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A
Anonymous
December 11, 2014

Wait Steps

  • December 11, 2014
  • 8 replies
  • 6391 views

Wait steps allow you to “pause” a lead’s progression through a campaign’s flow.  This article will explain how this is accomplished, and help guide you around some common pitfalls when using wait steps.

 

When a lead encounters a wait step in your campaign’s flow it is “stamped” with the information contained in that step.  Think of it like a rubber stamp marking each lead with the time it should resume its movement through the flow.  The stamp also marks the lead with the next step in the flow, so it knows what to look for when its wait time is up.

In the example below, leads will be sent an email from Step #1 then stamped by Flow Step #2 with “Resume on January 30th at 10 AM.  Look for Step #3” which will then set aside these leads.  They don’t leave the flow, but they’re no longer still in Flow Step #2 either.


Next, we’ll look at some situations you might run into when using Wait Steps.  It’s best to think through your flow and make any changes before you initiate your campaign, but here’s what to do if you need to make changes to an active flow.

 

Keep in mind that in a batch campaign all leads will move through the flow together, so they would all reach the wait step together and would all be stamped with the same information.  In a trigger campaign though, leads are more likely to have triggered the campaign at different times, and will be in different places along the flow.


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    8 replies

    A
    Anonymous
    August 18, 2015

    Slightly different case:  What if my leads are in a Wait Step.  The next step is "Send Email".  If I update the Flow to send a DIFFERENT Email (Email 3b instead of Email 3 for example---because we are always wordsmithing),  Will Marketo send the one I changed to during the Wait?  Or is it going to send the original email that was in the Send Email step?  If I had started the program with Send Email 3, but during the Wait step changed it to Send Email 3b, which one will be send? 

    J
    Adobe Employee
    JohnCl9Adobe Employee
    Adobe Employee
    September 16, 2015

    The thing to remember is that the flow steps are completely separate.  A lead doesn't care what's in step 3 until they actually get there, so it's the email that's there at the time the lead moves to step 3 that will be sent.  Until they move to that step you can change the email to anything you'd like.

      Bonni_Graham_Go
      Bonni_Graham_Go
      Level 2
      May 3, 2017

      What if I want to chain wait steps? For example, I have a smart campaign where I want to wait a period of time, then perform an action. After that action is complete, I want to wait more time until a second action happens. When does the clock start on that second action? Immediately upon campaign trigger or x period after the first wait?

      Example:

      1) Campaign kicks of with trigger.

      2) First wait step of 3 weeks.

      3) First action.

      4) Second wait step of 4 weeks.

      5) Second action, which should happen 7 weeks after the trigger (e.g., first wait plus second wait).

      Should step 4 be 4 weeks or 7 weeks?

      A
      Anonymous
      May 31, 2017

      We had leads in a wait step, waiting for "Send Email" with a specific time of 2pm. When we changed it to 11am while the leads were still in the wait step, the email never sent at 11am. So we waited to see if it would send at 2pm, it still didn't send BUT the status tab showed that it was "completed" at 2pm. We pulled a smart list, looked at the email performance report, and built an RCE report but the email never deployed.

      J
      Adobe Employee
      JohnCl9Adobe Employee
      Adobe Employee
      June 7, 2017

      Flow steps always go in sequence, and step two will never start before step 1.  That means that all wait steps are cumulative.  A wait step of 3 weeks followed by a wait step of 4 weeks will total 7 weeks because step 2 (or step 3 in your example) can't begin until all previous wait steps have finished processing.

        J
        Adobe Employee
        JohnCl9Adobe Employee
        Adobe Employee
        June 7, 2017

        Hi Jaclyn,

        If you rearranged the flow steps as well, then that could have cause the Send Email step to be skipped.

        A
        Anonymous
        June 7, 2017

        Thanks John - we actually did remove a "Send Email" step before they entered the wait step to receive the final email but I could see why the whole flow got disrupted.

        A
        Anonymous
        October 5, 2017

        Useful article - thanks. I've set up a triggered campaign, the trigger being someone filling out a form. After this they get sent a series of 4 emails on specific dates.

        My question is: If someone fills out the form after a wait step, will all the emails set to go before that particular wait step get sent all at once to that person?

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