Send email campaigns to your contacts

Which plans include campaigns

Campaigns are part of the Business and Enterprise plans. On Hacker (the Free plan) and Startup, Campaigns shows a lock in the left rail. The page still opens and says which plan you need, and New campaign stays locked until you upgrade with Upgrade plan. See Plans and pricing for the details.

One-off and ongoing campaigns

The two cards at the top of the page switch the list between the types, and each card shows how many campaigns it holds.

• One-off: sent once to your audience. Good for announcements and promotions. Send it with Send now or give it a send date and time.
• Ongoing: runs as long as it is switched on. About every 5 minutes Deskwoot sends the message to every contact in the audience who has not received it yet. When you switch it on, that is everyone who matches at that moment. After that, it reaches each new contact who joins the audience.

A contact gets the same campaign only once, even from an ongoing campaign that runs for months.

Create a campaign

1. Click Campaigns in the left rail, then New campaign. The form opens on the type of the card you have selected.
2. Enter a Campaign title. Your team sees it in the list.
3. Pick the Campaign type: Ongoing or One-off.
4. Pick the Inbox the email is sent from. Only email inboxes are listed. You can save a draft without an inbox, but it cannot be sent until it has one.
5. Optional: once an inbox is picked, the Email subject field appears under the title. When you leave it empty, the campaign title is the subject.
6. Write the Message. The editor has three views: Visual for formatted text, HTML code to paste or edit your own HTML, and Preview to see how the email looks. When you save, Deskwoot removes scripts and other code that has no place in an email.
7. Optional: enter a Sender name. It replaces the inbox's sender name for this campaign.
8. Choose the Audience (see below).
9. For a one-off campaign, set the Send date and time under Schedule, or leave it empty to send by hand.
10. Switch on Enable campaign if it should run on its own, then click Create campaign. Switching it on needs the permission to send campaigns, explained below. Without it, you save the campaign as a draft and an administrator switches it on.

Choose the audience

• All contacts: every contact in your account.
• Contacts of this inbox: everyone who has a conversation in the campaign's inbox.
• Segment: one of the predefined segments (Active last 7 days, Active last 30 days, New contacts (last 7 days), Has email address, Has phone number) or one of your own segments from the Contacts page. See Smart segments.
• Specific contacts: search by name or email (from 2 characters) and add contacts one by one. Remove one with the x on its chip.

With Segment, pick a segment from the list. With Specific contacts, add at least one contact. An empty choice is not saved: the form shows Choose a segment. or Add at least one contact. under the audience. When some of the contacts you picked were deleted in the meantime, the save leaves them out and says how many.

Every audience only includes contacts the campaign can actually reach. For an email inbox, that means contacts with an email address. Contacts without one get no message and no new conversation, and they do not count as sent. Deskwoot also always skips:

• blocked contacts,
• contacts who unsubscribed from your campaigns,
• contacts whose email address bounced.

The section on unsubscribe links and bounced emails below explains the last two.

A campaign that was saved without an audience shows No audience chosen in the list. Open it and pick one. Contacts of this inbox reaches the same people such a campaign used to reach. When a running campaign has no usable audience any more (for example because its own segment was deleted), Deskwoot switches it off instead of sending, it becomes a draft, and the audit log shows Campaign stopped: no usable audience.

Schedule a one-off campaign

Pick the day and the time under Send date and time. The time is your own local time (the time zone your computer is set to), in steps of 15 minutes, and it has to lie in the future. Switch on Enable campaign too: only a campaign that is switched on and has a send time goes out at that time.

The Schedule column in the list shows the planned time, Manual when there is none, Sent once a scheduled campaign went out, and Overdue when the time has passed and the campaign was not sent (for example because it was switched off).

Status, switch and actions

Each campaign shows one of three statuses:

• Active: it will send. An ongoing campaign is active while it is switched on. A one-off campaign is active when it is switched on and has a send time.
• Draft: it will not send by itself. Switching a campaign off always makes it a draft again.
• Completed: a one-off campaign that went out.

The status follows the switch. In the Ongoing list, the Active column holds a switch to pause and resume each campaign. Hover over a row to see its actions:

• Send now sends the campaign to its audience right away, after you confirm. An ongoing campaign is also switched on by it.
• Activate appears on drafts and switches the campaign on. A one-off campaign without a send time, or with a send time that has passed, then goes out within about a minute. For a one-off campaign without a send time, Deskwoot asks you to confirm first, just like Send now.
• The More actions menu holds Edit and Delete. A completed one-off campaign cannot be edited any more.

Send now, Activate and switching a campaign on need the permission to send campaigns. Without it, they show a lock.

The numbers at the top show Total campaigns, how many are Active, Messages sent and the split between ongoing and one-off. Messages sent and the Sent column count only messages that were delivered. A message the mail server refused is not counted, and one that bounces later is taken off again.

