The "Goal" action and "Wait" action both create conditions that a contact must meet to proceed to the next step in an automation. However, knowing when to use one over the other depends on what you wish to accomplish with your automation and if you’re sending out time-sensitive emails or emails that do not need to go out by a specific date.
This article will review both automation actions and provide an example of when you would use each when scheduling automation emails.
"Goal" action
While a contact can encounter a "Goal" action sequentially (meaning it’s the next step in their automation path), it is mainly used to jump a contact from their current position in an automation directly to that action once they meet specific conditions. With this action, they will skip all steps between their current position and the Goal and then proceed to the next step in your automation.
If contacts reach the "Goal" action sequentially, you can configure it using the segment builder so that contacts will wait in that step until they meet specific conditions to proceed to the following action.
"Wait" action
A "Wait" action is more sequential—a contact will encounter it as soon as it’s the next step in their automation path, and they will not jump to it. With this action, contacts will wait at that action until they meet the conditions to move forward. Once the conditions are met, the contacts are released to the next step.
When to use a "Goal" action to schedule an email
If you have emails that need to go out by a specific date, we recommend using "Goal" actions to schedule those emails. For example, let’s say you have an automation containing a series of email reminders for an upcoming event. You want to send them 30 days before the event date, two weeks before the event date, one week before the event date, and one day before the event. However, depending on when contacts enter your automation, you may not want them to receive specific reminders as they would no longer be relevant to that contact. For example, if a contact entered your automation three days before the event date, you would not want them to receive your first three reminders. To get around this, you would use a "Goal" action above each Send Email action that uses a date condition and that is set to have contacts wait until conditions are met before they move to the next step in your automation.
Learn about the "Goal" action.
For an in-depth look at Goals in a marketing automation, check out this Guide.
When to use a "Wait" action to schedule an email
If you have a series of emails to send that are not time-sensitive and want contacts to receive each one regardless of when they entered your automation, then you can consider using a "Wait" action to schedule your email. Again, with this option, contacts will arrive at this action sequentially and queue in that step until they meet the conditions you set to move forward.
There are four types of "Wait" actions that you can create:
- Wait for a set period of time - Contacts will wait in this action for a period of time you specify, then proceed to the next action in the automation.
- Wait until a specific day and/or time - Contacts will wait in this action until a specific date and time you specify, then proceed to the next action in the automation.
- Wait until a custom date field matches - Contacts will wait in this action until a date in a custom contact, deal, or account field is the current date and specified time, then proceed to the next action in the automation. You will have the option to have the contact wait until the selected field matches the current date or select a specific number of days before or after that field’s value.
- Wait until specific conditions are met - Contacts will wait in this action until certain conditions are met. For example, until they perform a certain behavior or until you collect certain information about them. Wait conditions are created with the segment builder. In addition, you can set a time limit for how long a contact will wait in this action if they don't meet the conditions to proceed.
Learn how to configure the "Wait" automation action.
To read in-depth on how to send perfectly-timed messages in an automation, see this Guide.