Schedule a Recurring Email

Overview

This tutorial sets up an email that sends itself on a schedule. The example is a weekly newsletter every Monday at 8:00 with your latest articles, but the same steps work for a daily digest or a monthly update.

Every send uses the latest of everything: the audience is counted again, profile data and content lists are read when each email is sent, and edits to the email template apply to the next send.

Before you start, set up sending and choose the marketing consent field for your project, as in steps 1 and 2 of Send a one-time email.

1. Create a content list

A content list keeps the newsletter fresh without editing it each week.

1. Go to Content Management → Content Lists and create a list, e.g. Top stories, with the articles you want, such as the latest from a section.
2. Note its merge field, e.g. content_lists.top_stories.

See Content lists.

2. Design the newsletter

1. Go to Email Management → Email Templates and click New Template.
2. Under Start from, choose Newsletter. It has an intro, a heading and a Data list block for articles.
3. Enter a Name, set Type to Marketing and choose the Project.
4. Select the Data list block. Under List in the payload, choose your content list, e.g. content_lists.top_stories.
5. Choose a Sub-template for each article: Compact article row for a digest, Article card for larger images, or Headline list for titles only. Set Show at most, e.g. 6.
6. Edit the intro and set the Subject line, e.g. This week's highlights.
7. Check the Checks tab, use Send test to see it in your inbox, and click Save.

3. Create the campaign

1. Go to Email Management → Campaigns and click New Campaign.
2. Enter a Name, e.g. Weekly newsletter, choose the Project, and under Email choose the newsletter.
3. Under Audience, choose All subscribers or A segment.

4. Set the schedule

Under When, choose how often:

Option	Set
Daily	The time.
Weekly	The weekdays, e.g. Mon, and the time. Pick several days for e.g. Monday and Thursday.
Monthly	On a day, e.g. day 1 or the last day, or On the first, second, third, fourth or last weekday, e.g. the first Monday. Then the time.

For the example, choose Weekly, select Mon and set the time to 08:00.

Check the timezone next to the time. It is set to yours; change it when your readers are elsewhere. A monthly day after the 28th sends on the last day of shorter months.

Then choose when it ends:

• Keep sending: until you cancel it.
• Until: a last date.
• Stop after: a number of sends.

The next send times show below, in your local time. Check they are what you expect.

5. Skip empty weeks

Under Options, leave Skip a send when a content list in the email has no items on. A week without new articles in the list then sends nothing, instead of an empty newsletter.

6. Start the schedule

1. Click Review and schedule.
2. Check the summary, such as Start sending every Mon at 08:00, and click Yes.

The campaign is now Active. Its page shows the schedule and the next send.

7. Manage it

Open the campaign from Email Management → Campaigns. The Sends list has a row for each send, with its progress, open and click rates.

To	Do
Change the content	Edit the email template and save. The next send uses it.
Take a break	Click Pause. Click Resume to continue; sends missed while paused are not made up.
Change the schedule or audience	Cancel the campaign and create a new one. Only drafts can be edited.
Stop for good	Click Cancel.

A send is Skipped when the list was empty, or when the previous send was still in progress. The reason shows next to it.

If many emails bounce or are marked as spam, the campaign is paused automatically. See Automatic pause.

See how each send performs over time in Email Analytics.