Email campaigns and automations

A campaign sends one email to an audience, now or at a set time. An automation sends emails on its own when something happens, such as someone signing up. This guide covers both, for anyone sending marketing or update emails from Spacebrain.

Before you begin

• Role: creating and sending need Email edit access. Viewers can look at campaigns and results. The page tells you if you only have viewer access.
• A ready sender: a connected account or a managed sender with sending approval. See Connect email accounts and Sending domains, sender addresses, and warm-up.
• A published template: see Templates and deliverability.
• A saved audience of people who agreed to hear from you. Check the addresses first with Email Verifier.
• Credits: managed sending uses credits for each accepted recipient. The cost is shown on the Sender & schedule step.

Where to find it

• Email → Campaigns – the campaign list and the New campaign button.
• Email → Automations – your email automations, recipes, and Reports.
• Email → Analytics – results for campaigns, automations, forms, and goals.

Create and send a campaign

Open Email → Campaigns and select New campaign. The builder has five steps. Your progress is saved in this browser until the campaign is created, so you can leave and come back.

1. Basics

• Campaign name – internal only. Recipients never see it. For example, "August product update".
• Track opens – adds a tiny tracking image. Privacy features in some mail apps can make open counts too high or too low.
• Track clicks – rewrites links so clicks can be counted.

Select Continue.

2. Audience

1. Choose a Saved audience. The audience is checked again and frozen when delivery begins, so people who join later won't be included.
2. Review the counts: Matched, Deliverable, Suppressed, Opted out, Pending opt-in, Missing email, Invalid, Duplicates, and Explicitly excluded. Only deliverable contacts get the email.
3. Optional: select Verify emails to check the audience with Email Verifier. When you're done there, select Return to campaign draft.

If you see No saved audiences, create one first. Select Manage audiences to open the audience list.

3. Content

1. Choose a Published template.
2. Select Edit selected template if you need to make a change, or Create template if you have none.

The campaign takes a snapshot of the template. Later template edits won't change this campaign unless you refresh it while it's still a draft.

4. Sender & schedule

1. Under Send from, choose a sender. Senders are grouped as Managed by Spacebrain and Connected accounts. If you see No sender is ready, finish your sender setup first.
2. Optionally enter a From name. If you leave it blank, the account's display name is used.
3. Under Delivery, choose one:
   • Save as draft – nothing is sent yet.
   • Send after review – sends right after the preflight check and your confirmation.
   • Schedule – pick a Scheduled date and time.

Managed sending can't include attachments.

5. Review

Check the summary: Campaign, Audience, Template, Sender, Delivery, and Tracking.

Optional: turn on Run a two-variant test to try a second subject line. Set the Objective (Click rate or Conversion rate), Minimum sample per variant, Control allocation (%), Treatment name, and Treatment subject line. Turn on Automatically select the winner if you want Spacebrain to pick the better version once both reach the minimum sample.

Select Create campaign. Spacebrain runs a preflight check:

• If there are blocking problems, the campaign is saved and you're told to open it and fix them.
• If you chose Send after review, you're asked to confirm how many emails will go out now.
• If you chose Schedule, you may be warned about non-blocking issues before it's scheduled.

Manage a campaign after you create it

Open the campaign from the list. The Campaign controls card only shows actions that make sense right now:

• Run preflight – checks the campaign again. Ready to deliver means it's good to go. Preflight needs attention lists what to fix and how many recipients are deliverable.
• Send test – enter an address and send a test copy.
• Send now – starts delivery.
• Schedule – choose a date, time, and time zone.
• Pause / Resume – stops or restarts delivery.
• Unschedule – returns a scheduled campaign to draft.
• Refresh template – replaces a draft's content with the latest saved template.
• Cancel – stops remaining delivery. Emails already sent can't be recalled.
• Archive – hides the campaign. Its analytics stay available.

Campaign statuses

The list can be filtered by Draft, Scheduled, Sending, Paused, Completed, Partially failed, Failed, and Archived. It shows Delivery progress, Unique opens, and Unique clicks for each campaign.

Worked example: a scheduled monthly update

1. Basics: name it "October update" and keep both tracking options on.
2. Audience: pick "Newsletter subscribers". You see 1,240 matched and 1,198 deliverable. The rest are opted out or suppressed.
3. Content: choose your published "Monthly update" template.
4. Sender & schedule: choose [email protected] under Managed by Spacebrain, then Schedule for Tuesday at 10:00.
5. Review: turn on a two-variant test with a second subject line and Click rate as the objective. Select Create campaign.
6. Open the campaign, use Send test to send one to yourself, and read it on your phone. If you spot a typo, select Unschedule, fix the template, select Refresh template, and schedule again.

Build an email automation

1. Open Email → Automations and select New Automation.
2. In Create an Email Automation, choose a starting point:
   • Pick a recipe and select Use recipe. Some recipes ask you to Set up a few details first.
   • Or choose Start from blank, which gives you a trigger connected to an end step.
3. The builder opens. Give it an Automation name and a description.
4. Select the Trigger and choose what starts it. Depending on your workspace, triggers include a signup form being submitted, a contact being added to an audience, a contact field or tag changing, a conversion event, a membership event, or a schedule.
5. Add steps between the trigger and the end. Steps include Send email, Wait, Condition, A/B split, Goal, Update audience, Update tag, Update field, Deliver reward, and Send webhook. Select a step to set it up under Configure step.
6. Select Save often. The header shows Saved, Unsaved changes, or Save failed.
7. Select Test to check the automation for problems. Fix every issue shown.
8. When the header says Ready to publish, select Publish.

Recipes create ordinary drafts you can edit. Placeholder templates and audiences in a recipe must be replaced before you publish. Until then the builder shows Draft · not sending emails.

Manage automations

In the automation list, filter by Draft, Active, Paused, or Archived. Use the actions to Open, Duplicate, Archive, or Delete an automation. In the builder you can also Pause and Resume.

Select Reports on the automations page to see how your email automations are performing. For automations that span CRM, channels, and sites, see Automations.

If something goes wrong

FAQ

Can I change a campaign after it starts sending?

No. Once delivery starts, the audience and content are locked. You can pause, resume, or cancel remaining delivery.

Does a scheduled campaign include people who join the audience later?

Yes, up to the moment delivery begins. The audience is checked again and frozen when sending starts.

Why can't I publish my automation?

The builder only allows publishing when every step is set up. Select Test to list the problems, such as a Send email step without a template or sender, or a recipe placeholder that still needs a real audience.

Next step

Track results under Email → Analytics, and keep your sender healthy with Templates and deliverability.