Send an email to everyone on my list
Some emails can't wait for a schedule: the exhibition got a date, the course opened, the price is changing on Friday. That's a campaign — one email, written once, sent once, to everyone who can hear from you. It's the opposite of the standing rules in How do automatic emails work?, which fire on their own when something happens; a campaign fires exactly once, at the moment you choose.
Who it can go to
A campaign only ever goes to people with a real yes on record — your buyers, your students, and the sign-ups who pressed confirm. Bernard counts each audience for you, live, before you pick one, and the count is honest: it's the people who can lawfully receive the email today, not everyone in your contact book. If those two numbers feel far apart, Who actually receives my automatic emails? explains the gap — the short version is that a contact is a record and an audience is a permission.
Written in your voice, sent from your address
Tell Bernard what's happening in a sentence — "the spring workshop is open for booking" — and it writes the email in your voice, from what it knows of your site. The draft is just a draft: edit it, ask for another go, or set it aside. Saving it sends nothing. Campaigns go out from your own email address, so your domain needs to be connected first — Emails to my customers should come from my own address covers that one-time step.
Two steps before anything sends
Sending is deliberately a two-part conversation. First Bernard quotes: "This will email 34 people (Buyers) from your own address — shall I send it?" Only after your yes — to that exact number — does the send go. If the audience has shifted in between, even by one person, the send stops and you're shown the new count instead. Once a campaign has gone, it's history: you can see it, but not edit or resend it.
A sensible ceiling
Campaigns carry a monthly sending allowance — a ceiling on how many one-off emails can leave your site each month. It's a reputational guardrail, not a meanness: inboxes trust senders who don't blast. Bernard tells you what's left before asking for your approval, and a send that would go over is declined whole — never trimmed to a random half of your list. Your automatic journeys don't count against it, so a big announcement never crowds out the welcomes and thank-yous. If you genuinely need more headroom, ask — the allowance can be raised for your account.
The prompt
“Draft a campaign email to [which audience — e.g. buyers, students, or everyone who's said yes] about [what's happening — e.g. the new collection, a date change, an early-bird price]. Show me the draft and the exact recipient count before anything sends.”
The [bracketed] parts are yours to fill in. First time? Connect bernard to your AI over MCP — a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI — then paste the prompt above.
Questions people ask
- What's the difference between a campaign and the automatic journeys?
- A campaign is one email, sent once, to a whole audience — you decide the moment. A journey is a standing rule that keeps firing on its own: when someone buys, enrols or confirms, the next email in the sequence goes out. News and announcements are campaigns; welcomes and follow-ups are journeys.
- Does a campaign send as soon as Bernard writes it?
- No. Drafting and sending are separate, and sending itself is two steps. You approve the words first — edit them, or ask for a fresh draft. Then, when you ask to send, Bernard shows you the live count — 'this will email 34 people from your own address' — and nothing goes until you say yes to that exact number. If the audience changes in between, it stops and re-quotes.
- Who can a campaign go to?
- Only people with a recorded yes: buyers, students, and sign-ups who confirmed. Bernard counts each audience live before you choose — the number you see is the number it sends to. Contacts without a yes stay in your book and out of the send.
- Is there a limit to how much I can send?
- Yes — a monthly sending allowance on campaigns, there to protect your sending reputation. Bernard shows you what's left before asking for your approval, and if a send would go over, it declines the whole thing rather than emailing half your list. Journeys and welcome emails aren't counted against it.