How do email campaigns work?
An email campaign is for news that has one moment: a workshop has opened, a new collection is ready, or tickets go on sale on Friday. You choose the message, the lawful audience and the time. It goes once.
Automatic journeys do another job. They respond to one person's action, such as a purchase or confirmed signup, and keep following the schedule you approved. See How do automatic emails work? for that route.
The campaign path
- Check the site is ready. Campaigns need the site's own verified sending address, current Terms acceptance, an available monthly allowance and access to the controlled rollout. Why can't I send my email campaign? explains every blocker, and How many campaign emails can I send? explains the allowance.
- Choose who should hear it. Bernard shows named groups with live eligible counts. A contact record alone is never enough. Who will receive my email campaign? explains the difference.
- Write it. Open Community → Email campaigns → New campaign to write it yourself. You can also work with Bernard; AI drafting is available on Medium and Large plans. A Send the same kind of email without rebuilding it can hold a design you use often.
- Preview and test. The exact saved version has its own fingerprint. A private test can go to a current member of your account, never to an address typed into chat. Preview and test my email campaign before I send it covers both checks.
- Approve the final quote. It names the saved version, its digest, the exact recipient count, the timing and the cancellation hold. If any one of those facts changes, Bernard asks again.
- Follow the result. Community shows whether the campaign is held, scheduled, sending, sent, partly sent, failed or cancelled. See What happened after I sent my email campaign?.
Three separate actions
Saving keeps a draft. Previewing renders it. Sending asks for a separate approval. Closing the editor, saving a template, saving a draft or opening a preview cannot email the audience.
After approval, an immediate campaign normally waits through a short cancellation hold. A scheduled campaign waits for its chosen time as well. You can cancel before provider delivery begins. Send an email campaign to my audience takes you through that final send safely.
Every marketing campaign includes its own unsubscribe route. It applies only to the site that sent the message, and future eligible counts respect it. Read How does unsubscribing from my emails work? before bringing an old list into the conversation.
Campaign sending is still a controlled rollout. If your readiness check says it is not enabled yet, that is a real stop: drafts, templates and previews remain useful, but tests and audience sends are refused until the site is admitted.
The prompt
“Explain how email campaigns work for [my site], show me what is ready, and help me choose the next safe step without sending anything.”
Press Copy, then paste it into your AI and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard first - a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI.
Questions people ask
- What is an email campaign?
- One email sent once to a group who can lawfully hear from you. You write it for a particular moment, such as a new course or exhibition. Automatic journeys are different: they send one person a message when something happens. Neither route sends a campaign without your approval.
- Can I write one without asking Bernard?
- Yes. Open Community, choose Email campaigns, then New campaign. You can write, preview and save there. You can also work with Bernard; AI drafting requires a Medium or Large plan, while writing and sending your own campaign does not.
- Can I stop a campaign after approving it?
- Usually, yes. An immediate send has a short cancellation hold, and a scheduled send can be cancelled before delivery starts. Once a message has been handed to the email provider, it cannot be recalled.
- Why does my site say campaigns are not enabled yet?
- Campaign sending is being opened carefully. You can still prepare drafts, templates and previews while your site is waiting. Tests and audience sends remain blocked until the sender and rollout checks pass, whatever you approve.