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How do I plan an email campaign before opening the composer?

The email campaign editor walks you through a fixed sequence of steps before you reach the content composer. Having the answers to each step ready before you start avoids having to save a partial draft and return later.

What you need before you start

  • A verified sending identity. The "From" step requires you to pick a verified sender email and name. If your domain is not yet verified, set that up under sending identities before creating the campaign. Unverified identities do not appear in the list.

  • A saved list or a filter you can build. The "To" step asks you to define who receives the campaign. You can select a saved list or build a filter directly in that step. Knowing your audience in advance speeds this up.

  • A subject line (and optional preview text). The campaign requires a subject before it can be saved or scheduled.

  • A send time, or a decision to send immediately. The "Send Time" step asks for a scheduled date and time. The date must be within the next two weeks and at least 10 minutes in the future. If you plan to send immediately, you can leave this blank and schedule from the review step.

The step order in the editor

When you open a new campaign (via the "Create" button on the Email Campaigns page), the editor presents these steps in order:

  1. Campaign Name

  2. To (audience)

  3. From (sender identity)

  4. Subject

  5. Preview Text

  6. A/B Testing (optional)

  7. Send time

  8. Content (the composer)

  9. Review and Send

You can save a draft at any point and return later. The campaign stays in draft status until you schedule or send it.

A/B testing requirements

If you plan to run an A/B test, you need at minimum two variants with unique subject and preview text combinations. The test sends each variant to a percentage of the audience you specify, waits at least one hour, then sends the winner to the remaining recipients.

Sending a test email

After filling in the content step, you can send a test to your own account email using the "Send Test Email" button. The draft is saved automatically before the test send. Check your spam folder if the test does not arrive in your inbox; landing in spam on a single test does not necessarily predict how the full campaign will perform.

Scheduling constraints

The scheduled date must be no more than two weeks from the time you set it, and no less than 10 minutes from the current time. These limits exist to prevent accidental date selection.

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