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, and you can send it there too, and you never need to write HTML. Open Your customers, choose Email campaigns, then New campaign. The message box is a simple editor with headings, bold, italic, links, bulleted and numbered lists, a picture by web address and a divider, and a Their name button that drops in the reader’s own name. Advanced: edit HTML shows the code underneath if you want it. When it is ready, Review and send on the row gives you the same quote, stop window and Stop button as the Workshop. 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 waits out a short stop window, and a scheduled send can be stopped at any point before its chosen time. Press Stop on the campaign row, or tell Bernard to stop it. Stop is also there while the row says Sending, because a large send goes out in batches and there is usually something still waiting. Once a message has been handed to the email provider it cannot be recalled, and Bernard tells you how many were stopped rather than calling the rest unsent.

Why is my sending address still not ready?

The page says which of the two waits you are in. “Bernard is finishing your sender setup” means one of us is preparing your sending identity by hand, which is why no records have appeared yet; it usually completes within one working day and we email you when it is done. “Your records are in place, Bernard is checking them with the email provider” means you have done your part and the check is automatic, usually under an hour. Drafts, templates and previews keep working through both, and tests and audience sends stay blocked until the address is live, whatever you approve.

Email campaigns5 min read

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.

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.”

Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).

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 and an available monthly allowance. Why can’t I send my email campaign? explains every blocker, and How many campaign emails can I send? explains the allowance. A new site also starts with a short warm-up; Why are my first emails limited? explains it.
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 Your customers → 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. Your customers shows whether the campaign is held, scheduled, sending, sent, partly sent, failed or cancelled. See What happened after I sent my email campaign?.

Opens and clicks

Bernard can record which of your emails people open and which links they press, but only for the readers who have agreed to it, and only once an owner has accepted the addition to the Terms. Everybody else is sent the plain message and nothing about them is recorded. Recording is on for every site by default, and bernard sets it up when it sets up your own sending address or when it links this site to an address you already have. You can switch it off at any time. That is why the figures always lead with how many people agreed: they are a count over those people, never a rate over your whole list, and the opens a mail app fetched on its own are disclosed rather than hidden.

Can I see who opened my email? is the guide to the switch and the numbers, Who clicked the link in my email? is the per-link table on a sent campaign, and How do people agree to opens and clicks being recorded? is how a reader comes to agree and how they stop.

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.

While you are on a trial

Everything on this page works during a fourteen-day trial except the last step. You can bring your list in, build an audience, write and preview a campaign, and send tests to yourself and the people on your account. A campaign to your real list is what taking the keys unlocks. Can I email my list while I’m on a trial? says why the line sits there.

Arriving with a list already

If you are moving from another email tool, your list can come with you. Bring my mailing list across from another email tool is the panel, What does my mailing list import report mean? is the report you approve before anything is written, What happens to my lists and tags when I bring my list across? is what happens to your lists and tags, and Undo a mailing list import takes the whole thing back if you change your mind. The one to read first is When can I email the people I just imported?, because an imported permission is recorded and does not yet raise an audience count, and we would rather you knew that before you started than after.

The wait most owners meet is the sender setup, and it has two halves. If Bernard could not prepare your sending identity by itself, one of us does that step by hand and the page says “Bernard is finishing your sender setup. This usually completes within one working day; we will email you when it is done.” No records exist for you to add until that finishes, so there is genuinely nothing to press. Once you have added them, the page says “Your records are in place. Bernard is checking them with the email provider; this usually takes under an hour.” Both are real stops for tests and audience sends; drafts, templates and previews keep working through both.

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, and you can send it there too, and you never need to write HTML. Open Your customers, choose Email campaigns, then New campaign. The message box is a simple editor with headings, bold, italic, links, bulleted and numbered lists, a picture by web address and a divider, and a Their name button that drops in the reader’s own name. Advanced: edit HTML shows the code underneath if you want it. When it is ready, Review and send on the row gives you the same quote, stop window and Stop button as the Workshop. 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 waits out a short stop window, and a scheduled send can be stopped at any point before its chosen time. Press Stop on the campaign row, or tell Bernard to stop it. Stop is also there while the row says Sending, because a large send goes out in batches and there is usually something still waiting. Once a message has been handed to the email provider it cannot be recalled, and Bernard tells you how many were stopped rather than calling the rest unsent.
Why is my sending address still not ready?: The page says which of the two waits you are in. “Bernard is finishing your sender setup” means one of us is preparing your sending identity by hand, which is why no records have appeared yet; it usually completes within one working day and we email you when it is done. “Your records are in place, Bernard is checking them with the email provider” means you have done your part and the check is automatic, usually under an hour. Drafts, templates and previews keep working through both, and tests and audience sends stay blocked until the address is live, whatever you approve.