Adding Delay Stages

Within the automation program builder, use the delays menu to add delay stages and hold contacts that land on this stage for either a specified amount of time (the wait stage), or until a specified point in time (the wait until stage).

Adding a wait stage

The wait stage is commonly used to delay sends by a number of hours or days.

  1. Drag the wait stage from the delays menu to the canvas.

  2. Select the stage on the canvas to open the editor pane.

  3. In the editor pane, press the select delay button.

  4. Enter a value into the text box and a unit of time from the dropdown list, e.g. type 18 and select hours to enter a delay of 18 hours.

    Note: Although the delay selector will allow you to select (and will work with) short delays down to seconds, delays of less than an hour aren't guaranteed to be accurate.

  5. Press the yes button to add it to your automation program.

  6. Press the save draft button to save without publishing your automation program.

  7. When you are ready to publish your program, press the publish program button.

    Note: the campaign must be published for the stage to be valid.

Adding a wait until stage

The wait until stage will delay until a specified point in time, e.g. a particular time of the day, day of the week, etc.

Tip: this stage is useful when including it at the start of the journey you create. This is because it can prevent contacts going through stages that occur after the contact was added to the program earlier than expected.

  1. Drag the wait until stage from the delays menu to the canvas.

  2. Select the stage on the canvas to open the editor pane.

  3. In the editor pane, press the select time of day button.

  4. Use the dropdowns to select a time and timezone. Times are defined relative to the selected timezone. The time zone your contacts are in is not taken into account.

    Note: the timezone defaults to your timezone.

  5. Press the yes button to add it to your automation program.

  6. In the editor pane, press the select recurrence button.

  7. Select a period for the recurrence.

    • Daily will delay all contacts on the stage until the selected time each day.

    • Weekdays (Mon-Fri) will delay the contacts on the stage until the selected time each day excluding weekends.

    • Weekly allows you to specify which days of the week to include/exclude and set if the recurrence is every week or if the automation should skip weeks, e.g. process contacts every 2 weeks on a Monday and Thursday.

    • Monthly allows you to set a monthly recurrence and which day of the month to process contacts. This could be a given date, e.g. 14th of each month, or a date based on position within the month, e.g. the third Friday of each month.

      Note: when using the fifth day of the month option, be mindful that some months will be skipped. A warning message will inform you which months will trigger processing.

  8. In the editor pane, press the select start date button and enter a date for the wait until action to begin.

    Tip: this is typically needed when setting a recurrence that skips weeks and is created in the week that needs to be skipped.

  9. Press the save draft button to save without publishing your automation program.

  10. When you are ready to publish your program, press the publish program button.

    Note: the campaign must be published for the stage to be valid.