Slowly release emails to big lead base?

[Anonymous]

There's some worry within my Marketing department about sending out emails to our entire membership (about 50k people) all at once. One suggestion was to do a "slow release" - sending out to maybe 5 - 10% of our members, then 25%, etc.

So far, the only way I'm aware of how to do this in Marketo is via an email program and using the testing option, but that doesn't seem very viable since we're a) not testing anything and b) I worry about it messing with the analytics. Is there another way or feature that I'm missing?

[John_Clark1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Courtney,

The other option would be to use a Smart Campaign and some Wait Steps.

You can do this in a couple ways, but I'll give you the two I most recommend, and other's can reply with their favorite methods.

First, you could split your database into as many lists as you like.  You can do 5 lists of 10k or 2 lists of 25k, whatever number you think will work.  Then you'll set up your Smart Campaign with a Member of List filter and include all of the lists.  The Flow will be alternating Send Email (with choice) and Wait steps like this.

Flow

Send Email > If Member Of List (List A) > (Email Name)

Default Choice > Do Nothing

Wait 1 Hour (Or whatever time you like)

Send Email > If Member Of List (List B) > (Email Name)

Default Choice > Do Nothing

Wait 1 Hour

Etc.

This will give you more control over exactly how many leads get the email and when.

The other method would be to throw your whole database into the mix, use a Random Sample choice for each Send Email flow step, and then remove the leads that got the email before moving the rest on to the next step.  Like this:

Flow

Send Email > If Random Sample is 10(%) > Send Email        (You don't include the percentage sign, but that's what the number represents. 10% of your DB)

Default Choice > Do Nothing

Wait 1 Hour

Remove From Flow > If Was Sent Email (Email Name)           (This will remove everyone who got the email from the first step)

Defautl Choice > Do Nothing

Send Email > If Random Sample is 12(%) > Send Email         (You have to increase the percentage as you go because there are fewer leads now)

Default Choise > Do Nothing

Wait 1 Hour

Etc.

Let me know if you have any questions on either of those.

John

[Josh_Hill13]

There are only two reasons to do this:

1. You have a new, dedicated IP address that you need to warm up.

2. you are experiencing bans from yahoo and gmail for high volume hits.

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Another potential reason to do this would be if they are concerned about an abundance of replies and they want to make sure that they can provide a timely response to all inquiries. If (and only if) that's the case, I personally like random sample splits as John described above.

[Anonymous]

Agreed, and I personally don't see a reason we need to do this. It's needlessly complicated. None of the reasons you or Dory listed are factors for us right now. Unfortunately, I am not the final decision maker and that person is nervous about hitting so many inboxes at once.

[Scott_McKeighe2]

Marketo doesn't natively do a throttled send over a period of time, like Mailchimp. But that doesn't mean you can't do what you want.

One method would be to pre-process your large list into smaller, static list "chunks" via Random Sample, and then schedule different batch campaigns targeting those lists in time increments.

1. Create a few static list assets in your campaign, such as "5% - first," "10% - second," "25% - third," "60% - everyone else" or whatever groupings you think are best.

2. Create a smart campaign and use whatever qualifying criteria you/your company desire to create the overall audience.

3. In the flow, create a conditional Add to List step, using Random Sample --> IF Random Sample = 5, Add to "%5 - first"; IF Random Sample = 10, Add to "10% - second"; IF Random Sample = 25, Add to " 25% - third"; IF Random Sample = 60, Add to "60% - everyone else"

Now you can target your intended audience via batch campaigns, sending your email out to those different groups at different times to throttle your overall send.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, I think I'll try this and John's suggestion out to see which is easier for me. I appreciate the help!