Create, review and run an email campaign
Set up a campaign in five steps, send it for review, schedule or run it, and check who was included.
A campaign is one email sent to one audience. Open Marketing > Campaigns to see them. You can filter the list by status.
Create a campaign
- Select New Campaign.
- Name & Sender: enter a Campaign name (required). Optionally set a Sender name and a Reply-to email.
- Audience: choose an audience. You need at least one first; see Audiences. The audience is read when the campaign runs.
- Content: optionally pick a template under Start from a template. Enter the Subject line and the HTML body (both required) and an optional plain-text fallback. Merge fields work as in Email templates.
- Preview & Test: select Refresh Preview to see the email filled in using a real member of the audience, or sample data if the audience is empty. Unknown merge tokens are listed as removed.
- Schedule: choose Save as Draft, Schedule for later (and pick a date and time) or Run now.
- Select Create Campaign.
Use Back and Next to move between steps. You cannot go forward until the required fields of the current step are filled.
Campaign statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| DRAFT | Saved, not sent anywhere |
| REVIEW | Waiting for a reviewer |
| QUEUED | Approved and waiting |
| SCHEDULED | Set for a date and time |
| RUNNING | Being processed |
| COMPLETED | Finished |
| FAILED | Stopped by an error; the reason is shown |
| CANCELLED | Stopped by someone |
Move a campaign along
Open a campaign and use the buttons that suit its status:
- Submit for Review (from DRAFT).
- Approve or Return to Draft (from REVIEW). Approving queues it. Returning asks for an optional note. The approver is recorded.
- Schedule, pick a date and time, then Confirm (from DRAFT or QUEUED).
- Run Now (from DRAFT, QUEUED or SCHEDULED). It asks you to confirm.
- Cancel (from REVIEW, QUEUED or SCHEDULED).
A COMPLETED, FAILED or CANCELLED campaign cannot be changed.
Check the recipients
Once a campaign has run, the Recipient / Send Log shows how many contacts were resolved, included and excluded. Filter the table by All, Included or Excluded. For excluded contacts the last column gives the reason, such as suppressed, unsubscribed or no consent. See Consent, suppression and unsubscribing.
The campaign page also has an Analytics box, including an optional Campaign cost. See Campaign analytics.
Good to know
- Skipping review is allowed: a draft can be scheduled or run directly.
- Scheduled campaigns start at their time when the system next checks.
- Test your merge fields in the preview before you run.