By the end of this tutorial, you'll know how to configure when your campaign sends emails, control the pace of new lead outreach, create campaign schedules, and understand how timezone-based scheduling works in Lemlist.

Timing determines whether your emails get read or ignored. Sending at 3am in your prospect's timezone gets buried overnight. Sending 100 emails instantly looks automated and risks spam filters. A proper schedule spaces sends across working hours to appear natural and maximize open rates.

This becomes even more important when you're targeting leads across multiple regions. A single campaign schedule can create predictable problems when your leads are international:

The goal is simple: keep one campaign, but send each step during the lead's local working hours so outreach feels more human and performs better.

Before you start, make sure you have:

Sending schedule controls two things:

1. Time window (when emails send):

2. Sending speed (how fast new leads enter):

There are 2 scopes to keep in mind:

Standard schedule behavior:

By default, a campaign uses one single schedule for everyone in that campaign. That means the same days, sending window, and pacing apply to every lead, regardless of where they live.

Timezone-based schedule behavior:

With timezone-based scheduling enabled, Lemlist schedules sending in each lead's timezone. You still define the same rules:

If timezone-based scheduling is turned off, Lemlist keeps the current behavior and uses one campaign timezone for everyone.

Lead timezone field:

For each lead, the timezone is stored at the campaign level. You can populate it in three ways:

This field is scoped to the lead in the current campaign, so if you need it in another campaign, you'll need to re-import or re-sync it there.

Step 1: Open campaign settings

Go to Campaigns and select your campaign.

Step 2: Navigate to Schedules & launch

Click Settings (gear icon) at the top, then select Schedules & launch.

Step 3: Create a new schedule

In Schedules & launch, click Create a new schedule.

Step 4: Configure timezone, days, hours, and sending pace

Set your Timezone used, choose which days to Send on, define the time window (Between / And), and set how often to reach a new lead (Reach a new lead every).

Step 5: Name and save the schedule

Give your schedule a descriptive name (for example, "US East Coast Business Hours" or "EU Weekdays 9-5"), then click Add this schedule.

Step 6: Verify the schedule is applied

Confirm your new schedule now appears under Your campaign schedules.

If you work with leads across different countries or regions, you can use a timezone-based schedule instead of relying on one shared campaign timezone.

How it works:

How to enable it:

In Schedules & launch, turn on Timezone based schedule.

Once enabled, define the sending days, working hours, pacing interval, and select the Fallback timezone that should be used when a lead does not have a timezone value.

Example:

This lets you keep one campaign while making send times feel local and natural for every lead.

Timezone-based sending depends on having a timezone value on each lead.

You can add that timezone data by:

Manual lead timezone selection from the lead list:

Open the Lead list, click the lead's Timezone field, then choose the correct timezone from the dropdown.

After you select it, the chosen timezone is saved directly on that lead in the campaign.

Lemlist uses the lead's campaign-specific timezone value when timezone-based scheduling is enabled. If a lead does not have the correct timezone, the send timing may not match that lead's local working hours. If no timezone is set on the lead, Lemlist uses the fallback timezone from your timezone-based schedule.

Example: New leads entering campaign

Setup:

Day 1 (Monday):

Day 2 (Tuesday):

Follow-up timing:

💡 Follow-ups respect original send time: If someone gets their first email at 10:30am, follow-ups send around 10:30am on subsequent days (within your schedule window).

Example: Timezone-based scheduling

Setup:

What happens:

Instead of forcing one global schedule on everyone, Lemlist adapts the sending window to each lead's local timezone.

Two different controls work together:

Schedule (this article):

Global Daily Limit (Settings → Sending Limits):

How they interact:

💡 Global limit always wins: Schedule says what's possible; global limit enforces the hard cap.

Issue: Emails are not sending during the scheduled window

Fix: Check the campaign isn't paused. Verify the sender's email is still connected. Confirm you haven't hit the global daily limit. Check leads are actually in "Ready to send" status.

Issue: Emails are being sent outside my scheduled hours

Fix: Verify the timezone is set correctly. If you're using a standard schedule, confirm the campaign timezone matches your intended audience. If you're using timezone-based scheduling, confirm each lead has the correct timezone value or that the fallback timezone is set correctly. Check if delays pushed emails outside the window; they queue for the next available window. Review the global limit isn't forcing spread across more hours.

Issue: Too few new leads starting each day

Fix: Increase your sending speed (shorter intervals between sends). Verify global daily limit isn't too restrictive. Check that enough leads are in the Launch section waiting to start.

Issue: Follow-ups are being sent at weird times

Fix: Follow-ups sent at the same time as the original first email (within the schedule window). If the first email is sent at 4:50 pm, follow-ups should be sent at 4:50 pm. Adjust the schedule window or the sending speed to control the first email timing.

Issue: My international campaign still feels inconsistent

Fix: Use a timezone-based schedule instead of one universal campaign timezone. Also confirm your lead timezone data is populated correctly from your CRM, CSV import, or manual edits.

Match the schedule to your audience - If you're targeting one region, use that region's timezone. If you're targeting multiple regions, use a timezone-based schedule to localize timing without splitting campaigns.

Make sure lead timezone data is clean - Timezone-based sending only works well if each lead has the correct timezone value in the campaign.

Set a sensible fallback timezone - Choose the timezone that best matches the majority of your audience so leads without timezone data still receive emails at reasonable hours.

Avoid Monday mornings and Friday afternoons - Peak times = buried emails. Tuesday-Thursday, 9 am-3 pm, typically sees the best engagement.

Start conservative - Begin with 9 am-5 pm weekdays, 20-minute intervals. Expand the window only after confirming good deliverability and engagement.

Save as template - Once you find a schedule that works, save it as a template (option in schedule settings) to reuse across campaigns.

Test different windows - A/B test 9 am-12 pm vs. 1 pm-5 pm to find when your audience engages most.

Coordinate with reply management - Schedule sends when your team is available to handle replies. Don't send late Friday if nobody checks email until Monday.

Monitor global limit impact - If follow-ups consistently prevent new leads from starting, increase the global limit or reduce campaign volume.

Standard B2B (US):

Conservative Enterprise:

Aggressive SMB:

European B2B:

Multi-region campaign with timezone-based scheduling: