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Getting Started

Getting an organisation sending takes four things: Outreach access, a configured delivery channel, contacts to send to, and content to send them. This page covers them in the order they are needed, and hands over to the Quickstart for the campaign itself.

Prerequisites​

At least one delivery channel must be connected before anything can be sent:

Either or both can be configured. A campaign sends on one channel, and only configured channels are offered when a campaign is created.

Who Does What​

Setup crosses three roles, so it helps to know who to ask for each part.

RolePart in getting started
Org AdminRequests Outreach access and configures the delivery channels, senders and domains
Campaign Manager or AdminFills the contact store, adds custom fields, builds segments, and prepares saved templates and brands
CampaignerCreates campaigns from that material and runs them

Roles and Permissions sets out every permission line by line. A Campaigner who only needs to send can go straight to the Quickstart, as long as someone has covered the steps below.

Architecture​

The following diagram shows how Outreach integrates with your organisation, including how campaigns are delivered through Twilio for SMS and SendGrid for email.

Step 1: Request Outreach Access​

Outreach is an add-on product that has to be enabled for an organisation before it can be used.

  1. Log in to the NeonNow Admin app as an Org Admin.
  2. Select Outreach in the sidebar.
  3. On the product landing page, select Request Access.
  4. The request goes to the NeonNow team, who verify eligibility, provision the subscription and confirm when it is active.

The landing page shows a Requested state while the request is being processed, and switches to the full interface once the subscription is active. Nothing else is needed in the meantime. See Requesting Access for the full process, including cancelling a request.

info

Only an Org Admin can request access. Anyone else reaching Outreach before it is enabled sees a landing page asking them to contact their Org Admin.

Step 2: Configure a Delivery Channel​

Channel configuration is Org Admin work, done under Outreach in the sidebar, then Settings.

SMS​

  1. Open Settings, then SMS.
  2. Enter the Twilio Account SID, Twilio Auth Token and Messaging Service SID.
  3. The credentials are validated with Twilio before they are saved. If validation fails, nothing is saved and an error explains what to correct.

After Twilio is connected, choose a sender strategy. Sender Pool lets Twilio pick a sender for each message, while Sender Selection gives campaigns a curated list to choose from.

Email​

  1. Open Settings, then Email.
  2. Enter the SendGrid API Key.
  3. Add at least one verified domain or sender address. Domain verification is done with DNS records and can take up to 48 hours to propagate.

An email campaign cannot be completed without a verified sender, so the domain work is worth starting early. See Domains and Senders.

ChannelMinimum to create a campaignMinimum to run one
SMSValid Twilio credentialsValid Twilio credentials, including a Messaging Service SID
EmailValid SendGrid API keyValid SendGrid API key and at least one verified sender

Step 3: Prepare What Campaigns Draw On​

Campaigns are assembled from material held at organisation level. A Campaign Manager, Admin or Org Admin sets this up once, and campaigners reuse it.

Contacts​

Populate the contact store before the first campaign. Contacts can be added one at a time or uploaded in bulk from a CSV, JSON or XML file. A contact is matched on its identifiers, so uploading a corrected file updates existing contacts rather than duplicating them.

Phone numbers used for SMS must be in E.164 format. Example Files has a working sample in each format.

Fields​

Decide what needs storing beyond the reserved fields and add custom fields for the rest. Custom fields are Text, Number or Date, and a field cannot be renamed or retyped once it exists, so agree the naming before creating them. Fields are what segment conditions test and what message variables read.

Segments​

Where campaigns target part of the store rather than all of it, build a segment for each group. A campaigner can select an existing segment but cannot create one, so the segments a team needs should exist before they start.

Templates and Brands​

Content that will be reused belongs in the template library, and the sending identity that wraps it belongs in a brand. A campaign can still build its own template for a one-off send.

Include the required compliance content while the template is being written: opt out wording for SMS, and an unsubscribe link for email, which is required before an email campaign can be finished.

Step 4: Create the First Campaign​

Once a channel is configured, anyone with the Campaigner role or above can create and run campaigns. The Quickstart walks through one end to end.

Core Rules and Limits​

RuleDetail
Contact fileUp to 300,000 rows and 50 MB per file, in CSV, JSON or XML. This applies to the file, not to the contact store or to segment membership
Custom field typesText, Number or Date. A field cannot be renamed or retyped after it is created
Campaign channelOne channel per campaign, SMS or email, fixed at creation
Message prioritySet per row in a contact file only. There is no campaign-wide or run-wide priority
Concurrent runsAny number of runs send in parallel, including several runs of the same campaign
SchedulingManual or Repeat. A run started later is scheduled in 15-minute intervals, at least 15 minutes ahead
Email attachments20 MB in total per template
Test messagesUp to 10 recipients per test send, on either channel
Test sends are not test campaigns

The 10-recipient limit belongs to the Send Test action in the template editor. There is no separate test campaign: a campaign run always sends to its full audience, so verify content with a test send first.

Next Steps​