Creating a Campaign

This guide walks you through creating, previewing, and sending your first campaign.

Before you start

Make sure SMTP is configured. Campaigns refuse to send without a working SMTP server. Go to Account Settings > Email Settings if you haven't already. See Email Setup.

Step 1: Open Campaigns and create a new one

1. Click Campaigns in the sidebar.
2. Pick the Entity whose leads you want to email. The Entity selector is at the top of the page.
3. Click New Campaign. The editor opens as a side drawer.

Step 2: Write the email

Fill in:

• Internal title. Just for you. Recipients never see this. Use something like "Q2 Price Update Announcement" so you can find it again later.
• Subject line. Supports variables. Welcome back, {{ lead.first_name }} works.
• Body. Rich-text editor. You can paste formatted content or write directly. Variables work everywhere.

Variables

Reference any lead field by its internal name:

Hi {{ lead.first_name }},

Just a quick heads-up that {{ lead.company }} 
is eligible for the new program.

If a lead has no value for a variable, the placeholder renders empty. Check the Step Outputs and Variables article for the full variable picker reference.

Step 3: Choose the sender

Step 4: Pick the audience

Select one or more pipeline stages. The audience count updates live as you toggle stages. Leads who have already unsubscribed are filtered out automatically (see Unsubscribe Management).

Tip: If the audience count looks lower than expected, check whether some of those leads have unsubscribed in the past, or whether they sit in stages you didn't tick.

For more detail on audience selection, see Audience and Recipients.

Step 5: Send or schedule

You have three options:

• Send Test. Sends the campaign to a single email address you provide. Use this to check formatting and variable rendering before going wide.
• Send Now. Queues the campaign immediately. Status changes from Draft to Sending. Emails go out in chunks of 100 with a one-second pause between chunks to stay friendly with your SMTP provider's rate limits.
• Schedule. Pick a date and time. The campaign sits in Scheduled status until the moment arrives, then transitions to Sending automatically.

Step 6: Watch the results

After sending, the campaign moves through Sending → Sent. Reopen it to see:

• Total deliveries
• Sent / Failed counts
• Opened (unique opens)
• Clicked (unique clicks)

See Tracking and Analytics for what each number means and how the tracking works.

Common pitfalls

• No SMTP configured. The campaign will move to Failed status with a clear error. Fix SMTP and click Send Now again to retry.
• Variable typos. {{ lead.firstname }} does not work if the field is first_name. The placeholder will render empty. Use the variable picker to avoid typos.
• Forgetting to test. Always send a test to yourself first. There is no Undo Send.

Related articles

• Campaigns Overview
• Audience and Recipients
• Tracking and Analytics
• Unsubscribe Management