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A campaign is like a special email you send to a bunch of people. You get to make it look nice, pick when it goes out, and decide who gets it. After it’s sent, you get a report telling you how well it did.

Campaigns are usually send in bulk in MailBluster. The receivers are mainly your subscribers.

Draft Campaigns can easily be edited in MailBluster. To edit a campaign, simply click on the 3 dot ellipsis.

Then click on Edit campaign.

Now you can edit your Audience and Info.

Also, you can edit your Content etc.

You can rename these type of campaigns Draft/Sent/Cancelled/Failed in MailBluster. First go to Campaigns. Then click on 3 dots (…) ellipsis. In the drop down list, click on Rename campaign.

When you click Rename campaign, a popup dialogue box will appear from which you can change the Campaign name of the selected campaign.

You can easily duplicate campaigns within the same Brand or across different Brands under the same account.

To duplicate a campaign, first navigate to your Brand, then go to Campaigns. Next, select the campaign you want to duplicate by clicking on the three dots (…) ellipsis next to it, and then click Duplicate campaign.

A Duplicate Campaign dialog box will appear, allowing you to customize the campaign name and the brand where you want to duplicate it. Click on the Duplicate button to proceed.

The campaign will then be duplicated within the selected brand.

Let’s assume that you’ve completed all of the prerequisite steps before sending email campaign from MailBluster and have already designed your email campaign and now, you are ready to send your campaign.

Now what you need to do is scroll down to the bottom of your edit campaign page and look for the Delivery section, where you need to select the Schedule option and enter your preferred Delivery date, Delivery time, and timezone. Then click Continue to proceed.

After clicking Schedule Campaign, your campaign will be ready and will be send out to the senders at the specified time you set.

To cancel a schedule campaign, first make sure that your campaign is in Scheduled state as shown below. Click on the 3 dot ellipsis. Then click on View campaign.

Once you are on the View campaign screen, you will notice that you campaign status is set to Scheduled. Just click on the Cancel campaign button.

A confirmation dialogue box named Cancel campaign appears. Click on Cancel button.

Your campaign will then stopped immediately and the status will be set to Draft. You can now edit your campaign or reschedule it to any other time.

To archive a campaign, simply click on the three-dot ellipses next to your desired campaign in the Campaigns list. Then, click on Archive campaign and your campaign will be archived.

Alternatively, you can bulk archive campaigns by clicking on the checkboxes as shown below.

Then click on Bulk action > Archive campaign.

Your selected campaigns will be archived, and a notification will appear as shown below.

If you want to check the list of archived campaigns, then click on the three-dot ellipses from Campaigns list and click on Archived campaigns.

It will take you to the list of Archived campaigns. Click on the three-dot ellipses of your desired campaign from the Campaigns list, then click on Unarchive campaign. Your selected campaign will be restored from the archived list.

You can also unarchive selected campaigns by clicking on the checkbox as shown below.

Then click on Bulk action > Unarchive campaign. A notification stating ‘n number of campaigns unarchived’ will confirm the action. You will then find these campaigns restored to their respective order.”

If you want to change the width of your email campaign, then open the campaign first. Then edit the campaign using Drag and drop Editor. Inside the Compose email, Go to Compose email window > Content > Body> Content Width. Using this option, you can change the width of your email campaign. The following screenshot will let you clarify it further:

The maximum content size of an email campaign is is 120KB. You should not exceed this limit.

We found that some subscribers with strict security settings, such as those with .edu or .gov domains, may trigger automatic opens or clicks when receiving your emails.

This happens because certain spam filters preload links and images to verify their safety. You can confirm this by adding a hidden link to one of your email campaigns and checking if it gets clicked.

If a significant portion of your audience uses strict domains (like .edu, .gov, etc.), we suggest encouraging them to provide their personal email addresses when signing up. If you use online forms to collect subscribers, consider adding a note advising them to use their personal email instead of their business email.

Query string is a tail added onto a URL that carry information from one page to another.

