Each email in a sequence has two timing controls: a wait, and an optional time of day. Together they decide when a contact receives it. This article explains how they combine, so an email set to "3 days, at 7:00 AM" lands when you expect it to.
Who can do this
- Owners, admins and staff set timing in the sequence editor. Viewers can see it but can't save changes.
- The time of day uses your account timezone. Owners and admins set it in Settings → Account details; see Account details. If no timezone is set, times are in UTC.
Set an email's timing
- Open Marketing → Email, click the Sequences tab (
/marketing/sequences) and open the sequence. - On the email's card, set the wait: a number, then minutes, hours or days. Email 1 reads "Send … after subscribing"; later emails read "Then wait … after the previous email".
- To pin the email to a time of day, set a time in at. "(account timezone)" appears beside it, with Clear to remove it. With no time set, the card shows "(optional)".
- Click Save draft.
How the wait and the time of day combine
- The wait is relative: how long after the previous email this one becomes due. For email 1, it counts from the moment the contact joins.
- The time of day is absolute: the clock time the email should land, in your account timezone.
When both are set, the wait runs first, then the email waits for the next time the clock reaches your time of day. So "3 days, at 7:00 AM" means three days pass, then it goes at the next 7:00 AM, which may be the following morning.
The time of day only ever pushes later
If someone joins at 9:00 AM and email 1 is "0 days, at 7:00 AM", they don't get an email at a 7:00 AM that has already passed: they get it at 7:00 AM tomorrow. The wait is a minimum, and the time of day never shortens it.
Leave the time empty to send as soon as the wait ends
With no time of day, the email goes out as soon as the wait is over, whatever the clock says. That suits a welcome email, which shouldn't wait until morning. For a newsletter-style series, a fixed time of day usually reads better.
Daylight saving can move an email by up to an hour
On the two days a year the clocks change, an email pinned to 7:00 AM may land at 6:00 or 8:00. Times are worked out to the minute in your account timezone, so this only happens on those days. If an exact time matters, avoid scheduling something critical then.
What happens next
- Each contact's clock starts when they join, so two people who join on different days get the same email on different days.
- If a contact's sequence pauses (because it was unpublished, they stopped being subscribed, your plan's monthly email limit was reached, or your sending domain was paused), they resume at the email they hadn't received, and that email's wait starts again from the moment they resume.
- Changing a wait or a time reaches contacts who enter the sequence after you save. People already partway through may keep the timing they started with.
Common errors
- "Use 24h HH:MM": the time of day isn't valid. Pick it again with the time picker, or click Clear.
- An email arrived a day later than expected: the wait ended after that day's time of day had passed, so it went at the same time the next day.
- An email arrived at the wrong hour: check the timezone in Settings → Account details. Times use your account timezone, not each contact's.
- "You don’t have permission for this.": viewers can't change timing.