Pick a time, stop a campaign halfway, or copy it for next month. The campaign must pass the checklist on the Review step (How to create and send a campaign), and scheduled campaigns need the scheduler to run (Scheduled sending and cron).
Schedule a campaign #
- On Review and send, under When, choose Schedule for later.
- Set Date and time. It is read in your site's timezone, not your computer's ("In the site's timezone ({timezone}). It starts within a minute of that time."). The field starts one hour from now by your computer's clock, so check it.
- Click Schedule. A time up to 5 minutes in the past counts as now; an earlier one is refused with "That time has already passed."
The email is frozen when you schedule. The audience is counted when the campaign starts.
States and actions #
| State | Meaning | You can |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Being written | Edit anything; send or schedule |
| Scheduled | Waiting for its time | Back to draft, Send now, Cancel campaign |
| Sending | Emails are going out | Pause, Cancel campaign |
| Paused | On hold | Resume, Cancel campaign |
| Sent | Everyone was handled | Duplicate, Save as template, Delete |
| Cancelled | Stopped for good | Duplicate, Delete |
| Failed | Something stopped it | Back to draft |
Content, audience and settings can change only while a campaign is a draft. In Messaging > Campaigns each row has a three-dot menu: Edit (drafts) or Open, Pause, Resume, Duplicate, and in red Cancel or Delete. When the scheduler is slow a banner appears ("Scheduled campaigns may go out late"); Fix this opens Settings: Scheduler.
On a campaign's page:
- Pause: waiting emails are held ("Nothing goes out while paused."). Resume puts them back in the queue and carries on from where it stopped.
- Send now (scheduled): confirm "Send “{name}” now?".
- Back to draft (scheduled or failed): edit, then review and schedule again; the frozen email is rebuilt. From Failed, queued, paused, skipped and failed messages of that campaign are deleted; sent ones stay. Only people who did not get it are mailed.
- More actions > Cancel campaign: nothing more goes out; unsent emails are marked Skipped ("The campaign was cancelled."). Cancelled and Sent are final.
- Duplicate: makes a draft "Copy of {name}" with the same subject, sender, audience, UTM setting and email, but no schedule or results. Sending the copy to the same audience emails people again.
- More actions > Save as template: type a name, Save template.
- More actions > Delete > Delete campaign: not possible while scheduled, sending or paused. Sent emails stay in the Sending log.
The page refreshes every 4 seconds while sending, every 20 seconds when paused or scheduled. A campaign is Sent when the whole audience is queued and every email is sent, failed or skipped. If the scheduler was down at the chosen time, the campaign starts when it runs again; see A scheduled campaign did not go out.
Warning: You cannot edit the email of a sending campaign. To change it, cancel and duplicate. Cancel cannot be undone, and emails already sent cannot be taken back.
Next: How to read a campaign report, Emails are not sending.
