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Delays are what turn a barrage of messages into a thoughtful sequence. Without delays, every action in your flow would fire instantly — one email, one SMS, and one DM all arriving within seconds of each other. Delays give your fans breathing room and make your automation feel natural.

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Adding a Delay

  1. In the Flow Builder canvas, click the add button (”+”) below any node
  2. Select “Delay” from the node type menu
  3. Choose your delay type
  4. Configure the duration or condition
  5. The delay node appears on the canvas

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Delay Types

Fanaura offers three types of delays, each designed for different timing needs.

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Time Delay

The simplest type: wait a fixed amount of time before continuing.

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Configuration

Set the duration using:
  • Seconds: Wait 30 seconds (useful for rapid sequences like IG DM conversations)
  • Minutes: Wait 5 minutes (good for a brief pause after a trigger before the first message)
  • Hours: Wait 2 hours (allow time for the fan to take an action before following up)
  • Days: Wait 3 days (standard drip sequence spacing)
  • Weeks: Wait 1 week (longer nurture sequences)

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Examples

Quick follow-up after presave: 
Fan presaves → Wait 1 minute → Send thank-you email
The 1-minute delay prevents the email from arriving before the presave confirmation page has loaded. Drip email sequence: 
Send welcome email → Wait 3 days → Send "Here's my story" email → Wait 3 days → Send "Check out my latest" email
Three days between emails keeps fans engaged without overwhelming them. Release day countdown: 
Send "1 week to go!" SMS → Wait 4 days → Send "3 days!" SMS → Wait 2 days → Send "Tomorrow!" SMS → Wait 1 day → Send "It's live!" SMS
A countdown sequence that builds anticipation.

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How It Works Behind the Scenes

When a fan hits a time delay, Fanaura schedules the next action using a reliable message queue. The scheduled message fires at exactly the right time — even if your Fanaura account is not actively being used. Delays are reliable to the second.

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Fan-Action Delay

Wait until the fan takes a specific action — or until a timeout period expires.

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Configuration

  1. Select the action to wait for: Choose from available fan actions:
    • Fan opens an email
    • Fan clicks a link in an email
    • Fan replies to an SMS
    • Fan streams your music
    • Fan purchases merch
    • Fan RSVPs to an event
    • Fan clicks a ticket link
  2. Set a timeout: How long should the delay wait before giving up?
    • Example: “Wait for email open, timeout after 3 days”
  3. On timeout: What happens if the fan does not take the action within the timeout?
    • Continue: Move to the next node in the flow (the fan proceeds even though they did not act)
    • Exit flow: Remove the fan from the flow entirely

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Examples

Email open follow-up: 
Send email → Wait until fan opens email (timeout: 3 days) → Send SMS follow-up
If the fan opens the email within 3 days, the SMS fires immediately after the open. If they do not open it within 3 days, the timeout kicks in and the SMS fires anyway (or the fan exits, depending on your setting). Purchase confirmation: 
Send merch promo email → Wait until fan purchases (timeout: 7 days) → Condition: Did they purchase?
├─ Yes → Send thank-you email
└─ No  → Send discount offer email
This gives fans a week to purchase. After 7 days, the flow continues and the condition checks whether they bought or not. SMS reply collection: 
Send SMS: "What city should I tour next? Reply with your city!" → Wait until fan replies (timeout: 2 days)
Collects fan replies for a fun, interactive campaign. After 2 days, the flow continues regardless.

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How It Works Behind the Scenes

Fan-action delays set up a listener for the specified event. When Fanaura detects the fan action (via webhook, API, or real-time update), it immediately advances the fan past the delay. A scheduled timeout acts as a fallback — if the action is not detected before the timeout fires, the timeout behavior takes over.

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Condition-Based Delay (Until Date)

Wait until a specific calendar date, typically derived from your asset metadata.

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Configuration

  1. Select the date source: Choose from:
    • Release date (from your music asset)
    • Event date (from your tour asset)
    • On-sale date (from your tour or merch asset)
    • Pre-order date (from your merch asset)
    • Custom date (enter manually)
  2. Optional offset: Add or subtract time from the date
    • “Release date minus 3 days” (fire 3 days before release)
    • “Event date minus 1 hour” (fire 1 hour before the show)
    • “On-sale date plus 0 days” (fire at midnight on on-sale day)

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Examples

Release day blast: 
Fan presaves → Send thank-you email → Wait until release date → Send "It's live!" email
The fan presaves weeks or months before release. The delay holds them in the flow until release day, then delivers the announcement. Pre-show text: 
Fan buys ticket → Send confirmation → Wait until event date minus 1 day → Send "See you tomorrow!" SMS
The fan might buy a ticket months in advance. The delay waits until the day before the show to send the reminder. Presale code delivery: 
Fan RSVPs → Wait until presale date minus 24 hours → Send presale code email
Delivers the presale code exactly 24 hours before presale opens, regardless of when the fan RSVP’d.

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How It Works Behind the Scenes

Until-date delays read the relevant date from your asset metadata, apply the offset, and schedule the next action for that exact timestamp. If you update the date on your asset, existing delays will respect the new date.

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Timezone Awareness

Delays respect timezone settings configured in Flow Settings:

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Account Timezone

All delays use your account’s default timezone. A “Wait until 9 AM” delay fires at 9 AM in your timezone for all fans.

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Fan Timezone

If enabled, delays adjust to each fan’s local timezone. A “Wait until 9 AM” delay fires at 9 AM Eastern for a New York fan and 9 AM Pacific for an LA fan. Fan timezone is especially important for:
  • Time windows: Ensuring messages arrive during reasonable hours
  • Date-based delays: Making sure “release day” starts at a sensible time in each fan’s local zone
  • International audiences: If your fans span multiple countries, fan timezone prevents 3 AM messages
Tip: If your fan base is primarily in one country, account timezone works fine. If you have international fans, enable fan timezone for a better experience.

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Combining Delays

You can chain multiple delays for sophisticated timing: 
Trigger: Fan presaves
  ↓
Wait 1 minute
  ↓
Send thank-you email
  ↓
Wait 3 days
  ↓
Wait until fan opens email (timeout: 2 days)
  ↓
Condition: Did they open it?
  ├─ Yes → Wait until release date → Send "It's live!" email
  └─ No  → Send re-engagement SMS → Wait until release date → Send "It's live!" SMS
This flow uses all three delay types:
  1. Time delay (1 minute) — Brief pause before the thank-you
  2. Time delay (3 days) — Spacing between messages
  3. Fan-action delay (email open, 2-day timeout) — Waiting for engagement
  4. Until-date delay (release date) — Scheduling the release announcement

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Tips and Best Practices

  • Always include a delay after the trigger: Even 1 minute prevents your message from arriving before the fan’s browser has finished loading the trigger confirmation page
  • Respect your fans’ attention: Space messages at least 1-2 days apart in a drip sequence. More than one message per day feels aggressive.
  • Use fan-action delays for engagement gating: Only send follow-ups to fans who engaged with the previous message
  • Set reasonable timeouts: A 30-day timeout on a fan-action delay means the fan might forget why they are hearing from you. Keep timeouts under 7 days for most use cases.
  • Test your delays: Activate a flow and trigger it yourself. Make sure the timing feels right from the fan’s perspective.
  • Combine with conditions: A delay followed by a condition is a powerful pattern — “Wait 3 days, then check if they opened the email, then branch accordingly.”

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What Happens Next

Delays control when things happen. Conditions control what happens. Learn about branching logic in Conditions.