Delays and Wait Steps
Control timing between automation steps
Delays and Wait Steps
Delays control the timing between steps in your automation. Without delays, all steps would execute immediately one after another. Properly timed delays make your automations feel natural and prevent overwhelming contacts with too many emails at once.
Adding a delay step
- In the automation editor, click the + button where you want to add a wait.
- Select Delay as the step type.
- Configure the delay duration.
Delay options
Fixed delay
Wait a specific amount of time before proceeding to the next step. Configure in:
- Minutes — For time-sensitive automations like abandoned cart reminders (e.g., 30 minutes).
- Hours — For same-day follow-ups (e.g., 4 hours).
- Days — For most nurture and drip sequences (e.g., 3 days).
How delays work internally
When a contact reaches a delay step, the automation worker records the delay expiration time and moves on. On each processing cycle, the worker checks for contacts whose delays have expired and advances them to the next step. This means:
- Delays are accurate to within the worker's processing cycle interval.
- A "wait 2 days" delay means the contact will proceed approximately 2 days later, not exactly 48 hours to the second.
- Delays continue counting even if the automation is temporarily paused and reactivated.
Choosing the right delay duration
| Automation type | Recommended delay |
|---|---|
| Abandoned cart | 1-4 hours for first email, 24 hours for follow-up |
| Welcome series | 1-3 days between emails |
| Lead nurture | 3-5 days between emails |
| Re-engagement | 5-7 days between emails |
| Post-purchase | 3 days for tips, 7-14 days for review request |
Combining delays with conditions
A common pattern is to place a delay before a condition to give the contact time to take an action, then check whether they did:
- Send email.
- Delay: Wait 3 days.
- Condition: Did the contact click a link in the email?
- Branch based on the result.
This pattern lets you measure engagement over a defined window before making a routing decision.
Best practices
- Always place a delay between consecutive email sends to avoid sending multiple emails at once.
- Test your delays with short durations (e.g., 1 minute) during testing, then increase to production values before activating.
- Consider your audience's timezone and reading habits when choosing delay durations.
- Respect frequency caps — even with well-timed delays, contacts enrolled in multiple automations may receive too many emails without frequency capping.
- Use delays strategically to build anticipation or give contacts time to act before following up.
Well-timed delays are the difference between an automation that feels helpful and one that feels spammy. Take the time to plan your timing carefully.