Scheduling and rescheduling a broadcast

You can schedule a broadcast to send at a specific date and time instead of sending it immediately, and you can change that time any time before the send starts. Editing a scheduled broadcast's time re-queues the send for the new time — nothing goes out until the scheduled moment arrives.

Scheduling a broadcast

1. Build your broadcast as usual: audience, design, subject line, and a test send. If this is your first broadcast, follow Sending your first broadcast first.
2. At the final step, choose to schedule instead of sending now.
3. Pick the date and time you want the send to start.
4. Confirm. The broadcast moves to a scheduled state and appears in your broadcast list with its send time.

Until the scheduled time arrives, no email is sent and the broadcast simply waits in the queue.

Which timezone applies

Double-check the timezone shown next to the scheduled time before you confirm — "9:00 AM" in the wrong timezone can mean sending in the middle of your audience's night.

If you are unsure how the time will be interpreted, schedule a small test broadcast to a list containing only yourself and confirm when it arrives.

Changing a scheduled send time

You can reschedule any broadcast that has not started sending yet.

1. Open the scheduled broadcast from your broadcast list.
2. Edit the scheduled time and pick the new date and time.
3. Confirm. The send is re-queued for the new time.

Re-queuing means the original send time is discarded entirely and replaced by the new one. The broadcast will send once, at the new time — you do not need to do anything else, and there is no risk of it also sending at the old time.

Editing the content of a scheduled broadcast

You can also open a scheduled broadcast to change its content, subject line, or audience before it sends. Changes you make apply to the send at the scheduled time.

After any edit close to the send time, re-check the broadcast's status in your list to confirm it still shows as scheduled with the time you expect.

Canceling a scheduled broadcast

If you no longer want the broadcast to go out, cancel it before the scheduled time. A canceled broadcast does not send, and you can typically reuse its design for a future send rather than starting over.

Once a broadcast has started sending, it can no longer be rescheduled or canceled — the emails are already on their way to recipients.

Picking a good send time

Scheduling is most useful when you use it deliberately:

• Send when your audience is awake and checking email. If your contacts span several regions, that may mean choosing a compromise time or splitting your audience into segments by region — see Lists and segments.
• Avoid scheduling several large broadcasts at the same moment. Spreading sends out keeps you comfortably within your sending capacity — see Email sending limits.
• Once you have a few sends behind you, use Broadcast reports to compare open rates across different send times and let your own data pick the winner.

Troubleshooting

• The broadcast sent at an unexpected hour. This is almost always a timezone mismatch between the time you entered and the timezone Reach applied. See "Which timezone applies" above.
• You edited the time but are not sure it took effect. Open the broadcast list and check the send time shown on the broadcast. The time displayed there is the time it will send.
• You cannot edit the schedule. The broadcast has most likely already started sending. Check its status — a broadcast that is sending or sent can no longer be changed.