How to Send an Email Campaign

Email Campaigns are one-time, broadcast-style emails you can use to send newsletters, updates, announcements, or any other type of marketing content to your audience. Campaigns are great for sale/special offer, date, or event-specific content.

If you want to send content based on a Contact's behavior and preferences, check out our guide to Automations!

🚦 Before Getting Started

You'll need to have a Sender Profile and a List or Segment created before you begin building your Campaign

Create a New Campaign

To create a new Campaign, click the Campaign icon > New Campaign > Create Email Campaign

Campaign Settings

Campaign Name

Enter a descriptive name for your Campaign under Campaign Name. This name will identify the Campaign on the Campaigns page, it is not the subject line for your Campaign email.

Google Analytics

Check the Google Analytics box if you want to track your Campaign's activity using Google Analytics, then enter your custom UTM.

RSS Feed

Check the RSS Feed box if you'd like to add your Campaign to an existing RSS feed on your website, then enter your RSS feed's URL.

Experiments

Check the Experiments box if you'd like to turn on Campaign Experiments for your Campaign.

Click Next: Audience to continue!

Campaign Audience

On the Audience page of the Campaign builder, drag and drop Lists or Segments into the Included (will receive the Campaign) or Excluded (will NOT receive the Campaign) sections.

Select a Sender Profile to determine the sent from and reply to email addresses for your Campaign, then click Next: Content to continue!

🚨 Important Note

Excluded overrides Included. If a Contact is on a List or Segment in the Included section but is also on a List or Segment in the Excluded section, they will not receive the Campaign.

Campaign Content

Subject & Preheader

Enter your Campaign's subject line and preheader. To personalize your subject line or preheader, click the Personalization Tags icon in the field and select a tag.

Content

Click Create Email to go to the Email builder, where you can either use a template for your Campaign or design it from scratch!

Click Next: Schedule to continue!

💡 Pro Tip

Check out our guides to creating the perfect Campaign email for inspiration and guidance on creating your Campaign's email content!

Save, Send, or Schedule a Campaign

Save as Draft

Use the Save as Draft option to save a draft of your Campaign for later. When you're ready to send, find your Campaign on the Campaigns page, then click through to the Schedule page.

Send Immediately

Use the Send Immediately option to send your Campaign to your Contacts as soon as you click Send.

Schedule

Use the Schedule option to specify a time in the future to send your Campaign

Machine Learning Open Predictability

Select this checkbox to send your Campaign at a time Contacts are most likely to open it based on past behavior. Check out our guide to Machine Learning Open Predictability to learn more!

Campaign Status & Actions

Campaign Statuses

The Campaigns page Status column provides a Status for all Campaigns

Completed - The Campaign has finished sending. We suggest waiting 24 hours before reviewing the Campaign's report to give your Contacts enough time to engage with your Campaign.
Denied - The campaign has been reviewed and denied by the Sendlane Compliance Team. Common reasons for denial include spam-like or misleading content; broken, unmasked, or untrusted URLs, and poor image-to-text ratio (i.e. single, large image with hardly any text).
Experimenting - The Campaign was sent and has Campaign Experiments turned on.
Draft - The Campaign has not been sent.
Pending Compliance Review - The Sendlane Compliance Team is reviewing the Campaign. Most campaigns are approved within 24 hours. If after 24 hours your campaign has not been approved, please reach out to our Support Team.
Scheduled - The Campaign is scheduled to be sent at a specified date and time.
Sending - The Campaign is being sent. The Campaign may remain in this status for a period of time if the audience is large, or if the Campaign is being sent via Machine Learning Open Predictability.
Stopped - The Campaign was manually stopped after sending began.

Campaign Actions

The action buttons at the right of each Campaign's name on the Campaigns page provide different actions based on the status of the Campaign

Edit - Make changes to any campaigns that have not yet been sent.
Duplicate - Create an exact copy of a campaign including all settings, audience, and content details.
Delete - Delete any campaigns that have not yet been sent.
Un-schedule - Change the Schedule settings for your campaign. You can re-schedule sending, send immediately or save the campaign as a draft.
View Report - View the reporting data and statistics for any sent campaigns

Troubleshooting

My Contacts are seeing blank emails!

The Campaign likely used one image as the entire email. Contacts may be seeing the image because they have not downloaded or allowed images in their inbox settings, or they are receiving the plain text-only format of an email that has no text inside. Best practices suggest a ratio of 60% text and 40% images.