How do I add a delay between messages?
Learn how to add a delay between each message in SecureMailMerge for Outlook to control sending speed and help avoid spam filters.
Open advanced options
In the campaign manager select the link that shows or changes advanced options. The advanced options reference describes the whole screen, including what carries over to your next campaign.
The delay between messages lives in the “Schedule” group, in the “How fast” subgroup, alongside “Delay before the first message”. Its label in the add-in is “Delay between messages”.
Set “Delay between messages”
This will add a number of seconds delay in between each message. This is useful if you want to avoid being flagged as spam by the recipient’s email provider. The default is 0 seconds. Each message will appear in your “Drafts” folder when it has been generated, but it will be sent on the schedule defined by the delay you set.
SecureMailMerge generates the messages in your Drafts folder while Outlook is open, then hands them to Microsoft 365 with a send time using Outlook’s own scheduled send. Microsoft 365 sends them on schedule whether or not Outlook or your computer is on.
Minimum value
The minimum value is 1 second between emails.
Batching affects small delays
Microsoft processes scheduled messages (the mechanism used to delay messages) at most every 30 seconds. This means that if you set a delay below 30 seconds, the delay is not exact.
For example with a delay of 5s: 6 messages will be sent every 30 seconds (more or less at the same time). This will still send all messages in your campaign on average with a delay of 5 seconds but due to this batching the exact delay cannot be guaranteed between every single message for small delays.
Maximum value
The maximum delay that can be set between messages is 10 minutes (600 seconds).
Spreading a campaign over several days
If you want to slow a campaign down over days rather than seconds, use the settings in the “When to send” subgroup instead: “Limit how many are sent each day” caps how many messages go out each day, and “Send only on” restricts sending to the weekdays you choose.
Testing
Classic Outlook does not show scheduled times clearly. Open the same mailbox in New Outlook or Outlook on the Web to check the generated messages in Drafts. To observe the actual spacing, run a small campaign containing addresses you control and compare the received timestamps, allowing for the batching described above.
Note: This feature will NOT apply to test emails. Test emails will be sent immediately.
Need more help?
Email support with what you were trying to do, what happened and the exact error message. Do not include real recipient data.