To understand query strings, let’s first take a closer look at a sample URL that uses one:

https://example.com/product/shirt/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=winter

The first section of a URL is called a protocol (https). It is followed by the domain name of the website, or the hostname (here http://example.com ). And the next part (after the forward slash) is the path (product/shirt/?).

Everything that follows the path after the question mark (?) is the tail of the URL, also known as the query string (utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=winter).

MailBluster has the option to put a query string in your campaign email, which you will find under Campaigns > Content > Query String section:

If you set query string in your campaign like this:

utm_source=email&utm_medium=MailBluster&utm_campaign=campaign_xyz

then it will be appended to all the links of the campaign.

MailBluster branding is enabled by default for all the emails campaigns if you are using the Starter plan. Once you choose your Plan and add your Billing card, you will be able to remove the MailBluster branding from the email footer and unsubscribe page of your campaign email:

You can check out the differences in the email footer and unsubscribe page after removing MailBluster Branding from here.

If your Amazon SES send rate is 14 emails/sec and by default, MailBluster operates at 90% of the send rate, which is 14 X 90% = 12.6 emails/sec, rounded down to 12 emails/sec. In summary, it means that MailBluster can send approximately 12 emails per second.

However, there might be other factors causing the delay:

1. If you send any other email/campaign at the same time from Amazon SES, we might not be able to send emails at the above-mentioned rate.
2. MailBluster sends only one campaign at a time. So, if you send multiple campaigns simultaneously, there might be some delay.
3. MailBluster takes some time to prepare your campaign.
4. MailBluster tries to send the campaign within one minute of your exact scheduled time. During this minute, there is a buffering time in case the sender wants to cancel the campaign.

Double opt-in is a process where, after you subscribe for an email or newsletter, you receive an email asking you to confirm that you really want to join. It’s more like a “Are you sure?” step to make sure you’re not accidentally added or signed up by someone else. You need to click a link or take an action in that confirmation email to complete the sign-up process. This helps prevent spam and ensures that people on the list actually want to be there.

MailBluster has the ability to send test emails before sending email campaigns to bulk leads.

You can send a test email to a maximum of 5 recipients before sending it out to your whole list or segment, as shown in the screenshot below:

To send test email using merge tags from your Brand, first go to Fields. Then create two custom merge tags as shown below.

Now, go to Campaigns, scroll down, and click on Send test email. Enter the recipient’s email addresses (up to 5), then click on Merge tag values. Enter the values for the merge tag fields, and finally, click Send test email.

MailBluster utilizes a double opt-in mechanism to validate subscriber consent. This process ensures that subscribers not only sign up but also confirm their subscription via a verification email. By employing this method, MailBluster aims to maintain a high standard of compliance and deliverability.

Here is how double opt-in works in MailBluster:

Double opt-in is an additional step to the email subscription opt-in process, which requires a lead to verify the email address to subscribe to your brand. You need to enable double opt-in using the MailBluster developer API, and then new leads will receive a confirmation email. ( technical knowledge is required)

Please Note: Without using MailBluster developer API, the double opt-in Subscribe option will not work.

First, you need to set up the campaign for Double Opt-in from Settings > Double Opt-in. Set the redirect URL.

Then use API endpoints from the Developer API and use it on your website. Technical knowledge is required to implement Double Opt-in on your website.

Also note that manually added leads won’t receive double opt-in confirmation email.

The standard campaign allows you to send individual campaign straight forward without any kinds of conditional triggers or delays. But for automation campaigns, you need to design a workflow with conditional triggers. You can also assign multiple campaigns to a single workflow with delay relays and trigger conditions in Automation.

The following are sample screenshots to show the differences between normal campaign and an automation campaign.

Normal Campaign Layout:

Automation Campaign Layout:

You can send plain text using MailBluster if you use the WYSIWYG editor.
Plain text with emojis are also possible to send using this editor present in MailBluster.

Go to your Campaign, and then select WYSIWYG editor from Content > Editor selection

Here is a sample of Plain text email created using WYSIWYG editor from MailBluster.

To create a new campaign, first you need to go to your Brand > Campaigns and the click on Create new.

