Using multiple date tokens in a reminder email flow for event

[Broderick_Klem1]

We are using Marketo to let people register for On-site trainings. The desired experience is that they register, then they get reminder emails 7 days before the event, then 5 days before the event. I'm using wait steps with date tokens to accomplish this, but I'm not sure what will happen if someone were to register at say 5 days before the event? I'm hoping that it will just skip the 7 day email and wait until the 2 day email?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Please show us your SL and Flow.

Nothing's going to be skipped unless you make it skip....

[Broderick_Klem1]

Flow was attached to the above post. The smart list is just "fills out form":

Here's the flow again:

[SanfordWhiteman]

Attachments don't show up in mobile view, nor in default Inbox view, so embedded images are highly recommended.

The behavior with your Flow will be that an already expired Wait [Until] step will be skipped, but the subsequent Send Email will not, for the (perhaps) obvious reason that the email isn't part of the wait.

Most of us recommend batch campaigns for reminders to avoid these worries.

[Broderick_Klem1]

Batch campaigns aren't scalable as there are far too many of these to support and all the scheduling would be a nightmare. That makes sense though, so in this case, if someone registered at 3 days till the event start date, they would get the initial and 7 day emails immediately, then wait 1 day and get the 2 day email.

[SanfordWhiteman]

if someone registered at 3 days till the event start date, they would get the initial and 7 day emails immediately, then wait 1 day and get the 2 day email.

Correct.

Batch campaigns may not be as convenient, but they get the job done without unwanted emails. Note you can combine multiple events into a single batch send (changing content using Velocity). There doesn't necessarily have to be a different batch for every event. You can even send 7-day, 3-day, and 1-day reminders for different events from the same batch. All in how you set it up.

[Broderick_Klem1 · Accepted solution]

I think I actually figured out a way to do it where multiple campaigns are not required. I just created a smart list that has everyone that was sent the first email within the past 2 days in it. Then at each email step in the registration flow above, I include a choice 1 where if they are a member of said smart list, don't send the email. This has the added benefit of making sure that someone who registers 8 days before the event, still doesn't get a 7 day reminder email, which would be unnecessary. Furthermore, if the person registers on say Day 3, then they won't get the 7 day reminder email, or the 2 day reminder email.

[alesiaaal]

How? Could you please show the smart list and flow step that would make this scenario work? Thanks!