What is Auto-Batch Sending?
Auto-Batch sending is the process of dividing the database, list or segment you want to send a campaign to into two or more equal size batches. Once the batch number is selected, you will be able to specify the time interval in hours between the sending of each successive batch. For example, you divide your target contact list into three batches with a four hour interval between each batch send. In addition, you have decided to send the initial batch immediately. When you complete the send process and click the "Schedule My Email Campaign" button on the final Send an Email Campaign page, Batch #1 will be sent as soon as possible. Four hours later, Batch #2 will be sent, and four hours after that, Batch #3 will be sent.
What is the Benefit of Auto-Batch Sending?
In most cases, allowing your campaign to be sent to your entire target database, list or segment in one send is the appropriate method, but there are scenarios where dividing your total send into multiple batches will yield benefits to your overall deliverability statistics.
- Sending to a large number of contacts - Many ISPs and online service providers such as AOL will begin to throttle or even block very large sends, as this is seen as a standard practice of spammers and junk mailers.
- Sending to a relatively new or "unseasoned" send-from domain - New send-from domain addresses often have what is considered a neutral rating. This can cause deliverability issues until the new domain is "seasoned" and has some successful sending history. Sending in smaller batches over a given time frame can improve the deliverability statistics of each subsequent batch.
How do I Auto-Batch Send in Pinpointe?
Auto-Batch sending in Pinpointe is easy. During your sending process, you will come to the email campaign and scheduling settings page. Under EMAIL SCHEDULING SETTINGS you will see the "Batch Sending" option.
The default setting for the feature is "Off". To activate the batch sending feature, click the button to "On".
PLEASE NOTE: You may NOT select both the "Automatically choose best send time" and "Batch Sending" function simultaneously.
Once you have turned on the Batch Sending feature, you will need to decide on the number of batches and the hourly delay between batch sends.
The default setting for number of batches is "2" and the hourly delay is "1". These values may be changed by you.
You can select an hourly delay between batches up to 168 hours (one week).
That's it! You now have activated Auto-Batch Sending. All that is left to do is to click the "Next>>" button at the bottom of the current page and click the "Schedule My Email Campaign" on the following final page of the send process. You can view the current status of a send by going to Email Campaigns -> Campaign Queue. The campaign will be broken into as many batches as you have selected and will be sent out based on the hourly time interval you have specified. Presented below is an example of what you would see in Campaign Queues. This example shows a two-batch send spaced an hour apart with two contacts in each batch. You may refresh this screen from time to time to see the progress of the send process as it progresses through your send sequence.
Once your campaign has been scheduled to send, you may review the campaign statistics for each auto-batch and the overall campaign send by going to Statistics -> Email Campaign Statistics. As each auto-batch begins, the statistics will be updated. Presented below is a representative example of what you would see. In this case, one batch has been sent and the other is pending.
