Scheduling a broadcast

A broadcast doesn't have to go out the moment you finish writing it. In the composer, under When to send, choose Schedule for later and pick a date and time. The broadcast is saved, sits as Scheduled, and sends itself when the time comes.

Which timezone is the time in?

Your account's timezone, not your laptop's. The zone is shown next to the picker. If it says MST, then 9:00 means 9:00 Mountain. That matters when you're travelling or scheduling from a different country: the time you pick is the time your recipients experience, regardless of where you happen to be sitting.

You can change your account timezone in Settings.

Note this is deliberately different from scheduling a sequence, where the start time is read in your browser's timezone. Sequences usually start "tomorrow-ish" and are set up by the person watching them; a broadcast send time is a specific minute chosen on purpose, often for someone else's morning.

How precise is it?

It goes out within about a minute of the time you picked, not to the second. SEMAOS checks for due broadcasts every minute, so a 9:00 send starts somewhere between 9:00 and 9:01. For a campaign that's indistinguishable from exact; if you need second-level precision for something, scheduling isn't the tool.

How far ahead can I schedule?

Up to 90 days. The limit exists because a schedule is a promise made against an account that keeps changing. A send six months out would outlive plan changes, template edits, a sending domain finishing its warmup, and quite possibly the list itself. Ninety days covers any real campaign calendar while keeping the account that fires the broadcast recognisably the one that scheduled it.

Who actually gets it?

The list is worked out when it sends, not when you schedule it. If you schedule a broadcast to a dynamic list three weeks out, anyone who matches that list's filters on the day will receive it, including people who weren't contacts when you set it up.

That's usually what you want, and it's the same rule sequences follow. But it means the recipient count in the composer is an estimate of today's list, not a snapshot you're locking in.

Cancelling a scheduled broadcast

Open the broadcast and click Cancel send. It stops going out and stays in your list as a Canceled record.

There's a narrow window where cancelling can fail: if the broadcast has just started sending, you'll be told it has already started rather than getting a false confirmation. That's deliberate. Knowing your mail is going out anyway is more useful than a reassuring message that isn't true.

There's no "reschedule" button. To send it at a different time, duplicate the broadcast and schedule the copy.

Deleting a scheduled broadcast also stops it, but it leaves your list instead of staying as a Canceled record. Use Delete on the broadcast's page, or the trash icon on its row in the broadcasts list.

Stopping a scheduled send counts as sending, so both need send permission. If an admin has made you draft-only, Cancel send and delete are grayed out on scheduled broadcasts.

What can stop a scheduled broadcast from sending?

Everything SEMAOS checks when you click Send is checked again at the moment it fires, because a lot can change in ninety days. A scheduled broadcast will stop and show you why if, by send time:

• The template was deleted, or lost its unsubscribe link or mailing address. Templates stay editable after you schedule, and every email legally needs both.
• The person who scheduled it lost permission to send, because an admin switched them to draft-only or their seat was suspended.
• Your plan can no longer send broadcasts, after a lapsed trial, a cancelled subscription, or a downgrade to Free (which is mailbox-only).

In each case the broadcast is marked Failed with a sentence saying what happened, including whether any recipients had already received it. That last part is the thing people ask first.

What doesn't stop it

Running low on sends doesn't cancel the broadcast. If your monthly send pool can't cover the whole list, it sends what fits and marks the rest as failed, exactly as an immediate broadcast does. You'll see the count on the broadcast's page.

A warmup cap doesn't cancel it either. If you're sending from a custom domain still in warmup, scheduling doesn't buy extra headroom. The daily cap applies on the day it sends, and anything over it is deferred to the following day rather than dropped.