Choose how and when to send your email once it has been designed, reviewed, and validated for sending. You can send immediately or schedule your message using methods that match your timing, audience, and campaign goals.

Sending Options in the Email Composer

The Email Composer includes all send methods in the Send Details tab. Choose the option that fits your timing needs:

• Start sending to recipients right away
• Send later
  • Schedule date and time
  • Send in recipient’s time zone
  • Send over time
  • Use Adaptive sending

Each send method is explained below with updated steps and retained original images.

Start Sending to Recipients Right Away (Send Now)

Use this when your message is ready to launch immediately.

1. Select Start sending to recipients right away in Send Details.
2. Click Review & Send.
3. Review your validation results (see How to Validate an Email for Sending).
4. Click Send email and confirm.

Schedule Date & Time

Set a specific date and time for a one-time send.

1. Select Send later → Schedule date and time.
2. Choose the Date and Time.
3. Select Send in manually selected time zone and choose a time zone.
4. Click Review & Send.
5. Validate your email.
6. Click Schedule email and confirm.

Send in Recipient’s Time Zone

Deliver your email at the same local time for every contact, such as 9:00 AM in each recipient’s own time zone.

1. Select Send later → Schedule date and time.
2. Set the Date and Time of local delivery.
3. Select Send in recipient’s time zone and choose a fallback time zone.
4. Click Review & Send.
5. Validate your email.
6. Click Schedule email to finish.

If a time zone is missing or improperly formatted, Act-On will:

1. Check mapped country, state, or ZIP fields.
2. Check phone number formatting.
3. Use the fallback time zone if still undecided.

If your audience spans all time zones, allow up to 24 hours for the full send to complete.

Send Over Time

Send over time lets you send gradually across a date range and daily window. This smooths out CTA traffic and reduces strain on your systems.

• Helpful for high-volume sends.
• Best for emails that are not time-sensitive.
• Spreads clicks and replies across multiple days.

After you set your range and window, Act-On sends throughout the window based on system capacity.

Steps in the Email Composer

1. Select Send later → Send over time.
2. Choose the Date range, Daily send window, and Time zone.
3. Click Review & Send.
4. Validate your email.
5. Click Schedule email.

Use Adaptive Sending

Adaptive Sending delivers each email at the time the contact is most likely to engage, based on past opens, clicks, and website activity.

Learn more in the Adaptive Sending Guide.

Check Scheduled Emails

To view upcoming scheduled sends:

1. Go to Outbound → Other Messages → Scheduled.

While an email is scheduled, it is locked for editing.

Cancel a Scheduled Email

From Scheduled

1. Go to Outbound → Other Messages → Scheduled.
2. Hover over the email and choose:
   • Reschedule
   • Move to Drafts to cancel and edit

From Sent Messages

If the send has begun but has not completed, you can cancel remaining recipients.

1. Go to Outbound → Sent Messages.
2. Select the dropdown on the message:
   
   
   
   Choose Stop Launch.

This option is also available in the message report:

Handling Opt-Outs With Scheduled Emails

When using Time Zone Send, Adaptive Send, or Send Over Time, Act-On processes the recipient list ahead of launch. If a contact opts out after processing, they may still receive the email.

If you regularly use these methods, consider adding a note to your unsubscribe page explaining that opt-outs may take up to 48 hours to process.

Note on Total Recipients

The final audience is determined at the scheduled launch time. Act-On re-evaluates every segment just before sending.

Example:

You schedule an email for a segment with 100 contacts. Before the send time, 25 additional contacts enter the segment. If no suppressions apply, the final send includes 125 contacts.