How to Schedule Direct Mail
To send direct mail, you can schedule a direct mail item at the time that you create the campaign, you can accept the default schedule values when you create the campaign, or you can edit the direct mail schedule after you create the campaign. For information about how to schedule a direct mail item as you create the campaign, see How to Create Direct Mail.
The marketing database uses Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). If you do not remember this, you can receive unexpected results when you schedule direct mail items. For example, imagine that you are in a time zone that is three hours behind UTC, and your server is in a time zone that is three hours ahead of UTC. You create a direct mail item and set the start date to 11:00 P.M., January 1, 2007 (client local time). You specify that you want the mail to go out every Monday. The server will save this start time in the database as UTC (2:00 AM January 2, 2007). When you create a direct mail schedule, the server will load the time in server local time (4:00AM January 2, 2007). The mailing will then be sent out at 4:00 A.M. server local time every Monday, starting from January 2, 2007. This may not be what you expect, because you may have wanted the mail to be sent at 11:00 P.M. on Monday.
This topic describes how to set the schedule of an existing direct mail item.
To schedule an existing direct mail item
Click Start, point to Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 , and then click Marketing Manager.
In Marketing Manager, in the Views pane, click Campaigns.
In the Tree View pane, click All Direct Mails.
Note
If you cannot see the Tree View pane, click Tree View on the toolbar.
In the Search Results pane, select the direct mail item that you want to schedule.
In the Tasks pane, click Edit.
In the Direct Mail Properties screen, on the Time tab, do the following:
Use this
To do this
Start Date
Type the start date for the direct mail, or select the date from the drop-down calendar.
End Date
Type the end date for the direct mail, or select the date from the drop-down calendar.
Start Time
Select the start time.
Mailing Interval
Select the mailing interval from the drop-down list. The available intervals are as follows:
One time only. The mail is sent only one time on start date and time.
Daily. The mail is sent at intervals between the start date and the end date, based on the number of days you specify in the Mailing Interval section. Select Every and then type a number to indicate how frequently (measuring by days) you want to send the direct mail item. For example, if you want to send the direct mail item once every five days, type 5. If you want to send the direct mail item every weekday, select Every weekday.
Weekly. The mail is sent based on weekly intervals between the Start Date and the End Date dates. If you select Weekly, in the Mailing Interval section, type a number in the Recur every box to indicate how frequently (measuring by weeks) you want to send the direct mail item. For example, if you want to send the direct mail item once every three weeks, type 3 in the Recur every box. Select the boxes for the weekday or weekdays when you want to send the direct mail item. For example, if you want to send the direct mail item on Fridays, select Friday.
Monthly. The mail is sent based on monthly intervals between the Start Date and End Date dates specified. If you select Monthly, in the Mailing Interval section, select Day, and then type a number to indicate the date on which you want to send the direct mail item. If you want to send it every month, select Every Month. If you want to send it only during specific months, select the check boxes for those months. If you want to send it on a specific day of the week during a specific month or months, select First, Second, Third, Fourth, or Last from the drop-down list to indicate the week, select the day of the week from the next drop-down list, and then select one or more months.
Click Save and close on the toolbar.
See Also
Other Resources
Searching the Business Management Applications
Deleting Information from the Business Management Applications