Scheduling your outgoing mail to be sent out at a predefined date

In the past few months we were publishing posts in our blog addressing elements of Mail Master functionality (see posts: “Creating mailing lists and sending bulk emails”, “Personalizing bulk email campaign”). Email scheduling is another important feature of mail management, included in Mail Master. Email scheduling allows users to defer sending their mail by a period of time. When filling out standard “Send Message” form users can choose “Send Later” option instead of default one “Send Now”, and specify date in future and an hour of the day when their email should go out. Till that time the email stays in the user’s mailbox with “Pending” status; she can still modify, delete it, reschedule the sending date or send it using “Send Now” option. At the indicated date and time corresponding mail with “Pending” status will be send out to its recipient list.

Email scheduling practical uses
Email scheduling is used widely in practice. Often people choose to prepare their mail in advance to minimize workload and stay on schedule avoiding potential Internet connection problems. You can prepare a newsletter to your customers on a weekend and fill out “Send Message” form, indicating “Send Later” option with the date corresponding to the following Tuesday, 9 am. No more action is required from your part – the newsletter will be sent out at the predefined time:

If you prefer to have an early head start with your Holiday greetings, you can get them ready in weeks or even months preceding holiday season. Once you complete the text of the greeting and other fields of the “Send Message” form, indicate that the greeting should go out on 12/23/2007, 4 am. After that you don’t have to return to the “Holiday greetings” item on your list anymore – the server will do its job, and the letter will be sent out to its recipient list.

Sending mail to a large recipient list
There are situations when it is recommended to schedule a future date for your outgoing mail, rather than choosing “Send Now” option. “Send Now” forces your email to be sent immediately; i.e. in real time. At that time the user sees the page with the progress bar on it, notifying her that the server is currently sending the mail:

Only after the email has been successfully sent to every address on its recipient list, the progress bar page will close, and your message list will be displayed.

As the recipient list gets longer (over 100 addresses), email sending time increases as well, during which the progress bar window stays open, preventing a user to continue with her work. In some cases it could even result in a script timeout, halting the email sending process (if you are using Mail Master software installed on your server and the server settings define the session timeout period).

Selecting “Send Later” option for your message with large recipient list solves the problem. Just indicate the nearest hour when the message should be sent and return to your Mail Master main window immediately. At the predefined time the email will be sent out without interfering with your work.