A new campaign window will appear and here you will need to set the Campaign name, select the appropriate Audience (senders from the Leads) and fill in the details in the Info section as highlighted below.

You also need to select the appropriate editor for your email Content. Then click Edit button.

Here we used Drag and drop editor to compose email campaign very easily.

Select the Delivery option, MailBluster branding (click the Remove option if you are under Pro plan) and then click Save changes. Now click Continue.

After clicking Continue, Preview campaign window pops up. Click Send campaign.

The campaign is being sent to the appropriate sender. Status will change from “Sending” to “Sent”.

After the email campaign is sent, click on the View report.

The Report will show the metrics of the current campaign that was being sent.

When you personalize your emails, people find them more fitting and unique, leading to more opens and clicks. Making subscribers feel like the campaign is just for them which boosts the chances of getting the results you want.

To personalize your email, first go to Fields then either select Add new > Add this field to define your desired custom Fields

Or, select the predefined Fields from the list copying their merge tags

Now go to Campaigns > Create new

Enter the campaign name, select the Audience and then go to Subject. Click on Insert merge tag icon and the list of merge tags will appear. Select your desired Merge tags for your email subject

The merge tags will appear like this as shown below

Now go to Content and click Edit

Personalize your email content by adding any additional merge tags as shown here

Once you completed personalizing your Email content, click Done editing and your marketing email is ready for send out. Here is an example of Personalized email side by side. The left one is before sending and the right one is after subscriber receives the personalized email.

MailBluster has three types of email editors which you can use to compose your email campaign:

1. Drag and drop editor

2. WYSIWYG Editor

3. HTML editor

The most common and easy-to-use editor is the Drag and Drop Editor. Emails composed with this editor are responsive and do not require programming or coding knowledge.

Click on the Drag and Drop Editor on the edit campaign page.  It will take you directly to the Compose email, where you can easily design your email content.

Once you completed designing your campaign, click Done Editing to save your email campaign.

You can share your already sent campaign very easily with anyone using MailBluster share campaign feature and view it in browser, social media etc. First go to your Brand > Campaigns.

Here we selected a sample campaign. Click on the 3 dots as shown here:

A dropdown list will appear. Click View campaign

When the sent campaign is shown, click on the 3 dots beside View Report and a dropdown list option will appear. Click on Share campaign.

Now will see a popup window. You need to click Copy link.

Paste it in a web browser and you will be able to see the entire campaign.

Now, you can share the entire sent campaign with anyone using this generated link from MailBluster.

To add an unsubscribe link in your email campaign using MailBluster’s Drag and drop Editor. First you need to go to your draft campaign/new campaign and click Edit to compose your campaign email.

1. On the right corner select the Content section, click TEXT box and drag and drop on the compose email area.

2. Some text will appear with text editing toolbar

3. Write a text like “Click here to Unsubscribe from this email“. Highlight “Here” and click on Insert/edit link.

4. Select Action Type: Open unsubscribe page.

5. Click Save and the unsubscribe link is set on your email campaign.

6. Now the unsubscribe link has been added to the highlighted text.

7. Once viewed the email in inbox, it will show like this as shown below. If clicked it will take you to MailBluster’s default unsubscribe page.

To set Unsubscribe URL using HTML Editor, use this Unsubscribe URL merge tag:

{{unsubscribe_url}}

The HTML code should be this:

<a href="{{unsubscribe_url}}">Click to Unsubscribe</a>

Here is an example on how to set Unsubscribe URL using HTML Editor:

To set Unsubscribe URL using WYSIWYG Editor, first select your WYSIWYG Editor from Campaign > Content.

Once the editor opens, select any text and the highlight it. Once highlighted, click on Insert/Edit link and enter the merge tag “{{unsubscribe_url}}” in the URL field of the Insert/Edit Link popup box.

Select Unsubscribe URL from Link list and then click Save.

Click Done editing and exit from the editor. Now your Unsubscribe URL is ready.

You might see this error after you have created a campaign, selected a segment, and clicked the Send Campaign button.

