Under the Send tab of the Message Composer, you will see five options to send your message:
- Send now
- Send at the following time
- Send in the recipient's time zone
- Send over time
- Use Adaptive Sending
Send Now
Under the Send tab of the Message Composer:
- Select Send now
- Click Submit Launch Request
- A confirmation window will appear showing the details of the message such as the 'From' address, the recipient list(s), and the time that the message will be sent.
- Click Send and the message will be sent right away.
Note: When in the confirmation window, if you see any changes that need to be made, simply click the Go Back button. This will return you to the Send tab where you can go back to any of the previous steps to make the necessary changes.
Send at a Specific Time
In the Send tab of the Message Composer:
- Select Send at the following time
- Specify the date to send your message by clicking on the Date field.
- Change the time by clicking on the drop-down menus for the hour, minutes, and either AM or PM.
- Change the time zone, if necessary, using the Time Zone drop-down menu.
- Click Submit Launch Request
- Review the details, and if they are correct click Schedule
Send in the Recipient's Time Zone
Time Zone Send lets you send your message so that it hits your contacts' inboxes at one specific time (e.g., 1:30pm) in the local time for their location.
Important:
- Your contact list(s) must have a column identified as the Contact's Timezone. Follow the steps to identify list columns to map this field.
- Your time zones must be in the TZ format.
Once your list is correctly configured with time zones, you can choose Send in recipient's time zone from the Send tab of the Message Composer.
- Steps to populate recipient's Timezone field here
If a send has recipients in every time zone, the launch can take about 24 hours to complete. To allow for this, we recommend submitting the launch request at least 24 hours before your desired time of receipt.
If a recipient does not have a time zone associated with it or the time zone value is improperly formatted, then the email is sent using your account’s time zone.
Send Over Time
Instead of sending out your message as a single large event, you can spread it out using the Send Over Time feature. This is good for:
- Sending a high volume of messages
- Sending messages that are not time sensitive
- Spreading responses or CTA clicks over a longer period, to avoid a one-time spike in replies/traffic
After you set a start and end time for the message send, Act-On will send messages throughout this window based on system resources and bandwidth.
Please note:
- This feature is not designed to send to the same number of contacts at a certain interval of time (eg., 1,000 contacts every three days). An Automated Program is the best way to achieve this purpose.
- Send Over Time will be most evenly distributed when sending to at least 20,000 contacts over a period of less than seven days.
- Under the Send tab in the new message composer, choose Send Over Time
- Set the Start Date and End Date
- Note: The End Date is the latest possible date for messages to be sent – the email launch may complete sooner
- Set the time frame for sending your message (eg., only during your business hours) and the Time Zone for these hours
- Click Submit Launch Request
Use Adaptive Sending
With Adaptive Send, you can send your message at the ideal time for each recipient. See this page for more details.
Cancel a Scheduled Email Message
When using a send method that is scheduled ahead of time, you may cancel a message before its scheduled time.
From Scheduled Messages:
- Go to Outbound > Other Messages > Scheduled
- Find the scheduled message, hover over it and choose:
- Reschedule to choose a new time to send it
- Move to Drafts to cancel the message and make changes
- Follow the prompts to ensure the message is either rescheduled or moved to drafts
From Sent Messages:
If the message is already in the process of sending out but has not finished, you can also cancel the message for the remaining recipients who have not been sent their message yet.
- Go to Outbound > Sent Messages
- Select the dropdown box for this message and choose Stop Launch.
This button can also be found in the Message Report.
Handling Opt-Outs With Scheduled Messages
Please note that when using Time Zone Send, Adaptive Send, or Send Over Time, if a contact opts out after your message has already been processed for sending, they will still receive this message. This is typically 24 hours but could be a few days for messages scheduled farther in advance.
If you use these features regularly, we recommend including language on your opt-out page saying that their unsubscribe will take up to 48 hours to process.