Sending emails based on recepients time zone.

[Anonymous]

I'd like to start A/B testing the time that I send my emails. But - I want to segment based on time zone. So, let's say I want to test whether 8 AM or 1 PM works best for emails - but I want each recepient to get their email at 8 & 1 local time.

Is this possible with Marketo's system? I'm looking for an easy, quick solution here.

[Anonymous]

Kelly,

one way to do it is (if all of your leads have city information) you could create  smart lists for time zones. Then use those lists for your mailings in separate campaigns....I.E  create  a set of smart lists  with a static list of cities for each time zone.

[Anonymous]

You can also vote for this 'idea' to make this a native feature - http://community.marketo.com/MarketoIdeaDetail?id=08750000000J27ZAAS

[Anonymous]

Another idea is to create a segmentation for this. Everything is managed for you after that as well.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone!

Jeff - How would I create a segmentation for this? That sounds like the best route.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I would start by determing how many segments you want in the segmentation. The maximum amount you can have is 20, so not quite enough to do the whole world, but maybe you want to combine territories. I don't know how big your potential customer base is, but maybe combining time zones for the eastern Europe, the ME/Africa, and western Asia if you don't Market there. Really depends on your needs. 

But once you decide on how many, create a segment for each and make sure that naming convention is straightforward and self-explanatory for future use. For example, the western time zone could be NA West, or something like it. Then, you will define what you consider to be in the segment with filters. An example would be "State is CA, OR, WA, AZ, NV, ID". Now, every new Lead created with CA as their state will be added to that segment. 

It will take some time to get it set up, but like I said earlier, you will not have to manage anything on an individual basis. Just need to make sure you have a consistent naming convention or make the segment filters as wide as possible.

Here are a couple of great articles for your reference, in order:
1) http://community.marketo.com/MarketoTutorial?id=kA250000000Kyzy
2) https://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000LBEqCAO 

[Anonymous]

Jeff - Thank you so much! Just tested this out - very excited.

Thanks again!