This error occurs because the segment you are using is outdated. This means the segment you selected is using conditions such as leads with campaign activity older than 6 months. MailBluster highlights this error, marking the selected segment in red and showing “Segment has been outdated.

Now if you go to your campaign and further inspect, you will be able to resolve the issue. Go to your Draft campaign and click on the Standard Segment that you selected for this Draft campaign.

As you will notice, the segment will show a pop-up message showing that your segment is Outdated. Click on the Edit segment.

After clicking on “Edit Segment,” you will notice that the campaigns selected for this segment’s conditions (here we used “Campaign activity: did not open“) are more than 6 months old. You need to keep in mind that you should not use campaigns or segments that are older than 6 months. This is because MailBluster now keeps campaign activities for the last 6 months only.

MailBluster sends only one campaign at a time. If your campaign is in the waiting state, it means another campaign of your brand is in sending state. Once that campaign is sent, MailBluster will start sending the waiting campaigns one by one.

Sending high-volume emails requires attention to several factors such as email content quality, sending volume patterns, target audience, and sender reputation. Here are a few guidelines to follow:

1. Limit the number of links: Try to keep the number of links in the email to a maximum of 3-5, if possible. Including too many links may cause deliverability issues, as Outlook and other email providers often scan content and links.
2. Avoid sending too many emails at once: Sending a large volume of emails all at once can significantly affect your domain and IP reputation. Start with a smaller batch, then monitor the bounce and complaint rates. If the bounce and complaint rates are too high, it’s not advisable to continue sending emails to that audience. Gradually increase the sending volume over time, for example:
   • Day 1: 1,000 emails
   • Day 2: 5,000 emails
   • Day 3: 10,000 emails, and so on.
3. Set up the action URL in MailBluster: It’s recommended to keep the action URL on the same domain as your sender domain to reduce the chances of emails being marked as spam. Please refer to the following guide for setting up the action URL:
   How to set the Action URL for your Brand in MailBluster?

If you are getting this error message, ‘Link/URL used in campaign content must be a maximum of 1000 characters long,’ then you need to remove any URL or button containing a URL that exceeds 1000 characters. Your URL has to be shorter than 1000 characters. You can use a third-party tool like TinyURL to shorten your URL and then place it into your campaign.

If you choose to proceed with a new email domain, implementing a proper warm-up strategy is essential. Start by sending a small volume of emails and gradually increase the number over time to build a strong sender reputation. Continuously monitor key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates to assess performance and adjust your strategy as needed.

To ensure your new subdomain builds a positive sender reputation with email providers, it is recommended to the following approach:

1. Start with a low volume: Begin by sending 1,000 to 5,000 emails per day for the first 3 days.
2. Gradually increase: Double the volume every few days while closely monitoring your metrics.
   • Days 4 to 7: Increase to 10,000 – 15,000 emails/day.
   • Week 2: Scale up to 25,000 – 50,000 emails/day.
3. Focus on engagement: In the early stages, prioritize sending to your most active users.

Additionally, after moving to a new domain, it’s important to properly configure your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for improved email deliverability. Be sure to verify your sender domain in AWS. For guidance, you can follow this video tutorial: How to Set Up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

For more detailed guidance, check out these resources:

• AWS SES Best Sending Practices to Maintain Reputation
• Email Marketing Best Practices

You can also check out this guide for more information: MailBluster Help – AWS Positive Sender Reputation.

You check out this video tutorial as well on Simplify your sender management using MailBluster.

You can store images on MailBluster server. You can do it by using the Drag and drop editor. Please check out the screenshots below where you can store images by uploading the images.

Drag Image from the Content section of the Drag and drop editor and place it on the composed email content.

Click on the Image placeholder, and an Upload image button will appear on the right side of Content section. Either drag and drop an image on the Drop and upload placeholder or click on the Upload image button and upload your desired image on the composed email.

Or you can click on More Images and click Upload to upload more images in MailBluster.

The maximum size of any image file is 2MB, which you can upload to your email campaign or template in MailBluster.

You can add strikethrough in email subject lines using Unicode rather than HTML. You can convert text to Unicode for formatting using this TextConverter. However, please note that Gmail may detect this as possible spam due to formatting inconsistencies.

