A Delay is an action that makes the automation wait before it runs the next step. Without one, every message in the sequence goes out in the same second. With one, you send the free resource, wait a few seconds, then ask your positioning question, the way a person would.
Add a Delay
Open the automation and go to the Actions step.
Under the step where you want the pause, click Add an action.
Under Timing, choose Delay.
In Wait before the next action, pick how long to wait: 5, 15, or 30 seconds, 1 or 5 minutes, or 1 or 3 hours. For something else, choose Custom and enter a number in seconds, minutes, or hours.
Drag the Delay card into position if it isn't already between the right two steps, then Save.
The phone preview on the right shows the pause as a small clock between the two messages, so you can read the sequence the way the contact will get it.
The longest a single Delay can be is 6 hours. For a follow-up that should go out tomorrow or next week, schedule a follow-up on the contact instead. See Schedule Follow-Ups: Reminders and Automatic Sends.
What the Contact Sees
Nothing. The pause is invisible on their side. The next message shows up when the delay ends, the same as if you had typed it yourself.
What You See in the Inbox
While a delay is running, the conversation shows a line between the messages: Automation delayed for 5 minutes · Scheduled to resume at 2:17 PM. The time is when the next step will send. The line shows on the web app and in the iOS and Android apps.
If the Contact Replies During the Delay
The automation keeps going. When the delay ends, the next step sends even if the contact has already written back. So keep delays short at any point where the contact is likely to reply. If someone gets the resource and writes "amazing, I need this, I'm trying to learn X," a question that lands five minutes later asking what they're trying to learn reads as a bot that didn't listen.
A Delay is different from Ask Question. Ask Question waits for the contact and stops if they never answer. A Delay waits for the clock and always continues.
Where a Delay Fits in the Recipe
The recipe in Automation Best Practices sends the resource, then asks the positioning question. The spot for a Delay is between those two, and it should be short: 5 to 30 seconds. That's long enough to read as a person typing the next message, and short enough that the question arrives before the contact has started a different conversation. Don't stretch it to minutes there; a reply during a long delay is exactly the case above.