You might want your program to have a delay in it at some point, in between performing one action and moving on to the next.
For example, let's say that you'd like to wait a certain period of time until you follow up a previously sent campaign with another automatic campaign: this can be done by adding a Delay node to your program.
Add a delay to a program
In our example, a delay of seven days is going to be added between campaign sends.
To do this, drag and drop a Delay node from the side panel onto the canvas. Select the Delay node to set the length of the delay.
Select the number of days you'd like to set for the delay by either using the incrementing buttons or by entering it into the field. Select APPLY when you're happy.
Optional controls: other delay types and settings
By default, a contact is held in a delay node for a set number of days.
Under Select delay types you can choose a different option:
Wait until a set time of day
Wait until a set day or days of the week
Wait until a set day of the month
This can be selected as the 1st through to the 31st or last day of the month, or as the first, second, third, fourth or last Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday of the month.Wait until a set date
Wait until a calculated date, which
This can be set as a certain number of days before or after a custom date field or the anniversary of a custom date field. For example, wait until 90 days before BOOKINGDATE or wait until 7 days before the anniversary of DATEOFBIRTH.
Wait until a set time of day
With this setting, a contact is held in the delay node until the clock next reaches that time. So a contact joining a delay step of Wait until 11:00 at 10:00 is held until an hour later that day. A contact joining a delay step of Wait until 09:00 at 10:00 is held until 09:00 the following morning.
Wait a set number of days, and until a specific time on that day
With this setting, a contact is held until the given number of days has been reached, and is then be moved on from the delay node at the specified time. So, a contact joining a delay step of Wait until 2 days later at 10:00 at 08:00 is held for 50 hours; just over two days. A contact joining a delay step of Wait until 2 days later at 10:00 at 12:00 is held for 46 hours; just under two days.
An example explaining what would happen to a contact joining the delay step at the current time is displayed in the side panel to help you.
Delay node behavior during program deactivation
What happens to the delay node when a program is deactivated?
The program calculates the time from the moment a contact enters the node. If you have a program with a delay node of, for example, three days, and you deactivate this program for four days, when you finally reactivate the program, the contact is immediately moved to the next node. This happens because the time between them entering the node and the moment the program is reactivated is longer than the delay time.