Writing an issue

Write, review, send

Start a draft from the Campaigns page. A campaign goes through three steps, shown at the top: Write, where you type the subject, the preview text and the issue; Review, a checklist of what to fix before it can go out; and Send, where you pick who gets it and when. Everything saves as you type, and a check shows each time it's saved. While you edit, the sidebar folds down to its icons to leave the issue more room.

The preview text is what inboxes show after the subject. Without one, they show your issue's first words.

The editor

• Formatting: select text to get bold, italic, strikethrough, a link, two heading sizes and a quote.
• Slash commands: type / on an empty line for text, three heading sizes, bulleted and numbered lists, a picture, a quote, a divider or a box, which sets a block apart on a gray background. Contact fields, at the bottom of the menu, opens the first name and your own fields. From the keyboard, → opens it and ← comes back. Keep typing after the slash to find any of them, like /quote or a field's name.
• Links: select text, press ⌘ K (Ctrl K on Windows) and paste the address. An email address becomes a link that opens an email to it.
• Markdown: shortcuts work as you type, like # and a space for a heading, - for a list or > for a quote.

Pictures

Paste a picture, drop it in the editor, or type / and pick Image to upload one or use one you uploaded before. PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP work, under 4 MB. Wider pictures are resized to 1,200 pixels. A picture shows at once and uploads in the background, and its address never changes, so sent emails keep showing it.

Drag the handles on a picture's sides to resize it. Point at it to show its toolbar, inside its top edge (on a touch screen, tap the picture): place it on the left, in the center or on the right, add its alt text, or delete it. Emails and your website keep it where you put it.

Alt text describes the picture in a few words, for readers who can't see it, inboxes that block images and search engines reading your website. Click Alt and type it: it saves as you type, and Enter closes it. The Alt button stays highlighted once a picture has one.

Moving blocks

With a mouse, a grip appears to the left of the paragraph, heading, list, picture or box under the pointer. Drag it to move the block, and a line shows where it lands. Click it to select the block. From the keyboard, ⌘ Shift ↑ and ⌘ Shift ↓ (Ctrl instead of ⌘ on Windows) move the block the cursor is in. Moves undo like any other change.

Names and fields in your emails

{{first_name}} shows each reader's first name. Type /, pick Contact fields at the bottom of the menu, then First name, or click the person icon at the end of the subject. Both add {{first_name|there}}: the word after the bar is what readers without a first name see, so “Hi {{first_name|there}}” reads “Hi Jane” or “Hi there”. Change it, or remove it with the bar to show nothing.

Your own contact fields work the same way, by their key: {{birthday}}, {{plan|free}}. Contact fields lists them after the first name, and typing a field's name after the slash, like /birthday, finds it right away. The person icon in the subject lists them too, once you have some. Both lists end on How to add names and fields to contacts, which opens Adding fields, step by step. Text shows as it is, a number with its thousands separated (1,250), and a date written out (April 12, 1991). A reader without a value sees the fallback, or nothing. Tags never show in emails: they're for picking who gets an issue, with segments.

Names and fields work in the subject, the preview text and the content, and in your welcome and confirmation emails. Your website and its issue pages always show the fallback, so no reader's details are ever public. The preview shows the name Jane, with no field values, or the details of a contact you pick in it. Test emails show Jane too, or your own first name and fields if you're one of your contacts. The review step flags any other {{...}}, like a tag from another platform or a field you deleted, since it would go out as written.

Preview and test emails

Preview, in the write step and in the ⋯ menu at any step, shows the email in a mail app's window on a desktop, or in Gmail on a phone: the inbox first, with a fingertip tapping the issue's row until you open it, then the email. On your own phone, Mobile shows the email itself, edge to edge. Press Esc to close it.

Sample reader, at the top left, shows the email as a reader called Jane gets it. Click it to pick one of your active contacts instead, the newest first, each with their picture as on the Contacts page, or find one by typing the start of their email address or first name. The subject, the preview text and the email then read as that person gets them, with their first name and field values, or the fallbacks where they have none. They stay picked while the campaign is open. How to add names and fields to contacts, at the bottom of the list, opens Adding fields, step by step.

Send a test email, in the same menu, sends the email as saved to your account's address, with [Test] before the subject. Nobody else gets it. The review step reminds you when you haven't sent one.

Duplicate, discard and HTML

The ⋯ menu also duplicates a campaign into a new draft, or discards a draft. A sent campaign can't be changed, but it can come off your website. Removing an issue

A campaign made with the API or an AI assistant can be a whole HTML document. The dashboard then shows its HTML to edit, and it needs {{unsubscribe_url}} where the unsubscribe link goes. API and AI assistants

When you're done, send or schedule it.