Run an email campaign

A campaign sends one Email template to many people at once, merged for each of them: a tower launch to every lead of a project, a price revision to your channel partners, a festive greeting to buyers. You define the audience, the app works out who can be reached, and every mail carries an unsubscribe link.

Before you start

• An Active Email message template whose record type is Contact or left as "Any record". In it, merge fields such as {{ entity.first_name }}, {{ campaign.name }} and {{ unsubscribe_url }} work. See Design an email template.
• The people to mail exist as contacts (under Contacts, or as the contacts of opportunities) with an email address. Contacts on the Unsubscribes list are skipped.
• Permissions, in the role editor's words:
  • the Create permission on Campaigns to create a campaign, the Edit permission on Campaigns to change it and build its list, and the Send permission on Campaigns to send a test, send and cancel. In the default roles that is the Administrator and the Sales Manager;
  • the View permission on Message Templates to see the templates in the campaign form, and the Create permission on Message Templates to write one (the Administrator and the Sales Manager);
  • the View permission on Lookups for the Contact types and Lead sources checklists, and on Projects for the project lists.
• Your server must have outgoing mail set up; otherwise mail is only logged (see "If something goes wrong").

Steps

1. Open the account menu > Settings > Workflows > Message templates (Message templates) and set Channel to Email. Check that the template you want is Active and its Entity reads "Contact" or "Any". If there is none, click New template and write one (Design an email template).

2. In the sidebar, open CRM and choose Campaigns (Campaigns), then click New campaign. The New campaign page opens; its right-hand card reads "Create the campaign to preview the merged email and send a test."

3. Fill in the details:

   • Name (required, up to 150 characters, unique; placeholder "Tower B launch");
   • Email template (required): active Email templates written for a contact or for any record;
   • Project (optional): "Lets {{ campaign.project }} appear in the mail and groups campaigns." It does not narrow the audience;
   • Reply-to (optional): "Where replies go; blank = the sender address.";
   • Description (optional): "Internal note."

4. In the Audience card choose the source, All contacts or Contacts with an opportunity (leads and buyers), and narrow it:

   • with All contacts: Contact types (tick none for any type);
   • with opportunities: Projects, Stages (Lead, Estimate, Approval, Booked, Lost) and Lead sources;
   • for both: Cities (comma separated, such as "Mumbai, Thane"), Added from / Added to (the date the contact was created) and Name, email or company contains.

   Click Count audience. You see a line such as "240 reachable of 262 matched (18 without email, 4 unsubscribed)." and up to ten sample lines "<name> · <email> · <city>".

5. Click Create campaign. You see "Campaign created." and the campaign's page opens (Campaign) with the Draft badge and four tiles: Recipients, Sent, Failed and Skipped ("no email or unsubscribed").

6. On the Recipients card, click Build list. You see "<n> reachable recipients (<n> skipped)." The grid lists one row per matched contact: Pending (will be mailed), Skipped with "No valid email address", or Unsubscribed with "Contact unsubscribed". The card now reads "<n> on the list; rebuild after changing the audience." and the button becomes Rebuild list.

7. On the Preview card, click Preview for the first contact. The merged subject and body appear for "To <name> · <email>", including the unsubscribe footer the app adds when the template doesn't place the link itself.

8. Under Send a test, type your own address (placeholder "you@example.com") and click Send test. You see "Test sent to <address>." The test is merged for the first contact of the audience and its subject starts with "[TEST]".

9. Click Send. The dialog "Send <campaign name>" shows "<n> reachable recipients on the list.", the choice Send now or Schedule for with a date and time, and the note "Mail goes out through the workflow worker in batches; the log below updates as it runs." Click Send now (you see "Sending started." and the badge reads Sending) or Schedule (you see "Scheduled for <date time>.", the badge reads Scheduled and the header "Goes out <date time>."). On a server that runs without the workflow engine the mail goes out during the click instead, and the message reads "Sent to <n> recipients."

10. Follow the delivery. While the campaign is Sending the page refreshes every few seconds: the tiles count up and each recipient moves from Pending to Sent (with the time) or Failed (with the reason). Use the Recipients status filter to list the failures. When no recipient is pending, the badge reads Sent and the header "Completed <date time>."

11. To stop a campaign that is Scheduled or Sending, click Cancel campaign. The dialog "Cancel this campaign?" reads "Scheduled sends are dropped; a campaign in progress stops before the next recipient. Mail already sent cannot be recalled." Click Cancel campaign. You see "Campaign cancelled." and the badge reads Cancelled.

What happens next

• Sent and Cancelled are final. A sent or cancelled campaign is read-only and can't be resent; to mail the same audience again, create a new campaign. Anyone with the Delete permission on Campaigns can delete a Draft, Scheduled or Cancelled campaign from the Campaigns list (dialog "Delete campaign", button Delete); a sent one is kept for its log.
• A scheduled campaign is started by the background scheduler within a minute of its time. If the scheduler isn't running it stays Scheduled; the Health tab shows whether it is.
• Every mail carries an unsubscribe link. Recipients who click it join the unsubscribe list. See Handle campaign opt-outs.
• Changes are audited. Creating, saving, sending and cancelling a campaign appear in Settings > Audit log under Sales; there is no History button on the campaign page.

Things that surprise people:

• Send stays greyed out until a list is built. The card says Send builds the list for you, but the button only lights up once a list with at least one reachable recipient exists (or you have an unsaved change). Build the list first (step 6). There is no hover reason.
• A stale list goes out as it is. Changing the audience or saving does not clear the list, so click Rebuild list after any change to the audience, and again just before a scheduled campaign goes out: contacts who unsubscribed after the build are otherwise still mailed.
• Cancel stops between batches. Mail leaves in batches of fifty, so up to fifty more may go out after you cancel.
• All contacts means all of them, including your own staff and vendors if they are contacts. Tick Contact types to narrow it.
• The preview and the test use the first matched contact, who may have no email or be unsubscribed. The count in step 4 tells you how many are reachable.
• Two contacts sharing one address each get a mail.

If something goes wrong

• "No contact matches the audience yet" on the Preview card, or "No reachable recipient in the audience" after Send: the audience matches nobody, or everyone lacks an email address or has unsubscribed. Widen the filters, add addresses under Contacts, and rebuild. See Campaign has no one to send to (trouble.sales.campaign-has-no-recipients).
• "Choose an email template", "Campaigns need an Email template." or "The template must render a contact (or no entity).": pick an Email template whose record type is Contact or none. "A <status> campaign cannot be changed": the campaign is already sending, sent or cancelled. "Last error: <text>" in a yellow bar: a send failed; read the text. See Campaign cannot be changed (trouble.sales.campaign-cannot-be-changed).
• "A campaign named <name> already exists": choose another name. See Already exists (trouble.admin.already-exists).
• The test toast reads "MAIL_SERVER is not configured; the message was logged" or "Logged (mail is not configured).", or recipients show Sent with "MAIL_SERVER not configured; logged only", or Failed with "Mail server refused the message": nothing was delivered. Ask whoever looks after your server to set up mail. See Email not delivered (trouble.documents.email-not-delivered).
• The Email template list is empty, the checklists read "Nothing to choose from.", or the page reads "You do not have permission to view campaigns. Ask your administrator.": your role lacks a permission listed under "Before you start" (or the lookup has no rows). See No access (trouble.admin.no-access).

Related

• Campaigns
• New campaign
• Campaign
• Unsubscribes
• Message templates
• New message template
• Health
• Contacts
• Lookups
• Design an email template and use it in a rule
• Handle campaign opt-outs