How can new contacts be sent an already-scheduled email?

Max Classic
#1

We are looking to use Infusionsoft for our weekly emails to customers. However, I need to be able to schedule an email ahead of time and know that if someone meets the list or contact search requirements they will be sent the email.
Currently, when I create an email broadcast and select a saved search for the “to” in Infusionsoft, it schedules it to send to contacts that are currently in that list of my saved search. And so if, after scheduling the email, I add the appropriate tag to Jane Doe, she will not receive the scheduled email.

Example: In Mailchimp, I schedule my weekly emails in batch. So, say today I schedule an email for July 6 but then this afternoon someone joins my newsletter list, they will be added to the queue and still receive the email even though it’s already been scheduled.
But, Infusionsoft doesn’t do this?

Am I missing something in Infusionsoft that would allow me to do this? It seems crazy that this would be the case so I’m hoping there’s something I don’t know.

#2

To do what you’d like, just create a campaign with the tag as your start goal and use a date timer in a sequence to precede the email template you’d like to send.

3 Likes
#3

Denise, I know Support gets this question often and I’m glad you asked it so others can find the answer. @Cheryl_Hunt is an expert on this topic - running a recurring email (newsletter) via the campaign builder is superior than scheduling a future broadcast for the reason you mentioned. If you have other questions while setting up or running your newsletter in a campaign, please reply to this thread. I’d love for this thread to be a one-stop-shop for everything newsletter-related in Infusionsoft.

I also took the liberty of editing your title to include the word, “newsletter” so others can find it more easily.

Thanks! :sunglasses:

1 Like
#4

Thank you, Cheryl and Martin. Glad to know I’m not alone in figuring this one out. :slight_smile:

So, I would have 1 tag such as “weekly newsletter” and then a separate sequence for each email newsletter I send? I’m trying to visualize how this is laid out in a campaign - if you have a screenshot example, that would be super-helpful.

I can see one benefit to how this could solve my other issue which was that I can’t edit an email broadcast after it’s been scheduled.

1 Like
#5

Yes, you can have a tag as a start goal and whenever a contact has that tag applied, they would satisfy that goal and enter into a sequence with a series of date timers and emails. If someone got the start tag, they would skip over any date timers that were in the past and “wait” for the next timer…at which point the email/newsletter would be sent to them and everyone else in that campaign.

Does that help, Denise?

1 Like
#6

Yes, it does, thank you, Cheryl. So, here is what I’m thinking this looks like as a campaign: http://snpy.in/9r6a9d
Tried to figure out how to easily organize emails so that it is not one sequence filled with a ton of emails. Is this right? I have an ‘opt out’ tag that would be applied if they complete a form updating their preferences. Rather than having giving them only one option to completely unsubscribe, this allows me to still keep them as marketable but no longer send them the weekly email.
Inside the sequence, I have this set-up: http://snpy.in/iUWnIi
Is there anything I am missing for implementation?

#7

Looks great! What you can do is just in case they optin again, add a tag removal widget at the beginning of each sequence that removes the opt-out tag…otherwise, if they ever opt out again, they won’t get pulled out because the tag is already in their record.

#8

If they don’t have the opt out tag, nothing happens when they hit the removal widget…it just passes over because there is nothing to remove.

1 Like
#9

Cheryl,

There is an obscure bug in InfusionSoft that you might hit with this set up—but only if you have tens of thousands of contacts in the campaign at one time. Specifically, when you go back into the campaign to add the next newsletter, and then you republish, some small number of people may get canceled out of the timer they are waiting on and move forward in the campaign incorrectly. You can tell that this happens by looking at the current reporting stats before and after you publish to note if anyone has moved to the next timer. If so, you can manually grab them and move them back to where they should be. I have provided video evidence of this to InfusionSoft but they are not working on it because they have not found a way to recreate it. So, just be watchful and you’ll be fine.

Cheers!
Julia

1 Like
#10

@Denise_Alvarez One thing I learned last week, keep in mind as well if they Opt. Out of ONE of your newsletters, they opt out of them all. I only speak on this, due to the fact I noticed you said you do a bunch of different Newsletters.

As well we tag out clients to which Newsletters they will get, some may get all 5 of our newsletters, and some may get one. Each Newsletter is assigned a tag for that, IE. Client>>>SEO Newsletter Lead>>>SEO Newsletter, Client>>>>Company Overview Newsletter and so on.
We are set to remove the Lead Tag after they go through our campaign welcoming them as a new client, and then adding on the newsletter for what services they are getting. One thing I am trying to figure out is how to add the newsletter tags auto. Like Sending an email, that would say we have 5 newsletters, please sign up for the ones you would like.

#11

@Cheryl_Hunt Is all of this still accurate? We’ve found too often that when we try to use date timers in campaigns, most if not all of our contacts actually get the emails. We’ve had so many issues with campaigns with date timers not functioning well that we try not to use them. (Delay timer campaigns, however, seem to work great.)

Has infusionsoft updated this yet so that contacts are added lists that have a scheduled broadcast, they will receive it?

#12

Everything that I’ve posted in this thread is still accurate in my experience, @Rae_Carson.