If you are looking for information about Blackout Dates, click here.
Wait is a Campaign Action that can be dragged into the campaign workspace for use in any campaign flow. When campaign members reach this Action, they wait and are held in the Wait Action for a specified duration of time according to rules set by the campaign creator.
Wait Actions are useful to control timing and cadence of your campaigns. For example, if you are running a drip campaign, then you would add Wait Actions in between your Email Actions so that emails go out at a specific rate. Another common scenario where the Wait Action would be used is when you are setting up event driven campaigns whereby a certain period of time must pass before reminder emails or "thank you for attending" emails are sent.
A Wait Action will not work until you configure the Action's Properties. In Properties, you will be able to specify the Default Option as well as additional Options that will determine how Wait behaves for different qualified prospects.
With just a Default Option configured, whenever prospects reach Wait in the campaign flow, they will remain in this Action for a specified duration of time. After the duration of time has elapsed, prospects will immediately be released from the Action to continue through the campaign flow.
Part 1: How to Configure a Wait Action
1. Drag the Wait Action into the campaign flow of your choice.
2. Double-click to open the Action's Properties.
3. Choose how long prospects will remain in this Action before proceeding into the next Action in the campaign flow. There are several choices that dictate when a prospect is released from a Wait:
Period of Time: The prospect waits a set period of time. |
Use the menu to set the Weeks, Days, Hours, and/or Minutes that you would like prospects to wait. |
Until Date: The prospect waits until the chosen date has arrived. |
Click on the date field to set the date that you would like prospects to be held until and use the drop-down menus for Hour, Min, AM/PM, and Time Zone to specify the exact time of day that prospects should be released.
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Before / After: Prospects will wait a certain number of days relative to a date stored in a prospect custom DATE field. |
Specify the number of days to wait, then select whether this will be Before or After the date in your prospect field. If you would like prospects to be released ON the date of your prospect field, choose 0 days. (Optional) Ignore year in field (for recurring dates) - With this box checked, the Wait Action will ignore the "year" of the selected Prospect Field and will only consider the day/month. This is especially helpful with regards to recurring dates such as birthdays, renewal notices, trial end dates, etc.
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Indefinitely: Prospects will be held in the Wait Action for an indefinite amount of time when this setting is chosen. |
(OPTIONAL) Release immediately based on activity- With this box checked, you can add a condition in which prospects are released immediately if and only if they match your condition. If the prospect does not match the condition, they wait indefinitely. |
4. After prospects are done waiting the amount of time specified (Period of Time, Until Date, Before / After), the Wait Action performs one more check to see when they should be released by the Action. You have the option to choose how soon the prospect is released:
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Right away - This allows you to release prospects immediately into the next campaign action.
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On the following... - This gives you the ability to control the exact day(s) of the week and time of day that your prospects will be released into the next campaign action. The prospects are only released when the current day and time matches one of the days and specified time.
Choose one or more days and then specify the time and time zone.
As an example, the Wait Action in the screenshot below is programmed to hold prospects for 5 days. After 5 days have passed, prospects are only released when the current day is a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, and it is 8:00 AM Pacific.
5. When finished, click Apply to retain your configuration settings.
Prospects can skip waiting if they match a criteria
Wait Actions also have the ability to allow for "waiting" prospects to be released immediately if a condition is satisfied. In other words, if a prospect is currently waiting in line at a Wait Action, the prospect can exit the Wait Action immediately once the pre-defined condition has been met.
This Wait Action behavior is accomplished by checking the Release immediately based on activity checkbox. After checking the box, click on Add Condition to choose the specific activity criteria to match on.
If a prospect qualifies while "waiting", they will immediately be released from the Action. Otherwise, the prospect will continue to wait until the specified duration of time has elapsed.
As an example, the Wait Action in the screenshot is programmed to hold prospects for 5 days. After 5 days have passed, prospects are released.
However, during the 5 day waiting period, any prospects that have filled out the form will immediately exit the Wait Action.
Blackout Dates - Prospects Can Wait Longer
Wait Actions can be configured to prevent prospects from being released on certain dates known as blackout dates.
If a Wait Action has the Exclude blackout dates box enabled, the Wait Action will do a final check before releasing a prospect from the Wait Action:
- If the current date is a date that matches a pre-determined blackout date, the prospect is held until the next non-blackout date occurs. Once the next non-blackout date has occurred, the prospect is then finally released from the Wait Action.
For example, if you had specified that Jan 3 - Jan 5, 2025 are blackout dates and the prospect finished waiting on Jan 3, then the prospect will be released on Jan 6, 2025.
- If the current date is not a blackout date, then the prospect gets released from the Wait Action and moves into the next campaign action right after it.
How to choose the blackout dates for your eTrigue account
- Using the side navigation, go to Settings > Account Settings > Blackout Dates.
- On the Blackout Dates settings page, you will see a calendar for the year specified by the Year drop-down menu.
- Using the calendar, click on the dates that should be blackout dates.
A red 'X' on a date indicates it is a blackout date.
For example, the screenshot below shows an account that has specified that all of the weekends in March 2025 are blackout dates.
- After choosing your blackout dates, click Save.
For more information on Blackout Dates, click here.
Part 2: How to Configure Default Rules
Along with the Default Option, you can also configure additional Options which can dictate how the Action will behave for different groups of prospects.
NOTE - When additional Options are used, the Default Option may be disabled by clicking on 'do the following' which will change to 'release the prospect from this action without any wait'.
To configure an additional Option:
- Drag the Wait Action into the campaign flow of your choice.
- Double-click to open the Action's Properties.
- Click Add a Rule.
- Next to IF, click Add Condition to configure the search criteria that will be used as the rule for assigning specific prospects to this Action Option.
- Next to THEN, choose the appropriate duration that prospects should be held in the Wait Action for.
- Repeat steps 3-5 to configure additional Options as needed.
- When finished, click Apply to retain your configuration settings.
With additional Options in place, prospects that reach Wait in the campaign flow will be evaluated by their prospect details (field data and activity history) against the criteria of the additional Options. Upon evaluation:
If a campaign member matches one or more Options within one Action, the rule for the first matching Option will be applied. The prospect will wait until the corresponding period of time has elapsed and be immediately released from the Action to continue through the campaign flow. Any other matching Option rules will NOT be applied.
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If a campaign member does not match any Option while the Default Option is ENABLED, the prospect will automatically be applied to the Default Option and wait until the corresponding period of time has elapsed and be immediately released from the Action to continue through the campaign flow.
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If a campaign member does not match any Option while the Default Option is DISABLED, the prospect will be released from the Action according to the wait duration chosen and continue through the campaign flow.