Send email on specific day of the week

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Posted on by Edgar@LCI

Hi everyone,

I wanted to ask if there’s a way in Realtime to schedule emails to be sent on a specific day of the week and at a particular time.

For example I have a evergreen nurture journey that consists of a series of emails that have to be sent out on Tuesdays at 9:00 am.

In outbound we were able to set this once the emails were added to the journey, in Realtime there is the quiet time feature but you can't set a quiet time for more than 3 consecutive days therefore if you specifically have to send on only one day of the week, you can't.

I guess I can create a custom trigger to achieve , but it surprises me that such a basic feature that every marketing automation platform has wouldn`t be available out of the box or am I missing something here?

I see there is an update to the quiet time feature set for April but there is no mention of the 3 consecutive day limitation.

https://releaseplans.microsoft.com/?app=Customer+Insights+-+Journeys&planID=d1acffac-b1d9-ef11-a730-7c1e527e6d02

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys

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jwcpc 274 on at

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Yep - building nurtures is not something that is easy in this product. The way I have got around this is to have a journey which runs on a repeating schedule:

The setup is like this

1. So every week it picks up all relevant people

2. Sends them to an Attribute branch, where it checks if a person is a member of segment 1, 2, 3, etc. The key is to setup these segments so it excludes anyone that has already been sent the email in question, this way they will skip and move to next segment.
3. If they are in the segment I am firing a custom trigger which sends them to a child campaign, this is to give me more control as it means I can set things like campaign end date and check for that in the child campaign - but you could just add a plain old send email step

Hope this helps. I haven't really found an easier way of doing this.

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Daivat Vartak (v-9d... 7,835 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hello Edgar,

You've accurately identified a key limitation in Real-Time Marketing (CI-J) regarding scheduled email sends on specific days of the week, particularly when compared to Outbound Marketing.
The Short Answer:
You are correct. Out-of-the-box, CI-J does not directly offer a feature to schedule emails to be sent on a specific day of the week at a specific time (e.g., every Tuesday at 9:00 AM) in the way Outbound Marketing did.

Why This Limitation Exists:

Real-Time Focus: CI-J is designed with a strong emphasis on real-time interactions and customer journeys. This focus often prioritizes immediate actions and triggers over rigid, pre-set schedules.

Journey-Based Approach: CI-J's journey orchestration is more about reacting to customer behaviors and signals than adhering to fixed schedules.

Addressing Your Specific Points:

Quiet Time Limitation:

As you've noted, the "quiet time" feature is not designed for single-day-of-the-week scheduling. It's intended to prevent sends during specified time ranges to avoid disrupting customers.

The April update you linked does enhance quiet time, but it doesn't appear to address the single-day scheduling issue.

Custom Triggers:

You are correct that custom triggers could be a workaround. You could create a custom trigger that fires every Tuesday at 9:00 AM. However, this adds complexity and maintenance.

Surprising Omission:

It is indeed surprising that such a common marketing automation feature is not readily available in CI-J.

This is a common point of feedback from users transitioning from Outbound Marketing.

Workarounds and Alternatives:

Power Automate Integration:

Use Power Automate to create a scheduled flow that triggers a CI-J custom trigger or action.

The Power Automate flow can be set to run on your desired schedule (every Tuesday at 9:00 AM).

This provides the scheduled control you need.

Custom Triggers:

As mentioned, you can create custom triggers that are activated on specific days and times.

This requires some technical knowledge but provides a more integrated solution.

Segmentation and Journeys:

While not a direct scheduling solution, you could use segmentation to create a segment of contacts that should receive the email on Tuesdays.

Then, use a journey with a recurring trigger that checks the segment membership on Tuesdays.

This is a more complex approach but might be suitable for certain scenarios.

Feedback to Microsoft:

It's essential to provide feedback to Microsoft about this missing feature.

Use the Microsoft feedback channels to express your need for scheduled email sends on specific days of the week.

Key Recommendations:

Power Automate: Using Power Automate to bridge the scheduling gap is likely the most practical and flexible workaround.

Provide Feedback: Let Microsoft know that this is a critical feature for your marketing needs.

I hope this helps!

If my answer was helpful, please click Like, and if it solved your problem, please mark it as verified to help other community members find more.
If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me.

My response was crafted with AI assistance and tailored to provide detailed and actionable guidance for your Microsoft Dynamics 365 query.

Regards,
Daivat Vartak

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Vahid Ghafarpour 12,147 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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