Marketo has a powerful feature known as the "Recipient Time Zone" setting within its Engagement and Email Programs. We have already explored a lot around it on Purple Me Up; let’s explore what one needs to know from the content POV while using this feature.
How Recipient Time Zone Setting Works
To give you a quick background, with the recipient time zone setting turned on, Marketo starts sending emails according to the earliest time zone, which is UTC +14:00. Marketo logs a "Send Email" activity well in advance for all eligible recipients and waits to deliver the email until their local time aligns with the set send cadence time.
This ensures that emails land in your recipients' inboxes when they're most likely to engage. It helps you bridge geographical and time zone gaps, enabling a more personalized and effective marketing strategy.
The Challenge of Mid-Cast Content Updates
However, there's a caveat that marketers should be aware of when using the recipient time zone setting. Once the cast has begun and emails have started to go out, making changes or adding new content at the top of the email stream isn't possible (even though Marketo is hours away from attempting to deliver those emails to people based on their time zone). If you see a "Send Email" activity in your members' activity log, it's too late to modify the content for individuals who haven't received the email for that cast.
In other words, once Marketo logs the "Send Email" activity, you must wait for the next cast to send the updated content or email to the members. This limitation underscores the importance of careful planning and timely content creation in your marketing strategy.
This limitation is not unique to the Engagement Program alone. It also applies to the Email program with the recipient time zone setting and/or head start enabled. If you make changes to an email after the "Send Email" activity has been logged but before Marketo attempts delivery (i.e., before the local time matches the set send time), recipients will still receive the previous email version in its approved state when the program ran.
By understanding these nuances and planning your email campaigns accordingly, you can very well avert MOOPs or be taken by surprise!
TL;DR: Marketo's Recipient Time Zone setting allows you to send emails according to your recipients' local time. However, once emails have started sending out (i.e., you see the Send Email activity in the log), you can't make content changes even for recipients for whom the Marketo is waiting to attempt the delivery. Remember to plan your email content and cadence wisely to maximize the feature's benefits. This is also applicable to the head start and recipient time zone settings in the Email program that also processes emails (i.e., starts sending out emails) in advance.
If a Marketo Email Program is scheduled with Recipient Time Zone (RTZ), the email is processed approximately 24 hours before the scheduled send. Once processed and the Send Activity is stamped, no changes to the content are possible.
My question is: in the case of an email containing a dynamic content module mapped to a segmentation, will the recipient see the segment value at the time the email was processed, or the updated segment value at the time of delivery?
For example, I have a dynamic module that shows the number of items in a cart. At processing time, the recipient had 3 items in the cart, so the segment maps to “3.” By the next day (delivery time), the number has changed to 5 and the segment reflects “5.” Will the recipient see 3 (the value at processing) or 5 (the updated value at delivery)?