Create and send a campaign

A campaign is one email you send to your list, like a newsletter, a sale or a new product. You pick a design, write it, check it in your own inbox, then send it.

Before you can send, your sending domain must be verified and your sender details filled in. See Verify your sending domain and Set up your sender details.

Start a new campaign

1. Open Campaigns and click New campaign.
2. If you like, type a Campaign name and a Subject line. Both are optional now. The name is only for you; your readers never see it. You can add the subject later, but you need one before sending.
3. Pick a design. Templates are finished emails with text and pictures. Layouts are simpler starting points. My templates holds designs you saved yourself.
4. Click a card to use it, or click Start blank for an empty email.

Templates and layouts use your brand's logo, colors, font and button shape. If you have not set those up yet, click Set up your brand on the same page.

Choose where the pictures come from

Above the templates, Pictures: lets you choose what fills the pictures:

• SendDuo illustrations: the drawings the templates come with.
• My products: your best sellers from the last 90 days, then your newest products, with their names, prices and links. This needs a connected store.
• My images: your most recently uploaded images. This works once you have uploaded images in any campaign.

Holiday and sale art stays as it is. You can click any picture in the editor to swap it.

Write your email

Your campaign opens in the editor. Click into the email and type. Changes save by themselves; you will see Saved above the editor.

• Type / to add a block, like a heading, a button or an image.
• Type @ to insert the reader's first name.
• Click Insert image to add a picture.
• Click Preview to see the email as your readers will.

Add images

When you click Insert image, a window opens with two tabs:

• Your images: drop an image in, or click to upload. PNG, JPEG, GIF or WebP, up to 8 MB each. Images you upload stay here for every campaign.
• Free photos: search free photos from Pixabay, like "coffee", "flowers" or "haircut". A photo you pick is saved to your images.

Use the reader's first name

In the subject or the email, {{first_name|there}} becomes each reader's first name. The word after the | is used when SendDuo does not know their name, so "Hi {{first_name|there}}" reads "Hi Anna" or "Hi there".

Settings

Next to the editor, the Settings card holds the details of the send. Click Save settings after changing them.

• Name: for you only.
• Subject: the subject line. A campaign cannot be sent without one.
• Preheader: the short line inbox apps show after the subject.
• From name and Reply-to: leave them empty to use your sender details.
• Background color: the color behind the email. Leave it empty for the default.
• Audience: All subscribed, or Contacts with any of these tags and tick the tags. Only subscribed contacts get campaigns.

Test two subject lines (A/B test)

Not sure which subject works better? Let your list decide. Under Settings, open A/B test: try two subject lines, tick Test two subject lines and write Subject B (Subject A is the Subject above). Then choose:

• Test group: how much of the list takes part (10% to 50%, split evenly between A and B).
• Test for: how long to wait before picking the winner (1 to 24 hours).
• Winner has more: clicks (recommended) or opens.

Click Save settings, then send or schedule as usual. When the test time is up, SendDuo picks the subject with more clicks or opens and sends it to everyone else by itself. It costs the same number of emails as a normal send. The campaign's report shows both subjects side by side and which one won.

Send yourself a test

1. In the Test send card, type up to 3 addresses, separated by commas. Your own address is filled in for you.
2. Click Send test and check your inbox.

Tests can only go to your own address or to subscribed contacts on your list.

Send now or schedule

1. In the Send card, check how many subscribed contacts match your audience.
2. Click Send now and confirm. Or pick a date and time under Or schedule for later and click Schedule.

A scheduled time must be at least 5 minutes from now, in your device's timezone. A scheduled campaign is locked; click Cancel schedule to edit it again. While a campaign is sending, Stop sending stops the rest, but emails already sent cannot be recalled.

The Send card also shows how much of your monthly allowance the send uses. If it does not fit, see Plans and billing.

Your first campaign is reviewed

For new accounts, we review the first campaign before it sends. When you click Send now, it goes to our team first. This usually takes a few hours, and we email you when it is sent. To change something meanwhile, click Withdraw; the campaign becomes a draft again. After your first campaign is approved, campaigns send straight away.

Save as template and duplicate

• Save as template keeps the campaign's design under My templates, so you can start new campaigns from it. The campaign itself is unchanged.
• Duplicate makes a new draft called "Copy of" the campaign, with the same content, settings and audience. It works for sent campaigns too.

See how it did

Once a campaign is sent, click View report on its page. The report shows how many emails were sent and delivered, and how many people opened, clicked, bounced, complained or unsubscribed, with a rate for each. It also lists the addresses that bounced, complained or failed.

If your store is connected, the report also shows Revenue: paid orders placed within 5 days of a click on the campaign, with refunds subtracted. See Connect Shopify or Connect WooCommerce.