Send your first campaign
The four-step builder, from choosing who gets it to the final check before it goes.
Where it is in the app
Open Home, choose Email & SMS, then Campaigns.
- Home
- Email & SMS
- Campaigns
A campaign is one email, sent once, to a list or segment you choose. A flow sends itself. A campaign is something you decide to send today.
#Start one
Open Email & SMS, then Campaigns.
On screenEmail & SMS › CampaignsPress Create campaign. With no campaigns yet, the button sits in the empty box.
Choose Email on the Email or Text? screen. The Text card stays greyed out until your brand is registered for texting. The channel cannot be changed later, because it decides the steps and the audience rules.
The draft is named for you, for example "Campaign · 9 Oct 2026". Press the pencil next to the name to rename it.
The builder takes over the screen. Four steps run along the top: Who, Message, Design and Review. There is no Save button. The builder saves as you type, and the top bar shows Saving…, then Saved just now.
#Step 1: Who gets it
Open Send to and pick a list, a segment, or Everyone you can email. Lists and segments are grouped separately.
Watch the number underneath. Until you pick something it reads Nobody yet. Nothing is chosen for you.
Press Continue.
"Choose who gets a campaign" explains the options under the count.
#Step 2: Message
Type a Subject line. A counter shows
0 / 50. A phone beside it shows how the inbox row will look.Press {} Add a name to put the person's first name in the subject. We print "there" when we do not know the name, so nobody gets "Hi ,".
Type Preview text. It is the grey line next to the subject, with a
0 / 100counter. If you skip it, the inbox shows the first line of your email.Check the line Sending as. Press Change to edit the name under Send as, the From address, or Reply-to.
Press Continue.
The counters are a guide for what fits on a phone. They do not stop you. Only addresses on a verified domain appear in the From address list. If you have none, the screen says You have no verified sending address yet and shows a Connect a sending address button.
To test two subject lines against each other, see "Test two versions of a campaign".
#Step 3: Design
This campaign gets its own copy of the email, so editing it never changes a design used somewhere else. Start from one of four tabs:
- Your designs: emails you saved earlier.
- Past campaigns: copy the email from a campaign you already made.
- Plain email: your logo, a heading, your words and one button, in your colours. Press Make a plain email.
- Paste HTML: paste an email you built elsewhere.
Press Edit design to write it in the editor. The ⋯ menu next to it has Change design, Save as a reusable design, View HTML and Plain-text version. Press Continue when it reads the way you want.
#Send yourself a test
On the Design and Review steps, Preview & test sits in the top bar. Use it every time. The article "Preview and send a test" has the details.
#Step 4: Review and send
Under Check, five rows show green, amber or red.
| Row | What it checks |
|---|---|
| To | How many people, from which lists, and how many are skipped by Smart Sending. |
| From | The name, address and reply-to it goes out under. |
| Subject | Your subject line. Missing preview text is flagged but does not block. |
| Whether an unsubscribe link is present, the link count, and the size. Gmail shows up to 102 KB. | |
| Test | Whether anyone has sent a test. This warns but never blocks. |
Under When, choose Send now, Schedule for later, or send at one time in each person's own time zone. "Time a campaign" covers all three.
The main button carries the number, for example Send to 4,821 people. There is no second "are you sure" box.
#What happens next
- Sent now: "On its way to 4,821 people. It goes out in batches, and you can pause it at any point."
- Scheduled: you can cancel until it starts.
The Campaigns list shows the status of each one: Draft, Scheduled, Sending · 1,240 of 4,821, Sent, Paused or Cancelled. Open a sent campaign to see its report.
#If it didn't work
- Continue is greyed out. The reason is printed beside it, such as "Choose who gets this email." or "Write a subject line so people know what this is."
- The button will not press and no line is red. Look under it. "Your role can build a campaign but not send one." means you need an owner or admin to press send.
- A row under Check is red. The row names the problem. Fix it and the button turns on.
- You want to change a scheduled campaign. Press Cancel schedule, edit it, then schedule it again.
- Fewer people got it than the number on the button. Recipients are worked out again at the moment of sending. Anyone who unsubscribed or bounced in between is held back.