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A campaign is one email sent once to an audience, such as a monthly newsletter. You fill in who it goes to and what it says, save it as a draft, then test it before anything reaches your list. This guide sets up Northwind Monthly: November for Northwind’s test audience, Docs test list, from the template made in Design an Email in the Visual Builder. It sends a test, runs the checks and stops just before sending. Before you start, you need a verified sending domain (Get Set Up to Send Marketing Email) and an audience (Build an Audience to Email).

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Write the campaign

1

Start a new campaign

Click Marketing in the left rail, then the Email Marketing card. On the Campaigns tab, click New campaign. (On an audience’s page, Send a campaign does the same with that audience already chosen.)
Marketing email with the Campaigns tab outlined and the New campaign button outlined

New campaign, on the Campaigns tab

2

Name it and write the subject

Type a Campaign name for your team, and the Subject line your readers will see.To try two to five subjects, tick A/B test subject line: recipients are split evenly, and the campaign’s results show which subject was opened more.Preheader (preview text) is the short line most inboxes show after the subject.
Campaign name Northwind Monthly: November, Subject line New this month: Colombia Huila, and Preheader Red apple, panela and cocoa, plus early access to the Holiday Gift Box, each outlined, with A/B test subject line unticked

Name, subject and preview text

3

Choose who it goes to and who it's from

Pick the Audience. The line under it shows how many of its people can be emailed: Docs test list has 7 deliverable of 7. The number in brackets in the list isn’t kept up to date yet (~0 here), so go by the line under it.Pick your Sending domain, type the part of the address before the @ in From address (local part), and type the From name readers see in their inbox.
4

Choose the content

Under Start from a saved template (optional), pick your template. Its email fills the body below. Leave Body format on Both (recommended), so each reader’s email app can show the designed email or a plain-text version.
Start from a saved template (optional) set to Northwind Monthly: November, outlined, and Body format Both (recommended), outlined

Northwind Monthly: November, in both formats

5

Choose when it goes out

To send it later, pick a date and time in Schedule send for. Leave it blank to send it yourself once you have tested it. Despite what the label says, leaving it blank doesn’t send anything when you save: the campaign is saved as a draft and goes out only when you click Send now on its page. Send in each recipient’s local timezone sends at that time of day in each reader’s own time zone, where Hiveku knows it.
Schedule send for 10/30/2026, 09:00 AM outlined, above Send in each recipient's local timezone, unticked

October 30 at 9:00 AM

At the moment Hiveku reads the time you type as UTC (Greenwich time), not your own: Northwind typed 9:00 AM and the campaign was set for 2:00 AM in Portland. Type the UTC time instead: for 9:00 AM in Portland, type 4:00 PM until November 1 and 5:00 PM after daylight saving time ends. Then check the time under Dry run (below), which shows it in your own time. If it’s wrong, cancel the campaign and make a new one.
6

Save the draft

Check everything, then click Save draft. Saving never sends anything: the campaign page that opens is where you test and send. A saved campaign can’t be edited yet, so to change it, cancel it and make a new one.
The Save draft button outlined, with Saved as draft. You'll see a preview and send button on the next screen.

Save draft

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Test it

The campaign opens as a draft, with your sender and audience under its name and a preview of the email below (the number beside the audience isn’t kept up to date yet; Dry run shows the real count). Three buttons check it without sending to your list.
Northwind Monthly: November, draft, From Northwind Coffee Roasters at hello@mail.northwindroasters.com, with the Test send, Quality check and Dry run buttons outlined beside Confirm schedule, Duplicate and Cancel

The draft, with Test send, Quality check and Dry run

1

Send yourself a test

Click Test send, type your own email address under Test send recipient email and click Send test. The test is a real copy of the campaign, unsubscribe link included, and it doesn’t count in the campaign’s results.
Send a test email with the Test send recipient email box and the Send test button outlined

Send a test email (address blurred)

A note under the buttons confirms where it went. Open it in your inbox and check the words, the photos and the links.
Test sent to a blurred address. Check the inbox.

The test is on its way

2

Check it for problems

Click Quality check. It checks the subject, the preview text and the body for problems that hurt delivery or put readers off, and gives a score out of 100 with any findings listed.
The Quality check button outlined, and Quality score 100/100, 0 errors, 0 warnings, 0 notes. No findings.

100 out of 100, no findings

3

See who it would reach

Click Dry run. It works out the send without sending anything: how many people it would go to, and how many it would skip and why, such as unsubscribed or bounced addresses. Its Estimated completion line shows when the send would finish, in your own time.
The Dry run button outlined, and Dry run OK, would dispatch 7 of 7 contacts. Skipped: 0, outlined

Dry run: 7 of 7 contacts

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Send it

The last button sends the campaign, and it reads differently depending on the schedule:
  • Send now, when you left Schedule send for blank. One click starts sending to the whole audience straight away; there is no second question, so test first.
  • Confirm schedule, when the scheduled time is still ahead. The campaign changes from draft to scheduled and goes out at that time on its own.
Northwind stops here and leaves its campaign as a draft. While a campaign is scheduled or sending, Cancel stops it (anything already sent can’t be called back), and Pause holds a send in progress until you Resume it. Duplicate makes a new draft copy of any campaign, including one already sent.

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Good to know

  • Replies go to the From address. The form has no separate reply-to address yet, so a reader’s reply goes to the address the campaign is sent from. If that address can’t receive email, tell readers in the email how to reach you.
  • Every email carries an unsubscribe link and your mailing address. Hiveku won’t send a campaign that lacks either, and anyone who unsubscribes is skipped from then on.
  • More: Campaigns covers every campaign setting and status.