample: 200

800 left

20% random sample: 160

640 left

20 random sample: 128

...

So that's probably not the desired outcome. The standard procedure would be to divide your full list into 5 Static Lists using the random sample flow step, and use these Static Lists in your Smart Campaigns.

Here's another idea: I just recently detected (was I blind before?) that "Random Sample" is also a Smart List filter. So could run something like this on Day 1:

On Day2 you might need need to increase the Random Sample value a little to get to 200 again, and then do the same for the next three days.

[Jo_Pitts1]

@Michael_Florin 

So why not do this in two steps:

1. Run a smart campaign that sets a field (in my case temp_string_1) based on percentage samples.  This is all done in one hit, so no 'percentage of the balance' type issues here.
   
2. Run a second smart campaign that sends an email based on the value of the field set up in step 1.  This could be either be:
   1. A single smart campaign with a set of send email steps with a choice around the value of the field and a wait step between each
   2. as many smart campaigns as needed to cover the cohorts (4 in my example) each with a filter based on cohort, and a scheduled date base on when you want it sent.

Cheers

Jo

That way you avoid the shrinking audience issue.

[Anonymous]

I'm glad it was helpful Seth!
To your question about uneven batch sends. Within my program the send data appears to be even for the 4 batches sent. So, I would conclude that the 25% random sample is truly 25% of the total number of individuals in the list you are sending to, not 25% of the remaining individuals after each batch send.
Since the list you are sending to is defined in the "Smart List" tab it stays as your base. The "flow" steps you setup that remove the 25% you sent to previously only removes them from the flow and NOT the actual list. So when the flow is repeated a second time the system is essentially still looking at the base original list in its entirety and then taking the next 25% of the base list that have not yet received the email (because you excluded those that did).
Maybe a Marketo employee can verify this, but to my knowledge this is how it works.

[Anonymous]

Jeff S - That's also a great idea, I will keep that in my arsenal. 

[Beth_Rotach]

How about now?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Jeff is right on it. Hopefully that functionality will become available soon.

In addition, you can send using segmentations, state, country, anything that will filter your data to the size you are looking for. Use those in combination with wait steps.

[Anonymous]

Hi Jeff - Do you know if this feature is available now?

[Anonymous]

It does not allow you to batch the send. This is a requested feature though. You could do this using a random sample and excluding recepients. This way you could take a percentage of your total list and email them first. Then take another random sample excluding the first recipients. etc.