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Cycle prep is a vital component of keeping your Slate database running efficiently. Does your cycle prep checklist include the Deliver module? It should. There is a happy medium between building new Deliver mailings each year and not setting an end date on your campaigns.

Ensure Campaign Conclusion

Best practice is always to set an end date for drip marketing campaigns. If your mailings are running indefinitely, then your first step will be to deactivate your campaigns.

1. Navigate to Deliver.

2. On the right-side menu, select Campaigns.

3. Click on any campaign with a number in the Running column.

4. Go into each mailing in the campaign and click Stop Mailing twice to stop the message. Alternatively, mailings can be stopped in batch. To batch manage mailings, press CTRL + click (or press CMD + click) any mailings from the main Deliver page that should be stopped and follow the prompts.
   

Update Campaign Rules

Once the desired campaign mailings have been stopped, go to Database and then Rules.

1. Search for the rule associated with the desired campaign.

2. Click on the rule. Click Edit.

3. Set status of the rule to Inactive. Click Save.

4. Click Save on the rule overall. This will take you back to the main Rules page.

NOTE: Now is an excellent opportunity to move from Local/Slate Template Library rules and into Configurable Joins if you have not already done so.

The next step will be to run a retroactive refresh on all records currently in the population to push them out, clearing the population out completely in preparation for the refresh.

1. Click on the rule.

2. Select New Query.

3. Pull an export of “Person Reference ID”.

4. Select Run Query.

5. Change the output to Retroactive Refresh, then click Export and follow the prompts.

The population will drop to 0. Note that this can take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple hours depending on a variety of factors. You can check the retroactive refresh by using a quick query (bring in the population filter and associate it with your population; the retroactive refresh is completed when there are 0 matching rows).

Next, you will need to update your rule for the new cycle.

1. Update the name of the rule. For example, change the name from “Set to Senior Search 2023” to “Set to Senior Search 2024.”

2. Update the necessary filters. For example, change the Entry Term filter from Fall 2023 to Fall 2024.

3. Select Save at the bottom of the screen. Note: Updates will not persist if the rule is not saved using the button at the very bottom.

Update Deliver Mailings

Now that your rule is ready the next step is to make sure that your mailings are ready. We recommend copying over mailings for the new cycle and archiving the ones from the last cycle. Review your mailings and make sure that they are updated and make sense for this new population. Once you are ready to start running your campaign you will want to activate your updated rule/population.

Launch Your Refreshed Campaign

1. Find your updated rule.

2. Click Edit.

3. Switch the status to Active.

4. Select New Query.

5. Pull an export of “Person Reference ID”.

6. Change the output to Retroactive Refresh, then click Export and follow the prompts.
   
   
   Note that this can take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple hours depending on a variety of factors. You can check the retroactive refresh by using a quick query (bring in the population filter for your population and verify the number in the query matches the number in the rule).
   
   

📝 Note

The day of the retroactive refresh will always be Day 0. Day 1 will be the following day. As such, if you wish to have mailings begin on a Tuesday, you should go through the steps above on the previous day (Monday). A campaign with a targeted start date of a Monday would need to be activated on a Sunday, for example.