This article explains how to select an audience and schedule or send out a new campaign.

Once you have finished creating a new campaign, you're ready to review it, make your final decisions, and schedule or send it. Here, we'll go over all the steps between the moment you finish editing your campaign and the moment you schedule or send it. Always be sure to send a test of your campaign before sending it out to the intended audience.

How to create a new campaign

The rest of the instructions in this article are for post-campaign creation, but if you haven't already created one, follow these instructions to get started.

1. Navigate to your Campaigns tab.
2. Click on the Emails section in the panel on the left, if you're not there already.
3. Click on the Create new campaign button on the right.
4. In the pop-up window that appears, select Regular email and give your campaign a name.
5. Click on the Continue button.
6. Select a template or click on the Start from scratch button.
7. If you chose to start from scratch, select Drag & drop in the pop-up window that appears and click on the Continue button.

Parts of the Review page

When you're happy with your campaign, click on the Review button at the top right. If you're working in the legacy* editor, you'll need to click on the Review & send button instead. This will bring you to the Review page, where you can choose your audience, subject line, preheader text, and more.

Recipients

You can select to send to groups, segments, subscriptions, or individuals. The specified groups, segments, and subscriptions are refreshed at the time of sending to ensure your campaign is sent to the current audience. To add some, either start typing a name into the field, or click the person icon on the right to display your full list of each option.

Exclude a segment

You also have the option to exclude select contacts in your audience by checking the Exclude an audience segment box. Click on the dropdown menu that appears to select a segment. You can only select one exclusion segment, so if you need to select multiple, we recommend creating a new segment that combines the criteria of the existing segments that you'd like to use.

After the campaign has been sent, you can refer to your Response page to see which segment was not included by selecting the Excluded tab.

Subject line

Type in your subject line or click on the Switch to split test button. Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is a way of working out which of two options is the most effective in terms of encouraging opens and is something we always suggest trying.

You can also add an emoji to your subject line if warranted, but whatever you choose, be sure to keep your character count in mind as subject lines have limited space and are considered to be one of the most important aspects of any email.

Preheader text

Preheader text is a brief description of what's in your email. It's not displayed in the email itself, but appears in the email preview of most inboxes, following the subject line.

While preheader text is not required, if you don't write anything, inboxes that show this text will pull it from the first line of text in the plain-text version of your mailing, which isn't always a good look.

Sender and reply-to details

In this area, the name and email address that you have listed as the sender details for your account will populate in the fields for the sender name and sender email. You can keep what's there or enter in new details that may be pertinent to this campaign, or you can also add a unique reply-to address. Additionally, it gives you the option to overwrite these default sender details for your account and set the updated information as the new default, so be sure if you make this selection that it is what you want for all of your campaigns moving forward.

Select a signup form

If you have more than one signup form, you will see them as options when you click the dropdown menu under Signup form. You can keep the default form or you can choose a different one from the dropdown menu. The signup form that you select will be what's included in the footer of your campaign.

Google Analytics

If you would like to add Google Analytics to your campaign, simply click on the Add Google Analytics button and follow the prompts. Connecting Google Analytics is not required and is completely voluntary.

Send now or schedule

You can choose to send your campaign right away by clicking the Send now button, or select Schedule for later to choose a send time in the future. The send time is based on the time zone set in your account. (If the time is incorrect it's a quick fix, just click your name at the top right, then select Account. This will open on the Basics tab where you can change the time zone. Parents and Managers of tiered accounts will need to go to Subaccount settings to change the time zone.)

After you have scheduled a campaign for a future date or time, you can still make edits before the send time arrives. However, it is not possible to stop, recall, or edit a sent email after it has left our servers. For a list of reminders to help prevent mistakes, see our pre-send campaign checklist.

Scheduling notifications

When scheduling your campaign, you will be given the option to receive a notification email once it starts. You can add multiple emails if your team members need to be notified as well. Make your selections and then click the Schedule it button.

After you select the Schedule it button or choose to send your campaign, you will receive a head's up email, which is just a preview image of the campaign that's about to start sending and not the email itself. Since this not the actual mailing, your links will not work in the preview image.

How to edit a scheduled campaign

When you schedule a mailing to send later, you can still make changes to it before it sends but you will need to cancel the send time first.

1. Navigate to your Campaigns tab.
2. Click on the Emails section in the panel on the left, if you're not there already.
3. Click on the Scheduled tab.
4. Click on the dropdown arrow that corresponds to the mailing in question and choose Cancel send from the list.
5. Click on the Drafts tab and click on the name of the campaign that you just canceled.
6. Make the desired changes and when you're ready, follow the steps to review and schedule the mailing again.

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*In April 2022, Emma's legacy editor was replaced with a new drag and drop editor. Accounts that existed prior to this change still have access to the legacy editor through their previously saved templates and campaigns, however new, from-scratch campaigns can only be created in the new drag and drop editor. Accounts that were created after this change only have access to the new drag and drop editor. Please refer to our new editor FAQ article for more information.