Automated Campaigns Overview
What it is
A campaign is a mailing list plus the automated actions that keep mailing it. Each action mails one creative (a front design and a message) to the people on the list, on its own schedule: on a date, on each recipient's birthday or anniversary, a set number of days after someone joins the list, or a steady few at a time. Actions keep running until you pause them.
- Who - the campaign's mailing list. Anyone added to the list later is picked up by its actions too.
- What - each action mails a creative. Different actions on the same list can mail different creatives.
- When - each action has a sending trigger.
A list can carry as many actions as you like, so a three-touch drip, a birthday card and a holiday card can all live on one campaign.
The campaigns index
Open Campaigns in the sidebar (under Send) to see your campaigns. Campaigns with a running action appear first as cards marked Running; paused campaigns sit below under Not running. Each shows its recipient count, how many actions it has and how many are running, and the kinds of triggers they use.
- Search campaigns filters by name.
- A mailing list with no actions isn't shown by default. Turn on Show all Campaigns to see every list, so you can add an action to one you already have.
- Campaigns follow the active sub-account, the same way mailing lists do.
- If an action's mailing list was deleted, it appears under Actions without a mailing list. Open it to point it at a list, or delete it.
Start a campaign
- Go to Campaigns and click New Campaign.
- Choose where the recipients come from:
- Use a list you have - pick a mailing list. The action wizard opens straight on its What step.
- Make a new list - enter a List name and click Create list. The list starts empty and its campaign page opens, where you add recipients and actions.
- Add an action with the wizard (below).
Nothing mails until an action is added and started.
You can also start from a design: on a creative's card in Creatives, click Start a campaign to open the wizard with that creative already chosen.
A campaign's page
Click a campaign to open its page (/app/campaigns/{id}). It shows:
- Stat tiles - Recipients, Running (how many of its actions are running), Next mailing, and Next 12 months (about how many pieces its running actions will mail in the next year).
- Projected sends, next 12 months - a chart of pieces per month, stacked by action, with a table view. Only running actions that can send are counted, and the caption says what the estimate rests on. Use it to see when your busy months are and what the campaign is likely to cost before you commit.
- Actions - one row per action, with its front, its mail piece, the creative it mails (What), its trigger (When), and a Running / Paused switch.
- Start all / Pause all - start every paused action or pause every running one in one step.
From the header you can Add recipients, Add action, and rename the campaign (the pencil icon renames its mailing list too). The More menu (⋮) has Manage recipients (opens the mailing list), View orders (the campaign's orders), and Delete campaign.
Managing an action
- Click an action's row to edit it.
- The row's menu (⋮) has Edit, Preview (how the next card will print, with the list's first recipient), Duplicate (opens the wizard with a copy of the action), and Delete. Deleting an action stops it sending; cards already mailed, the campaign's mailing list and the creative are kept.
- Turning an action's switch on asks you to confirm first, because a running action mails real cards on its schedule and charges your account for each one. Pausing doesn't ask.
- Start all lists each paused action with its trigger and the projected pieces for the year before anything starts.
Add an action: Who → What → When → Review
Click Add action on a campaign's page to open the wizard. Picking a list under New Campaign → Use a list you have opens it too. A new action's draft is kept while you work, so you can leave to make a creative or a list and come back.
1. Who
Choose the mailing list the action mails (Find a list filters them, and Make a new mailing list opens Mailing Lists). Turn on Add "or current resident" to deliver to whoever lives at the address now if the recipient has moved. When you start from a campaign's page, the list is already chosen and the wizard opens on What.
2. What
Choose what the action mails. Pick a mail piece on the left (or All), then one of two tabs:
- Creatives - pick a creative. Only creatives with both a front and a message appear here, because a campaign needs both (letters included). Click Make a new creative to build one; see Creating a creative.
- Separate front & message - pick a front and a message for the same mail piece, one at a time, without saving them as a creative.
The creative decides the mail piece and its size, so a 6x9 postcard creative mails a 6x9 postcard.
3. When
Choose a sending trigger. Its settings appear beside it.
| Group | Trigger | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| On a date | Every month | On the same day each month, to the whole list, from a Start date. |
| Every year | On the same date each year, to the whole list, from a Start date. | |
| On a holiday | Every year on the Holiday you choose, to the whole list. | |
| On a specific date | Once, to the whole list. The Arrival date must be at least 20 days out. | |
| On each recipient's date | Birthday | Uses the birthday on each recipient. |
| Anniversary | Uses the anniversary on each recipient, e.g. a home purchase. | |
| When someone joins the list | Days after they join | A set number of days (1 to 10,000) after each recipient is added. |
| Neighbor blast | Mails the neighbors around each address added to the list. Neighbor records are bought for each send. | |
| Spread out (evenFLOW) | Throughout the year | Each recipient gets a set number of cards a year (1 to 12), spread out. |
| A few each day | A set number of recipients a day (1 to 100), working down the list. |
Dated sends are mailed early so they arrive on time: 8 days before the date for Every month, Every year and On a specific date, and 10 days before for holidays, birthdays and anniversaries.
Under After mailing, turn on Move each recipient to another list after mailing and choose a list to build a sequence. See Chaining & Actions.
4. Review
Check the summary (click Who, What or When to change any of them), the first mailing date, and the front and message preview. Give the action a name in Action name, or leave the suggested one. Then choose:
- Start action - asks you to confirm, naming the list, the trigger and the first mailing date, then starts it.
- Save paused - saves it without mailing anything. Start it later from the campaign's page.
The wizard returns to the campaign's page. Editing an existing action ends in Save changes; saving changes to a running action asks first, and its next mailing uses the new settings.
A message that still contains %REPLACE_THIS% can be saved paused, but the action can't start until the message is edited. Gift card actions on a free plan save but don't send until you upgrade.
Creatives used by campaigns
Editing a creative changes what every action using it mails from its next mailing on. To see which actions use a creative, open its card menu in Creatives and choose Campaign actions. A creative can't be deleted while any campaign action (paused ones included) mails it; the dialog lists those campaigns so you can change or delete the actions first. See Creative defaults, sharing & deleting.
Sharing a campaign with someone you refer
A campaign you have built can be published as a referral link from the Refer & Earn page. Anyone who signs up through that link gets their own starter copy of the mailing list and its actions, with the designs but none of your recipients, and you earn a commission on what they send. That page also tracks each published link's clicks, unique visitors, and signups, so you can tell which campaign is worth sharing.