New campaign

This page creates an email campaign. You give it a name, choose the email template it is merged from, optionally tag a project and a reply-to address, and describe the audience: which contacts receive the mail. Once the campaign exists you continue in the campaign editor, where you build the recipient list, preview the merged email, send a test and send or schedule it.

Where to find it

Click New campaign on the Campaigns list. The breadcrumbs read Campaigns > New campaign.

You need the View permission on Campaigns to open the page (otherwise "No access" and "You do not have permission to view campaigns. Ask your administrator.") and the Create permission on Campaigns to fill it in. Without Create every field is disabled and there is no Create campaign button. In the default roles the Administrator and the Sales Manager can create campaigns.

Before you start

• An active Email message template whose record is a contact (or no record at all) must exist under Message templates. The template list on this page is empty until one does, and it needs the View permission on Message Templates to load.
• The contacts you want to reach must exist under Contacts, be active, and have an email address. Contacts without an address are skipped when the list is built.
• The Contact types and Lead sources checklists come from Lookups and need the View permission on Lookups; without it they read "Nothing to choose from."

What you see

Details card

• Name (required, at most 150 characters; placeholder "Tower B launch"). Messages: "Name is required", "Use at most 150 characters". The name must be unique in your organization.
• Project (optional; placeholder "No project"). Hint: "Lets {{ campaign.project }} appear in the mail and groups campaigns." The project list needs the View permission on Projects.
• Email template (required; placeholder "Choose an Email template for contacts…", or "Loading…" while the list loads). Hint: "Email templates whose record is a contact (or none); {{ entity.first_name }}, {{ campaign.name }} and {{ unsubscribe_url }} work in them." Message when empty: "Choose an email template". Each option shows the template name and its code. Under the field, "Manage templates under Message templates." links to the template list.
• Reply-to (optional; placeholder "sales@example.com"). Hint: "Where replies go; blank = the sender address." Message: "Enter a valid email address".
• Description (optional, at most 255 characters). Hint: "Internal note."

Audience card

Heading Audience, with "Who receives the mail. Contacts without an email address and unsubscribed contacts are skipped automatically." and the Count audience button.

Choose the source:

• All contacts (the default): every active contact, narrowed by the Contact types checklist. The legend reads "(Any type)" until you tick something, then "(N chosen)".
• Contacts with an opportunity (leads and buyers): contacts who have at least one opportunity, narrowed by the Projects, Stages (Lead, Estimate, Approval, Booked, Lost) and Lead sources checklists, whose legends read "(Any project)", "(Any stage)" and "(Any source)" until you tick something. A contact is included when any of their opportunities matches the ticks, and counts once however many match.

Switching the source clears the other source's checklists.

Both sources share:

• Cities: comma-separated (placeholder "Mumbai, Thane"); matched regardless of capitalisation.
• Added from / Added to: the date range in which the contact was created; the to-date is included.
• Name, email or company contains: free text.

Right column

A card reads "Create the campaign to preview the merged email and send a test." The preview and test controls appear once the campaign exists.

What you can do

Count audience

Runs the audience filter and shows, in the Audience card, "N reachable of M matched (N without email, N unsubscribed)." followed by up to ten sample lines "<name> · <email> · <city>". "Matched" is everyone the filter finds; "reachable" is those with a valid email address who are not on the unsubscribe list. Nothing is saved.

• Who: anyone with the View permission on Campaigns.

Create campaign

Saves the details and the audience, shows "Campaign created." and opens the new campaign in the campaign editor in the Draft status.

• Who: anyone with the Create permission on Campaigns. The button isn't shown otherwise.
• What can go wrong: "A campaign named <name> already exists" means the name is taken; it appears both in a red alert above the page and in the form's error banner. Problems with a field are shown under that field, with the alert above the page reading "Please correct the highlighted fields." Under Email template, "Campaigns need an Email template.", "The template must render a contact (or no entity)." and "Message template not found." mean the chosen template is not usable for campaigns: it must be an Email template of your organization whose record is a contact or none. Pick another or fix the template under Message templates.

Statuses

A new campaign is created as Draft. See the campaign editor for the full status flow.

Things to know

• "All contacts" really means all of them. With no contact type ticked, the audience includes every active contact of every type, including staff (contact type User), vendors and channel partners. Tick the types you mean (for example Lead and Customer) before you send.
• The Project field does not narrow the audience. It is a tag that lets the project name appear in the mail and groups campaigns on the list. To mail only the people interested in one project, choose Contacts with an opportunity (leads and buyers) and tick the project under Projects.
• Inactive contacts are never included, whatever the filter says. Deactivate a contact under Contacts to keep them out of every campaign.
• The audience is a saved filter, not a list. The people who actually receive the mail are fixed when the recipient list is built in the editor, so the count you see here can change if contacts are added or edited in between.
• Some audience problems the server reports (for example an unknown stage) have no field of their own on the form, so they appear in the form's error banner prefixed with "audience:".
• Count audience works without the Create permission. The button is live for anyone who can open the page, even when every field is disabled.

Related

• Campaigns
• Campaign editor
• Unsubscribes
• Contacts
• Message templates
• Lookups
• Opportunities