How to create and schedule a campaign

A campaign is a regular, stand-alone newsletter that you can send to your selected subscribers. If you would like to set up an automated email sequence, check out this automation overview instead.

To create a campaign:

1. From the Dashboard, navigate to the Campaigns page or click the Create campaign shortcut.

2. If on the Campaigns page, click Create new campaign.

3. Select your chosen Campaign type.

• Regular campaign - A regular campaign is the most straightforward type of email campaign. It involves sending a single email to a specific group of subscribers.

• A/B split campaign - A/B split campaigns allow you to test two variations of an email to see which performs better before sending the most effective version to the larger audience.

• Auto resend - Auto resend campaigns help increase the reach of your emails by automatically resending your message to recipients who did not open the first email.

• RSS - RSS campaigns are automated emails that are sent to subscribers whenever new content is published on your RSS feed. This is particularly useful for blogs or websites that update regularly.

• Multivariate testing (Advanced plan) - Multivariate campaigns allow you to test multiple campaign elements such as subject lines, sender names, content, and sending times in a single go.

4. Choose to Start from scratch or with a Template.

To see designs used for Recent emails, toggle to this section to view designs in the Sent folder, Drafts folder, or automation workflows. You can then select one of those campaigns to create a new newsletter.

5. If you choose to Start from scratch, select your Editor type.

You can select from the Drag & drop editor, Rich-text editor or Custom HTML editor (Advanced plan only).

When creating a new campaign, we recommend using the Drag & drop editor. Using the Drag & drop editor is not only the easiest way to create a newsletter, but it also provides a lot of simple ways to customize your campaign and make it unique.

Take a look at our newsletter gallery for examples of how other users create their campaigns using the Drag & drop editor.

6. Give your campaign a name. This is for internal use only, so it will not show to your subscribers.

7. Click Continue. 

8. You will land in the campaign editor of your choice. When you are finished designing your campaign, click Done editing. 

Next you'll find the Campaign details page.

This is where you can apply the following settings:

• Subject - This text will be displayed in the Subject field of your recipient's email client.

• Sender - Here you enter the text that will be displayed in the From field of your recipient’s email client. We recommend that you use your own domain email and name, such as yourname@yourcompany.com. Avoid emails like no-reply@yourcompany.com.

• Preheader - This is a brief summary or snippet of your email content that appears right after the subject line when an email is viewed in the inbox.

• Tracking options - Select whether or not you wish to track opens or enable Google Analytics.

• Language - This is the language of your newsletter. The language you choose here will also be used on your unsubscribe page.

Recipients

Click Select recipients to choose who to send your campaign to.

Here, you can select which groups and/or segments you want to receive this campaign.

• To include a group or segment, checkmark the box next to the group/segment’s name. To exclude a group or segment, click the Exclude button next to that list.

The Advanced tab

Here you can select recipients using filters. For example, the advanced option comes in handy when you want to send your campaign to:

• A single subscriber - Choose the filters Email > Equals > (subscriber’s email address)

• Subscribers who did not open a previous campaign - Use the filters

  Campaigns > Was sent > [name of the campaign]

  AND

  Campaigns > Was not opened > [name of the campaign]

Once you're happy with your Campaign details, click Continue.

Next you will land on the Send or schedule page.

Here, you can do the following:

Preview your campaign by hovering over the campaign image on the right and clicking Preview.

Preview and edit the plain-text version by clicking the down arrow next to Edit content and choosing Edit plain text version.

Send a test email to preview your campaign’s layout by clicking Send a test.

When you reach the scheduling step, you have four options for sending your campaign:

• Send now - Immediately send your campaign

• Send later - Set up a schedule to send your campaign at a specific time

• Deliver based on time zones - Schedule your campaign for a selected time in all time zones

• Smart sending - Use artificial intelligence to analyze each subscriber's past interactions, sign-up dates, and time zones to determine the optimal time to send them your emails. Only available on MailerLite Advanced plans.

When scheduling a campaign for later, you must select the following details:

• The date on which your campaign will be sent

• The time at which your campaign will be sent

• The time zone for which you’re scheduling your campaign

If you are scheduling an RSS campaign, your scheduling page will have some additional settings.

Once you have selected when you would like to send your campaign, click Send now/Schedule.

Once scheduled, your campaign will appear in your Outbox until it is sent. Once sent, it will appear in your Sent folder.

If you wish to cancel your campaign:

1. Navigate to your Outbox.

2. Click the More button next to your sending campaign.

3. Select Cancel sending.

To duplicate a campaign:

1. Navigate to the Campaigns page.

2. Click the Drafts or Sent tab.

3. Click the More button next to the campaign and select Duplicate.

A copy of the campaign will appear in the Drafts tab.

Once a sent campaign has been copied to drafts, you can edit and resend it to your subscribers.

Once a campaign has been sent, you can access the email using the preview link. To locate this:

1. Navigate to the Campaigns page.

2. Locate the sent campaign and click View report.

3. Switch to the View email tab.

4. Click Copy URL to copy the campaign's preview URL.