Here is an example where strike through is used in the subject of an email campaign:

And, here is the output of the email.

You need to generate a GIF logo first and add it as an image using the Drag and drop editor. It’s just like how you add images to the Drag and drop editor, you just need to select the GIF image.

You can download the cat GIF image that has been shared here and add it to test the behavior.

This type of issue generally occurs when you compose Campaign using Copy-Paste technique.

To resolve this issue, there are 2 solutions.

Solution No.1:

When you copy-paste any text in Drag and drop Editor, click this option on the top right corner as shown below.

Untick the checkbox Clean paste and wait for the editor to load again.

Now paste the text from the source and “Paste Formatting Options” will pop up. You will see these two conditions:

1. If you select “Remove Formatting,” then only the basic structure of the text will be pasted, but the change will not work properly.

2. If you select “Keep Formatting,” then the same design will be pasted, but the change might not work properly.

Solution No.2:

When you paste using Ctrl+Shift+v (for Windows) and Cmd+Shift+v (for Mac), you will not get any formatting options. However, only text will appear. In this case, the change will work properly.

If you want to track your email campaigns using Google Analytics, you have to use the Query String option available in MailBluster campaign. You can optionally add query string to all of the links of your campaign body as well just before sending a campaign.

Correct format of Query String:

utm_source=email&utm_medium=MailBluster&utm_campaign=your_campaign_name

Before setting up query string, you need to first set up Google Analytics on your website.

You can follow this guide on how to setup Google Analytics.

Then you need to add UTM tracking in your MailBluster campaign.

Please note: there is no default UTM tracking in MailBluster.

Copy the URL with UTM tracking codes and use it in your specified campaign item, for example, Query string. This can be done by adding UTM to your campaign’s query string. You need to go to Brand > Campaigns > Send new > Query string, as shown in the screenshot below:

Finally, use the UTM for tracking using this guide.

If the number of leads exceed your email sending limit of AWS (and MailBluster if you are under the Starter plan), your campaign will not proceed further. The campaign will show Failed. You should keep an eye on your daily sending limit from MailBluster Dashboard before you try to send any email campaigns from MailBluster.

Under Usage, you can see your Free quota usage from Username>My Account. The free quota: 3000 emails are only applicable for a MailBluster account not individual Brand.

If you copy and paste any links in like this {{http://www.URL.com}}  then you will get this error message:

The correct way to set the merge tag is this: {{tag_name}}

You can try this method if you want to include links in your campaign without the merge tags:

Please Note: Using the wrong merge tag will trigger this error: “Content is invalid, merge tag or block tag contains error.“

If you see this error message:

Or this one:

You need to verify your Sender Email Address in AWS (by signing in to AWS console).

Once verified, you can generate AWS credentials like Access key and Secret access key and set your subscriber’s region in AWS.
Then connect the AWS account with MailBluster using the following guide: https://app.mailbluster.com/pages/aws-setup-guide.

You must set a preheader text greater than 30 characters long. This is because preheader text is inevitable for any type of email. If you do not set a custom preheader or provide one too short to meet the 30-character minimum, email systems will start populating the preheader with email content. To avoid that happening, you should always set a preheader of at least 30 characters. The closer it is to the 55-character mobile maximum, the better.

If you are facing an error with the CTA button as shown below like the URL is redirecting to a different URL during test mail and showing 404 error.

Then first, you need to sign in to your AWS account. Then, navigate to Amazon SES (You selected region) > Configuration sets > mailbluster-30375 (this can be any random number) in your AWS account. On this page, click  the Edit button under Overview tab General details section. On the edit page, disable/remove Custom redirect domain and save changes.

If you want to use default Merge Tag in your email campaign because some of your recipients do not have these data (First Name, Last Name, Full Name, etc) in their records, then you can set a default value instead. The Default value can be inserted like this in your email campaign:
{{ first_name or “default value” }}

Here is a real example:
{{ first_name or “Hello!” }}

Here we have mentioned the value inside the double quote.