Wait Step Date Token issue

[Anonymous]

I was asked to build a customer renewal series that will notify contacts when they are 120 days, 90 days and 60 days from renewal.

The issue I'm running into is finding a field that will let me trigger an email to send 120 days before their renewal. I originally tried using the Expiration Date filter with In Future "120 days" but it was including contacts that were under 120 days from renewal when it should only include contacts that are exactly 120 days out.

Next step I'm trying is using a Date Token in a Wait Step then calling a separate campaign to re-run the contact through the smart list and send the email. I'm having an issue when I go to schedule the campaign. It won't accept the date token in the wait step "{{company.Last Day to Cancel Account Less 120:default=edit me}}". I'm using this token in the emails and it works great. Any idea why Marketo won't allow me to use this token in the Date Token field in the Wait Step? My guess is Markteo doesn't recognize company tokens in date token only fields. If this is the case, where do I go from here?

[Josh_Hill13]

• Is Last Day to Cancel a date field? If not, a date field won't accept it.
• Do not use the "default edit me" section in Flow Steps. it is only for Assets.

The wait step should work if the Date token is correct.

Let's say you have Expiration Date = January 1, 2016

120 Day Warning should be on Sept 1, 2015 and you should run the Wait Step as Wait Until "120 Day Warning" ends on MF at 8am or something like that.

You could also say if a New Customer comes in, then Wait 270 days and then go ahead. I think there's another way, so take a search through the forums for Wait Step Token and Expiration Dates.

[Anonymous]

Josh,

Thank you for your insight. It sounds like this token will not work in the wait step field since it's a "Formula (Date)" field. Is this correct? Unfortunately this is the only way it will work since a standard date field wouldn't be able to calculate into the future. Do you know of any I can get Marketo to recognize a "Formulate (Date)" token so I can send out emails 120, 90 and 60 days in advance?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Have you considered running these as batch campaigns where you look for the formula field being equal to the current date?

[Anonymous]

Kristen - That's a good thought. I think it's a little trickier than that because it has to be 120, 90 and 60 days from their expiration date that's listed in Salesforce and not the current date. Let me know if what you are thinking is different than I'm understanding it.

Really the heart of the issue is finding a way for Marketo to let me trigger or batch send emails to someone when they are exactly a set number of days from their expiration date. I'd prefer running a trigger campaign but could make a batch campaign work too.

[Anonymous]

Reid,

I've done similar things in batch campaigns by creating two filters to pinpoint an exact date.

For future dates as in your request it would be "in future" and in future after" as in this screen shot:

This example would give you everyone with a Date of Birth exactly 120 days from now (or when evaluated in a batch).

For doing dates in the past it works similarly with "in past" and "in past before"

This won't work in a trigger but it would work fine in a daily batch.

-Bill

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

What I've done in batch campaigns is very similar to what Bill showed, but with custom object filters. We actually created a second date field on the object so we could do both on the same object, since if you put two separate custom object filters in the smart campaign, you can't guarantee that they both refer to the same object.

The other thing I've done would be something like "Renewal Date Minus 120 Days", which would be a formula field calculated in Salesforce. Then you run your batch campaigns for "Renewal Date Minus 120 Days is today" and then you send out the first email, wait 30 days, send out the second, etc.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Bill! This is perfect. Works like a charm.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info, Kristen! Super helpful!