Who can send and activate campaigns

A campaign mails a whole audience at once, so making it send needs the permission Send and activate campaigns. Administrators always have it. The standard Agent role does not. On the Enterprise plan, an administrator can give it to other members with a custom role: the permission sits in the Campaigns group.

The permission is needed for:

• Send now, in the dashboard and in the phone app,
• Activate,
• switching on Enable campaign or the switch in the Active column,
• changing the title, subject, message, sender name, inbox, audience, type or send time of a campaign that is switched on.

Members without it see these controls locked, with the note Ask an administrator of your workspace for the permission to send campaigns. They can still create campaigns and edit drafts that are switched off, delete campaigns, and pause or switch off a running campaign. An administrator then checks the draft and switches it on.

Unsubscribe links and bounced emails

Every campaign email ends with a short line that says why the contact receives it, followed by an Unsubscribe link. The line uses the contact's language when Deskwoot knows it, else the language of your workspace. The email also carries the unsubscribe headers that mail apps such as Gmail read, so the contact can unsubscribe with the app's own button in one click.

When a contact unsubscribes, the contact page and the Details tab of their conversations show Unsubscribed from campaigns with the date. From then on, every campaign of your workspace skips this contact. Your team cannot undo it. Normal replies in the contact's conversations still reach them, because unsubscribing only stops campaigns.

When the contact's mail server reports that the address does not exist or no longer accepts mail, the contact shows Email bounced with the date, and campaigns skip it. A temporary problem, or a refusal caused by your own mail settings, does not count as a bounce. If the address works again, open the contact and click Mark email as deliverable, then confirm. Administrators can do this, and so can everyone whose role includes Manage contacts (create, edit). Changing the contact's email address also clears the bounce. Should the address bounce again, the next campaign email marks it again.

Where the messages and replies go

Each email is added to a conversation with the contact in the chosen inbox. When the contact has no conversation there yet, Deskwoot starts a new open one, so a campaign to many new contacts adds many conversations to that inbox. You find them in your conversation list with the campaign message in the thread. When the customer answers the email, the reply arrives in that conversation and your team handles it like any other email.

When your plan changes

If your plan no longer includes campaigns (a downgrade, the end of a trial or an unpaid subscription), every running campaign is paused and becomes a draft, and every administrator gets an email. The Campaigns page stays open, so you can still edit, delete or switch off campaigns. Creating, activating, sending and switching on are locked until your plan includes campaigns again, and nothing resumes by itself after an upgrade. More in Paused campaigns and automation rules after a downgrade.

Frequently asked questions

Can I send a campaign over WhatsApp, SMS or live chat?

No. Campaigns are sent by email only, so the Inbox field lists your email inboxes.

Can I edit a campaign after it was sent?

A completed one-off campaign cannot be edited, and emails that went out stay as they are. You can delete it and create a new one. An ongoing campaign can be edited at any time, and the change applies to the contacts it reaches from then on. While it is switched on, changing what it sends needs the permission Send and activate campaigns.

Will a contact get the same campaign twice?

No. Each contact receives a campaign only once, even when an ongoing campaign keeps running or you click Send now on it again.

In which time zone is the send time?

In your own local time, the time zone your computer is set to. The list shows the planned time the same way.

Why was my scheduled campaign not sent?

It only goes out when Enable campaign is switched on, it has an inbox and it has an audience. A scheduled campaign that is switched off stays a draft, and the list shows Overdue once its time has passed. Click Activate to send it within about a minute, or use Send now. Both need the permission Send and activate campaigns.

Who can send a campaign right away?

Administrators, and on the Enterprise plan everyone whose custom role includes Send and activate campaigns. This applies to Send now in the dashboard and to Send campaign in the phone app. Everyone else sees the button locked.

Why did my campaign reach fewer contacts than the audience holds?

Deskwoot skips contacts without an email address, blocked contacts, contacts who unsubscribed and contacts whose email bounced. Messages sent also leaves out messages that could not be delivered.

Can a contact who unsubscribed get campaigns again?

Not through your team. Unsubscribed from campaigns is the contact's own choice, and nobody in your workspace can clear it. Normal replies in their conversations still reach them.

Can I personalize the message with the contact's name?

Not at the moment. Every contact gets the same text.

What happens when I delete a campaign?

The campaign is deleted for good and stops sending. Emails that already went out stay in their conversations.

Can I see campaigns in the phone app?

Yes. On plans that include campaigns, More > Campaigns lists them with their status. Tap one to see its message. Members with the permission Send and activate campaigns can tap Send campaign on one that has not gone out yet. Everyone else sees the button locked with a hint to ask an administrator. Creating and editing happen in the web dashboard. See The Deskwoot app for iPhone and Android.

What happens to my campaigns after a downgrade?

Running campaigns are paused, administrators get an email, and nothing starts again by itself. See Paused campaigns and automation rules after a downgrade.