How to use "number of days before or after" wait steps in automations

With the plus/minus option in a wait condition, you can determine if a contact should move to the next step in an automation (or jump to/proceed through a goal) a certain number of days before or after a date stored in a custom date-based field for that contact.

You may want to use this to send a promotional code or coupon prior to a contact’s birthday, or send follow up emails to a contact after an event date.

It is important to note that when creating a date-based wait condition, “plus” translates to “X amount of days BEFORE the date stored in your custom date field” while “minus” means “X amount of days AFTER the date stored in your custom date field.”

For example, let’s say my contact has a webinar date of August 11th. In my automation, I want to send:

• a reminder 7 days before their webinar date
• a reminder the day of the webinar
• a follow up email the day after the webinar.

This is the wait condition I would set up for the 7-day reminder:

When a contact reaches that wait until step, they will queue there until August 4th because August 4th (current date) plus 7 is August 11th (webinar date).

This is the wait condition I would set up for the day-of reminder:

And this is the wait condition I would set up for the 1-day follow up:

When a contact reaches that wait step, they will queue there until August 12th because August 12th (current date) minus 1 is August 11th (webinar date).