Automated Campaigns Overview
What it is
A campaign is an automated rule that turns list membership - or a date or radius event - into a mail order without manual effort. You configure the trigger, attach a design and message, and enable it. thanks.io handles the rest.
Campaigns are built around two core objects:
- Mailing List - the recipient pool the campaign watches
- Automation - the actual send: Image Template + Message Template + delay + optional follow-up rules
The Automated Campaigns index groups automations by their bound mailing list. Each mailing list group shows its automations as individual rows with Trigger, Schedule, Image Template, Message Template, Mail Piece, and Status.
Every campaign action can be previewed before you enable it.
Campaign types
| Sending trigger | Best for |
|---|---|
| Every Month (recurring) | Monthly touches, client retention |
| Every Year (recurring) | Annual check-ins, yearly promotions |
| On a Holiday | Seasonal promotions, holiday greetings |
| On Recipient's Birthday | Customer appreciation, birthday offers |
| On Recipient's Anniversary | Client retention, renewal reminders, milestone recognition |
| On a Specific Date | One-time event-based sends, planned campaigns |
| A Number of Days After a Recipient Is Added | Drip nurture, welcome series, lead follow-up |
| Staggered Throughout the Year (evenFLOW) | Spread sends evenly across the year |
| Daily Send Limit (evenFLOW) | Sustained farming, paced high-volume outreach |
| Neighbor Blast (radius around an address) | Real estate farming, local service marketing |
How to create an automation
- Go to Automated Campaigns in the left navigation.
- Click Add Automation — either from the header banner or the + Add Automation button next to an existing mailing list group.
- In the Add Automation modal, fill in:
- Select What To Send — mail piece type (Postcard, Letter, Notecard, etc.)
- Select An Image Template
- Select A Message Template
- Select A Mailing List
- Under When to Send, choose a Sending trigger (this sets the campaign type). Fill in any trigger-specific fields that appear (day count, date, holiday, neighbor radius, etc.).
- Optionally toggle Move recipient to new mailing list after sending and select a destination list.
- Click Save (or Save and Add Another to chain another automation).
- On the automation row, click Preview to verify the rendered mailer.
- Toggle the automation ON in the Status column to activate it.