# Campaigns

> A campaign in MailCamp is a single email message sent at a specific moment to one mailing list, optionally narrowed to a segment, a tag or a topic. Campaigns are the most common way to communicate with subscribers.

## What it is

A campaign represents one outgoing email. Use a campaign when you want to send a newsletter, a product announcement, an invitation, or any other one-off message. Campaigns are different from automations — automations send messages based on triggers, while campaigns are scheduled and sent at a specific time.

## Key concepts

- **Subject line**: the text recipients see in their inbox. Can be personalised with merge tags so each recipient sees their own name, city, or any other field you collect.
- **Sender identity**: the verified from-name and from-address used when delivering the campaign. Pulled from the mailing list's settings unless overridden.
- **Reply-to**: the address that receives replies. Often different from the from address.
- **Recipients**: one mailing list (your audience), optionally narrowed to a segment, a tag or a topic. A campaign sends to one list at a time.
- **Content**: the email body, designed in the drag-and-drop editor.
- **Schedule**: send immediately, or schedule for a future date and time.
- **Status**: a campaign moves through stages — being designed, ready, scheduled, sending, and completed. It can also be paused, restarted, or marked failed.

## Common workflows

### Sending a one-off campaign

1. Open **Campaigns** in the main navigation.
2. Click **New campaign**.
3. Choose the mailing list to send to.
4. (Optional) Narrow the recipients to a segment, a tag or a topic.
5. Set the subject line and sender identity.
6. Design the email in the editor — start from a template or build from scratch.
7. Send a test email to yourself to verify rendering.
8. Choose **Send now** or **Schedule for later**.

### Duplicating a previous campaign

1. Open the campaign list.
2. Find the past campaign and choose **Duplicate**.
3. The new campaign is created as a draft with the same audience, subject, and content.
4. Edit anything you need to change, then send or schedule.

### Reviewing a sent campaign's performance

1. Open the campaign from the list.
2. Choose **Statistics** to open the per-campaign statistics page.

## Limits and edge cases

- A campaign cannot be sent until at least one verified sending domain exists.
- Recipients who are unsubscribed or bounced are automatically excluded.
- Once a campaign is sending, its content and audience cannot be edited.
- A scheduled campaign's schedule can be removed before the send time, returning it to an editable state.

## Web routes

Paths use `:id` as the placeholder for a campaign's identifier.

- `/campaigns` — list of all campaigns.
- `/campaigns/new` — create a new campaign.
- `/campaigns/:id/update` — edit a draft campaign.
- `/campaigns/:id/send` — review and dispatch a campaign.
- `/campaign/:id/webversion` — the public, hosted web version of a sent campaign (note: singular `campaign`).

For campaign analytics see [Statistics](/llms/statistics.txt).

## Related

- [Mailing lists](/llms/mailing-lists.txt) — where the audience comes from.
- [Segments](/llms/segments.txt) — for narrowing the audience.
- [Templates](/llms/templates.txt) — for reusable designs.
- [Statistics](/llms/statistics.txt) — for measuring results.
- [Domains](/llms/domains.txt) — required for sending.