What happens after you write a campaign: testing it, sending it now or
later, managing scheduled campaigns, reading the results, and how
unsubscribes work. Writing the email itself is covered in
Building and sending an email campaign.
Test sends
There are two places to send yourself a test:
the exact email recipients will get to your own account email, with
`[Test]` in front of the subject. It is disabled until the message is
finished; the dialog lists what is missing under Finish the message
first.
smaller screen), next to Preview.
A test send goes only to you, creates no campaign and doesn't count in the
results. It needs the same Growth plan and email approval as a real send.
Send now or schedule
The wizard's last step, Schedule & Review, has two choices under
Scheduling:
campaign moves to the Scheduled tab.
Check Total Recipients in the Campaign Summary before you send. It is
the clearest sign your targeting is what you meant.
Scheduled campaigns are picked up by a check that runs every 15 minutes, so
delivery starts within about 15 minutes of the time you chose rather than on
the exact minute.
Managing scheduled campaigns
Marketing → Scheduled lists each waiting campaign with its recipients,
scheduled date and time until send. Each row's menu has:
Drafts. Nothing is sent.
Don't use "Send now" on the Scheduled tab. It currently marks the
campaign as sent without sending any email. To send a scheduled campaign
early, Reschedule it to a time a few minutes from now, or Cancel
campaign, open it from Drafts and use Send Now in the wizard.
Automated (triggered) campaigns are not live
The wizard's recipient list includes Triggered Campaign, with an
Automation Trigger panel (job completed, invoice paid, birthday, and so
on). Nothing sends these yet: a triggered campaign saves its settings and no
email goes out. Use a regular campaign to a customer group instead.
Sales follow-up sequences are a different feature, sent from a teammate's
connected inbox. See Emails in CRM.
Who gets skipped at send time
On top of the audience you picked, the send always leaves out:
one and you left Also email contacts on file ticked),
Each skip is recorded on the campaign as suppressed, so the campaign page
shows who was left out and why. Inactive and deleted customers are left out
too, unless you picked a customer group set to include inactive customers.
Reading the results
Overview shows totals across your sent campaigns (Total Campaigns,
Delivery Rate, Open Rate, Click Rate) and Recent Campaigns.
Click a campaign to open its page, which shows:
| Number | What it means |
|---|---|
| Recipients | How many customers the campaign targeted after skips. |
| Delivered | Accepted by the recipient's mail server. |
| Opened | People who opened it at least once. |
| Clicked | People who clicked a link at least once. |
| Bounced | Delivery failed. |
Delivery and bounce rates are worked out against recipients; open and click
rates against delivered. The Activity, Content and Recipients
tabs show recent events, the email as sent, and per-recipient tracking.
Things to know when reading them:
counts once.
images automatically, which looks like an open. Treat opens as a rough
signal and clicks as real interest.
rather than spam.
campaign sent with Send Now finishes as completed or
completed_with_errors, so it may be missing from those totals; open the
campaign itself for its numbers.
Unsubscribes
Every campaign email ends with "You are receiving this email because you are
a customer of [your company]" and an Unsubscribe link, plus the one-click
unsubscribe headers Gmail and Apple Mail use for their own button.
The link opens a confirmation page; nothing happens until the person
confirms, so mail scanners can't unsubscribe anyone. On confirm the address
joins your company's email opt-out list, and every later campaign skips it.
The same list stops review requests, greeting cards and sales follow-ups.
Invoices, receipts, quotes and service reports still go out.
If PortaPro can't build working unsubscribe links (a server setup problem),
the campaign is refused and marked Failed rather than sent without one.
Only email people who already do business with you (never a bought list),
and if someone asks by phone to stop getting marketing email, mark them
Do not email (marketing) on their customer record.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| "Marketing campaigns require Growth plan" | Campaigns need the Growth plan. |
| "Customer email sending is enabled by the PortaPro team during onboarding…" | Email sending isn't switched on for your company yet. Contact PortaPro Support. |
| Campaign Failed with an unsubscribe message | A server setup problem; nothing was sent. Contact PortaPro Support. |
| Campaign Failed naming a customer group | The group couldn't be worked out, so nothing was sent. Edit the group's rules and send again. |
| Fewer people got it than the group shows | No-email customers, opt-outs, Do not email customers and past bounces are skipped. The campaign page lists each skip. |
| Scheduled campaign went out a few minutes late | Scheduled sends are checked every 15 minutes. |
| Someone says they unsubscribed but still got one | The opt-out applies to sends started after they confirmed. Check they finished the confirmation page. |
| A text (SMS) campaign never arrived | Campaigns send email only for now. |
| A triggered campaign never sent | Triggered campaigns aren't live yet. |
| `{{customer_name}}` showed up in the email | Merge fields aren't replaced in campaigns. Remove them. |
| A scheduled campaign shows Sent but nobody got it | It was marked with Send now on the Scheduled tab, which doesn't send. Rebuild it and send from the wizard. |