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What Happens When You Click Send
Learn about the series of processes that take place before your email reaches your subscriber's inbox.
When you send an email, a series of processes takes place behind the scenes before your email reaches your subscriber's inbox. The send process usually happens in a matter of seconds, but sometimes, depending on the size of the send, it can take minutes to hours. This guide briefly describes the Outbound Mail Management (OMM) process. Though you cannot control OMM, knowing what occurs can help you understand why your send executes immediately or takes longer than normal.
The process described here is the typical scenario and can vary depending on the type of send you perform. The system handles thousands, sometimes millions, of sends at any given time. This process describes the send experience for one email send.
You Click Send
You can use a guided, simple, test, or triggered send.
OMM Analyzes the Email
First, OMM recognizes a send is coming and prepares databases for the job. OMM analyzes the job by determining if the email is template-based or HTML-paste. Then OMM determines the subscriber source (a list, group, or data extension), and whether the send contains personalization or dynamic content. This stage does not create the email but only prepares the databases.
OMM Builds the Email Structure
OMM now builds the structure of the email. The structure usually involves a header, footer, and body. If the email is template-based, the template is included in this step. Then OMM retrieves the subject line, the body content, any AMPscript in the email, and interprets the AMPscript and retrieves images.
OMM Analyzes the Subscribers
At this point, the email structure is in place, but OMM runs the content against the subscriber list. If your email send contains personalization or dynamic content, it is during this process that OMM determines the appropriate content for each subscriber. This process only serves as a placeholder until OMM builds the email in the next step.
OMM Builds and Sends the Email
By this stage, OMM has set the plans for the entire send. It knows all the subscribers associated with the send, the content being sent, and which subscribers are receiving which pieces of content. Now OMM begins bundling the emails in batches of 500 and sending them to the subscribers' inboxes. This stage can take longer than a few seconds. Sends containing thousands or millions of subscribers with complex dynamic content rules can experience delays before arriving in your subscribers' inboxes.
