What is Send time optimization and How do I send optimized emails?

Send Time Optimization is a ML based Algorithm to detect a users preferred time to receive an email. Basis on user's historic behavior and data, Raman - Netcore's AI engine will predict and send at the preferred open time for a user, resulting in better open rates. These requests will be executed across 24 hour cycle.

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Criteria for enabling Send time Optimization

STO Model Considers campaigns for last 3-month

To Activate STO on Panel, following criteria should be satisfied:

• Minimum of 3 months of data on the panel
• Overall Open Rates of those Campaigns should be greater than 5%
• Minimum user count on the panel should be greater than 10,000

How do I send STO emails?

Once enabled on an account, all that is needed to be done to send requests with STO is to pass a STO true parameter on the API request or the SMTP Header ("sto": true) . Raman takes care of the magic post that.
Please refer to the following screenshot for a sample request:

Sending over a 24-hour cycle

Email request with STO is sent on the preferred time identified over a 24 hour period. So in essence if you send in the email request, the requests could be send at any point time till the next day. For Example, say an email to [email protected] is to be sent through STO. The request is placed at 2 pm, John would receive the email at any time that is identified as preferred till 2 PM day after, say 1 PM.

Note: Not all request sent through STO can be identified with the right time. This could because the user does not have sufficient behavior history and/or is a new user. Such users are tagged as unpredictable and are communicated at the end of the 24 hour cycle.

All STO requests are tagged as following on the reports:

• STO Applied: the request is for STO
• STO Predictable: Users preferred time is predictable and communication is sent at the time.
• STO Unpredictable: Users preferred time is unpredictable and communication is sent at the end of the cycle.

Reports for STO campaigns can be simply viewed across the panel by simply using STO Tags, applicable on engagement reports, funnels and all.

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Webhooks

Webhooks will be sent when mail are sent to email id, i.e, the predicted time and not the request time and it contains the actual delivered time.

Advance STO options

Under this brands will get the capability to specify the 'Start time' and 'End time' for each STO campaign. All users should receive emails within this designated time frame. Additionally, it should have the flexibility to determine the preferred course of action for users who do not fall within this time range.

We have made modifications to the API parameters, specifically regarding the 'End time' setting for campaigns. Users should be able to specify an 'End time' for a particular campaign, and this 'End time' must be set at a minimum of 4 hours after the 'Start time.'

For clients selecting an 'End time,' we'll have two distinct categories of users:

1. Predictable Users: These users have a 'preferred hour' that does not align with the selected 'Start' and 'End time' for the campaign.
2. Unpredictable Users: These users do not have a designated 'preferred hour.'

For both categories of users, we will provide options, allowing the user to choose their desired action. The available choices are as follows:

• Send at the end time: This option sends the communication as per the value provided.
• Send at the best time: All users will receive the communication at the most preferred time across the entire user base of the client.
• Send at custom time: Users can select a specific time within a 24-hour window from the campaign's 'Start time' to receive the communication.
  • For email, custom time selection is permissible after 4 hours from the 'Start time.'
    **
  • Do not send: **This choice ensures the email is not sent to these users.

API Structure Update:

{
},
"mail_settings": {
"sto": {
"enable": true,
"end-time": (epoch format),
"action": 1,
"custom-time": (epoch format) // applicable only if action code 3 is selected.
}
}
}

In action values:
1 - Dropped
2 - Send at the end-time
3 - Send at a custom time which should be within 24 hours from the request time and it should be after 4 hours from the request time.

API Structure for v5 version
"settings": {
"open_track": true,
"click_track": true,
"unsubscribe_track": true,
"sto": true
},
"sto_settings": {
"end_time": 1690454240,
"action": "custom_time",
"custom_time": 1690472391
}

---

API Structure of v6 version

end time:-

"mail_settings": {
"sto": {
"enable": true,
"end_time":1697650200,
"action": "end_time",
"custom_time": 1697187600
}
}
custom time:-
"mail_settings": {
"sto": {
"enable": true,
"end_time":1697650200,
"action": "custom_time",
"custom_time": 1697187600
}
}
dropped:-
"mail_settings": {
"sto": {
"enable": true,
"end_time":1697650200,
"action": "dropped",
"custom_time": 1697187600
}
}