What is a Timezone Campaign?
A Timezone Campaign in BayEngage allows you to schedule an email campaign to be delivered to each recipient at a specific time (e.g., 9:00 AM) in their local timezone. This contrasts with standard campaigns, which send to everyone simultaneously based on a single timezone (usually your account's timezone), potentially reaching some recipients at inconvenient hours like the middle of the night.
Why Use Timezone Campaigns?
Increased Relevance: Delivering emails when recipients are most likely to be checking their inbox (e.g., morning, lunchtime) significantly increases the chances of your email being seen.
Higher Engagement: Timely emails often lead to better open rates, click-through rates, and overall campaign performance.
Improved User Experience: Respecting your recipients' local time shows consideration and avoids interrupting them at awkward hours.
How it Works: The Delivery Logic Explained
Understanding how Timezone Campaigns are executed is key to using them effectively. Here’s the breakdown:
Scheduling: You schedule your campaign for a specific date and time (e.g., Tuesday at 10:00 AM) and select the "Deliver based on recipient's timezone" option.
The Early Initiation Window - Covering the Globe: This is the crucial part for ensuring timely delivery worldwide.
Global Time Span: The Earth's timezones range from UTC-12 (like Baker Island) to UTC+14 (like the Line Islands, Kiribati). This creates a total 26-hour difference across the globe at any given moment.
Who Gets it First? When you schedule a campaign for a specific local time (e.g., Tuesday 10:00 AM), the recipients who will experience that time first are those in the UTC+14 timezone.|
Why the System Starts Early: To ensure your email reaches recipients in the UTC+14 timezone at their local 10:00 AM on Tuesday, BayEngage must start processing and preparing the campaign significantly earlier than 10:00 AM in your own timezone or in UTC.
Calculating the Start Time: The system needs to be ready to send when 10:00 AM Tuesday arrives in UTC+14. Since UTC+14 is 14 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), BayEngage initiates the campaign preparation process approximately 14 hours before your scheduled time occurs in the UTC timezone. (For example, if you schedule for Tuesday 10:00 AM local time everywhere, the system starts working around Monday 8:00 PM UTC).
Initiation, Not Instant Delivery: This early start initiates the campaign process. It does not mean all emails are sent 14 hours early. It means the system begins identifying recipients in the earliest timezones (UTC+14) and queues their emails for delivery precisely at their scheduled local time.
Staggered Delivery Across Timezones: Once the campaign process starts (up to 14 hours before the scheduled time in UTC), BayEngage begins the delivery cycle:
Emails are sent out incrementally as the scheduled time (e.g., 10:00 AM) arrives in each specific timezone across the globe, starting with UTC+14. BayEngage determines the correct timezone for each recipient to ensure delivery occurs at their local scheduled time.
The delivery continues timezone by timezone, moving westward around the planet (e.g., UTC+13, UTC+12... UTC... UTC-10, UTC-11, UTC-12), eventually covering the entire 26-hour global time span.
Example Scenario:
You schedule a Timezone Campaign for Wednesday at 9:00 AM (Local Time).
BayEngage starts the internal processing around Tuesday 7:00 PM UTC (14 hours before Wednesday 9:00 AM UTC).
A recipient in the Line Islands (UTC+14) receives the email around 9:00 AM Kiritimati Time (LINT) on Wednesday (one of the first).
A recipient in London (UTC+1 during BST) receives the email around 9:00 AM BST on Wednesday.
A recipient in New York (UTC-4 during EDT) receives the email around 9:00 AM EDT on Wednesday.
A recipient on Baker Island (UTC-12) would receive it around 9:00 AM Baker Island Time (BIT) on Wednesday (one of the last).