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Quickstart

This walkthrough builds one campaign and sends it, using the shortest path through the wizard: an audience taken from contacts already in the store, and a template written in the campaign. The alternatives are linked at each step rather than covered inline.

Before You Begin​

Two things need to be in place, both covered in Getting Started:

Have the message content in mind as well, including any compliance wording the send needs.

1. Create the Campaign​

  1. Select Outreach in the sidebar, then Campaigns.
  2. Select Create Campaign. The wizard opens on a summary of what to have ready.
  3. Select Next.

2. Set the Basics​

  1. Enter a Campaign Name that colleagues will recognise, for example "March Payment Reminders", and an optional Description.
  2. Select a Delivery Channel, SMS or Email. Only channels an Org Admin has configured are available.
  3. Choose Manual as the schedule, so each run is started by hand. A Repeat schedule creates and starts runs automatically instead, and can be added later.
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The delivery channel is fixed once the campaign is created. Changing channel means creating a new campaign.

3. Choose the Audience​

The audience decides who the campaign reaches. For a first campaign, use the contacts already in the store:

  • All Contacts sends to every contact in the organisation.
  • Segment sends to one saved group. Pick a segment from the list.

Both draw on live contact data, so a run reflects the store as it stands when the run is created.

The third option, File, uploads a list for this campaign alone and is the right choice for a one-off send to people who are not in the store. See Contact File Audiences for that path, and Choosing an Audience for how the three compare.

No segment to choose from

Segments are built by a Campaign Manager, Admin or Org Admin. A campaigner who needs a group that does not exist yet should ask one of them to build a segment.

4. Build the Template​

Select Build Your Own to write the content inside this campaign. To reuse content from the library instead, pick a saved template, which the campaign then applies read only. That path is covered in Adding a Template.

SMS​

  1. Where the organisation uses Sender Selection, choose a Sender. Under Sender Pool there is no sender to choose.
  2. Write the message. A character count tracks the length as you type.
  3. Use Insert Variable to personalise the message from contact fields, and Insert Quick Text for standard wording such as opt out instructions.
  4. Set a default value for each variable, so a contact missing that value still receives a sentence that reads properly.
  5. Check the phone preview, then send a test message to up to 10 numbers.

Email​

  1. Choose an editor. The Design Editor builds the email from blocks, the Code Editor takes HTML. See Choosing an Editor.
  2. Build the body, personalising it with variables where needed.
  3. Set the From address, Reply-to address and Subject on the Sender tab. Applying a brand fills these in for you.
  4. Add the unsubscribe variable. An email campaign cannot be finished without it.
  5. Set a default value for each variable used.
  6. Optionally add attachments, up to 20 MB in total.
  7. Send a test email to up to 10 addresses and check how it renders.

5. Finish the Campaign​

Select Finish. An SMS campaign saves straight away. An email campaign is checked first: the From address, Reply-to address and unsubscribe link are required, while a missing subject or an unsent test only raise a warning.

The campaign saves with a status of Ready to Run. Nothing has been sent, and no messages exist yet.

6. Create and Start a Run​

  1. Open the campaign and select New Campaign Run.
  2. Give the run its own name and optional description, then create it. The run works out its recipients and builds their messages, which is why it sits in a Preparing state briefly before it is ready.
  3. Select Start to open the Start Run page.
  4. Review the template preview, and the sender if the campaign uses Sender Selection.
  5. Choose Now, which sends after a five minute warming up window, or Later, which schedules the run at least 15 minutes ahead in 15-minute intervals.
  6. Accept the terms and conditions covering lawful use of recipient data.
  7. Select Start.

Cancelling during the warming up window returns the run to Ready to Run and sends nothing, so a mistake caught in those five minutes costs nothing. See Starting a Run.

7. Monitor the Send​

Open the run to follow it:

  1. The progress panel counts messages by status as they move.
  2. The messages table can be searched, filtered and sorted, by status, failure reason or priority.
  3. Failed messages can be retried individually, or all at once with Resend Failed on a run that finished with failures.
  4. Export to CSV takes the results away for reporting or audit.

See Monitoring and Messages for the detail, and Campaign and Message Statuses for what each status means.

Next Steps​