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Blackout Hours

Blackout Hours provides an account-level schedule that prevents marketing email from being sent during configured recurring windows or specified calendar dates.

When a blackout window begins, affected sends pause. Nothing is cancelled and no recipient is dropped. Once the window closes, the suspended mailing automatically resumes.

Configure Blackout Hours

Blackout windows can be configured at the account-level or for a specific mailing using the account default timezone.

Set up account-level blackout hours

  1. Open the Calendar tab and select Set up blackout hours.
  2. Under the New blackout window section:
    1. Select the interval by either adjusting the sliding bar or typing in the Start and End time (shown in 24hr format).
    2. Select the day(s) the interval should be applied to.
    3. Click Apply to add the new blackout window to your schedule.
  3. If further edits to the window are needed, these can be made under Edit blackout window. Otherwise, click Finish Editing to confirm the configuration.
  4. Each day can have more than one window, and different blackout windows can be configured for each weekday.
  5. To add a blackout window for a specific date:
    1. Select + Add date exception.
    2. Enter the MM/DD/YYYY that you wish to block out. 
    3. Click + Add date exception to configure another date.
  6. When finished, click Save to apply the blackout hours to your account. 

A blackout window cannot cross midnight in a single entry. For example, 10:00 PM–7:00 AM must be configured as two windows: 10:00 PM–11:59 PM and 12:00 AM–7:00 AM. 

Set up automation-specific blackout hours

  1. In the Schedule step of an automation, choose one of three options:
    1. Ignore blackout hours: Sends go out whenever the schedule says, blackout hours or not. Use this for time-sensitive sends that must always go out.
    2. Default settings: Follow the default blackout hours in the account, as they stand at the time of each run.
    3. Use custom hours: Set hours for this automation only, in either the account timezone or the automation's own timezone; replaces the default blackout hours.
  2. Click Save or Continue to save the scheduled automation.

Turn blackout hours off

This can be done by removing all windows and dates from the Calendar schedule and clicking "Save". A green pop up message will confirm "Blackout hours turned off".

Where Blackout Hours Do and Do Not Apply

Blackout hours apply to:
  • Mailings classified as Commercial, including subject line and other split tests.
  • Journey emails, SMS and MMS sends.
Blackout hours do not apply to:
  • Transactional mailings
  • Bulk SMS and MMS
  • Test sends and Email Proofs - these are exempt by design as they are your own checks on a template, and holding them would leave you unable to preview anything during a window.
  • Forwards - Forward-a-copy and forward-to-friend are sent by the recipient rather than by you, and go out regardless of the window.

The blackout window feature only applies to sending; other processes such as data imports, reporting, and contacts entering a journey are not affected.

However, Blackout Hours can affect:

  • A/B Test Sends: Subject-line tests can be paused by blackout hours, but the test decision deadline does not move.This can result in less data being available when the winner is selected.
  • Advanced Test Activities: The winning send will wait until every test segment finished, however long the blackout lasts. It is only lost if a segment is held past your paused-send limit (default is 14 days).
  • Retargeting: The retarget will wait for the original send to finish, but only up to 24 hours past its own schedule time. After that it is permanently skipped and noted in the Run Log ("The retarget email was not sent - it was still waiting more than 24 hours after its scheduled time.").