How to send webinar reminder emails 2 hours before event (with flexible date-time)

[samuelfk]

Hi,

I’m trying to build a flexible webinar system which:

• Store the webinar date-time in a custom field names “event_date_time”
• Use this to send reminder emails 1 day before and Zoom link 2 hours before event starts

It is easy to create a segment with the event_date_time = +1 days, to send a reminder email 1 day before. However, I have no good solution for sending the reminder email 2 hours before!

Solutions not working, creating a segment with filter:

• event_date_time equals + 0 day + 2 hours
• event_date_time greater than + 0 day + 2 hours + 0 minutes
• Etc

Everything that contains hours and minutes seems to not become relative to the hours and minutes in my event_date_time custom field? I’m I doing something wrong?

Another solution I’m thinking about:

• Creating a loop in the campaign builder that every 15 minutes checks if the date-time is 2 hours or less before the webinar date time. However, this might be resource heavy?

Do you have a better solution for how to send reminder emails dynamically 2 hours before the event?

Many thanks for reading this and trying to help me!

[samuelfk]

Here is my solution for this:

Purpose: A Mautic campaign flow designed to send reminder emails 2 hours before a webinar event, with optimized time checks to ensure timely delivery while maintaining system efficiency.

Flow Structure:

1. Initial Source Trigger:

• Campaign activates on event day (MMM event is today)

2. Primary Safety Checks:

• First check: “Has event already happened?”
  • If YES → Send notification email (event already occurred)
  • If NO → Continue to timing checks

3. Critical Time Check:

• “Less than 2 hours left to webinar?”
  • If YES → Send reminder email with video link
  • If NO → Continue to time management flow

4. Cascading Time Management:

• “More than 11 hours left?”
  • If YES → Wait 9 hours, then loop back
  • If NO → Continue
• “More than 6 hours left?”
  • If YES → Wait 4 hours, then loop back
  • If NO → Continue
• “More than 3 hours left?”
  • If YES → Wait 1 hour, then loop back
  • If NO → Continue

5. Final Precision Phase:

• “Final check if less than 2 hours left?”
  • If YES → Send the reminder email
  • If NO → Wait 10 minutes, then loop back

Key Features:

• Progressive time checks with decreasing intervals
• Built-in exit points to prevent infinite loops
• Efficient resource usage through graduated wait times
• Handles both early registrants and last-minute additions
• Ensures reliable delivery of reminder emails approximately 2 hours before event

The flow is designed to handle contacts entering at midnight on event day as well as late registrations, with optimal balance between system resource usage and timing precision for the reminder delivery.

[joeyk]

This will generate a LOT of lopping events.
Why don’t you just create a segment, where webinar start time < 2 hours?

[samuelfk]

This is impossible in Mautic from what I have read and tried. You can only create segments based on DATE not based on TIME.

• Custom Time fields: cannot be used to construct Mautic Segments at all.

• Custom Date Time fileds: only the date part can be used - time part not working!

I would suggest either:

1. Adding a “Wait until” function in Mautic campaign builder, or
2. Adding the possibility to build segment based on time.

That would be grate! However, before someone builds this, I think this is the most resource efficient solution.

[joeyk]

Sorry, you are right, I totally forgot, that I’m using a plugin for this:

Unlimited SQL Plugin for Mautic

(I’m not affiliated)

The segment is defined as datetime should be within 2 hours:

Then used in the segment filter:

[samuelfk]

Ah, thank you Joeyk! That’s great, I will definitely try that plugin!!