Sending and scheduling

The review step

Before a campaign can go out, the review step checks it:

• a subject, and content;
• the unsubscribe link, which ApresMail adds to every issue written in the editor;
• a size under 100 KB, since Gmail cuts off longer emails;
• a postal address, set in the newsletter's settings;
• a from address the newsletter is allowed to send from.

It also warns about a subject over 70 characters, which inboxes cut off, a missing preview text and a missing test email. Warnings don't stop you.

Who gets it

Choose groups and a saved segment in the campaign's audience step. Contacts in any selected group must also match the segment and belong to this newsletter. Leave both unrestricted to start with the newsletter's eligible subscribers. Manage saved segments on the Contacts page.

In the unified audience, you can also choose a group belonging to this campaign's newsletter. Only active subscriptions with permitted delivery qualify, including new subscriptions explicitly authorized by the owner through a purchase integration. Joining a group alone does not activate a subscription or restore a withdrawal. A group from another newsletter cannot be selected.

A draft whose segment was deleted waits until you pick another.

Web page settings in the same step holds the issue's web page address, which you can change, and what the list cleanup will do at this send.

Before handing each queued email to the email provider, ApresMail checks the target newsletter's subscription, current consent and blocked addresses again. A person who is no longer eligible for this newsletter is skipped, even if they were eligible when the batch started. Emails already handed to the provider cannot be recalled.

Choose a test address

Send a test email opens a dialog with your account address filled in. Change it to the inbox you want to check, then choose Send test. Opening or cancelling the dialog sends nothing. Test messages still require the account's normal sending checks.

Campaign conditions

Additional conditions belong to this campaign. Add conditions within a set to require all of them (AND). Add another set to accept either set (OR). These sets always narrow the groups and segment selected above them; they cannot bypass subscription or delivery restrictions. The count updates while you edit a complete selection, without a separate save. Changes must finish saving before you prepare a review.

Include or exclude a group or saved segment, compare email or first name, or use signup source, signup date and engagement. Group joined checks the date for the specific group you choose. Calendar dates use UTC: Since includes the chosen day and Before excludes it. Unknown join dates do not match a date condition. Empty or incomplete conditions must be corrected or removed before the selection can be counted or saved.

The current audience count shows eligible recipients of this issue. Last-chance cleanup emails are shown separately, with dormant, waiting, blocked and over-limit contacts excluded. The count follows your current selection, including unsaved changes. The count explains why matching contacts are excluded and links to their newsletter subscriptions. A contact imported or added to a group may still be pending for this newsletter; group membership alone does not activate a subscription. Authorizing an existing subscription is a separate owner action, not a filter change. If counting fails, no partial total is shown. The final review freezes the selected audience, and eligibility is checked again before delivery.

Saved segments used in a review keep their reviewed rules even if the segment is later edited. Deleting a source segment or archiving a source group makes it unavailable. Draft edits invalidate an earlier unapproved review.

Send now or schedule

Send now asks you to confirm, then the issue starts going out. Schedule opens a calendar, with today marked, and times every 15 minutes. Once you've sent an issue before, it tells you when a time matches your last one. A scheduled issue goes out by itself, up to a year ahead; the checks and limits run when you schedule it and again when it goes out. Unschedule turns it back into a draft.

Waiting for sending capacity

ApresMail shares its sending pace and rolling 24-hour allowance across accounts. Campaigns and sequences can wait when capacity is used up. This does not fail the recipient or create a new send: the approved content and audience stay frozen. Current consent and sender readiness are checked again before each email. Expired approvals still need the normal review.

The next check time is an estimate. Do not duplicate a campaign to bypass the wait. Essential login and confirmation messages have a reserved allowance, but still require healthy sending checks. An unknown delivery result is held for reconciliation to avoid sending twice.

Your sending domain needs a verified signature (DKIM) and custom return path (MAIL FROM). The Domains page shows the last saved check; use Check now after updating DNS. Delivery also checks the current provider settings. Removing a domain stops further delivery from it.

First sends in steps

The first time an issue goes to contacts who never got an email from you, usually right after an import, they don't all get it at once. With more than 200 of them, a slice goes first: 5% of them, between 200 and 2,000. The rest follows 3 hours later, once the slice's bounces and spam complaints are in.

If the slice gets more than 2% hard bounces (at least 5) or 0.08% complaints (at least 2), the rest waits for you to resume it. Far over those rates, your account is blocked. A list with bad addresses shows itself in the slice, before it reaches everyone. Contacts you emailed before go out normally.

Pausing a send

Emails can't be recalled once they go out. While an issue is still going out, Pause on its page stops the rest: what's sent stays sent. Resume sends the rest, after checking your account again.

ApresMail pauses a send by itself when too many of its emails bounce or get marked as spam. Bounces, complaints and pauses

Sending to more

A send capped at a number of contacts, which the API can set, goes to the most engaged first. Send to more on the campaign's page then sends it to the next most engaged contacts who haven't got it yet. You pick how many, and each time starts a new step, so you can check the report in between.

The report

Each sent campaign's page shows how many emails were delivered, opened and clicked, and how many bounced, were marked as spam or led to an unsubscribe, with results by inbox provider, like Gmail or Outlook. It counts the list cleanup's last-chance emails apart. Opens are an estimate: some inboxes load every email's images on their own, which counts as an open, and some readers block images.