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This guide takes you from “I have a list of subscribers in a spreadsheet” to “the campaign is scheduled and a test send hit my inbox” — usually about 25 minutes for a first run. We’re talking about Email Marketing here — broadcast newsletters and announcements to your owned audience. If you’re after app-triggered transactional emails (password resets, receipts), see Hiveku Email instead. For 1-on-1 sales prospecting, see Cold Email.

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Before you start

You need a verified sending domain. Email Marketing won’t let you schedule a send from an unverified domain. If you haven’t done this yet, follow Email > Domains first — it usually takes 10-15 minutes plus DNS propagation.
You’ll also need:
  • A list of subscribers as a CSV (must have an email column; first_name, last_name, and any tags are optional but useful for personalization).
  • A subject line and a rough idea of what you want the email to say. The AI Email Coach can draft both if you’d rather start from a brief.

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The flow

1

Import contacts via CSV

Go to /dashboard/marketing/email/audiences and click New audience > Import from CSV.Drop in your .csv. Required column: email. Optional columns are mapped to contact properties — first_name, last_name, and any tags column become available as personalization variables.Hiveku validates each row. The import log shows the first 10 rejected rows with a reason, so you can fix and re-upload if needed.
If your list is over 6 months old, run an external email-verification pass before importing. A single bad CSV is the most common cause of a deliverability spike on a first send.
2

Create the audience

During the import wizard, you can save the imported contacts as a static audience in one click. Give it a clear name like Newsletter — April 2026 import so it’s findable later.If you’d rather have a dynamic audience that picks up future subscribers automatically, finish the import as a static list, then create a dynamic audience filtered on tag CONTAINS newsletter (or whatever tag your CSV applied). See Build a Dynamic Audience.
3

Pick or create a template

Go to /dashboard/marketing/email/templates. You can:
  • Pick a starter template from the gallery and customize it.
  • Duplicate an existing template and tweak.
  • Click New template to start from raw HTML.
  • Ask the coach: “draft a newsletter template using our brand colors and three story slots.”
Whichever you pick, click Quality check before saving and address any blockers (missing alt text, missing unsubscribe link, broken links).
4

Compose the campaign

Go to /dashboard/marketing/email/campaigns and click New campaign.
  • Internal name — for your reference only. Recipients never see this.
  • Template — pick the one you just made.
  • Audience — select your imported audience. The picker shows the live count.
  • Subject — keep under 60 characters for mobile. The coach lints as you type.
  • Preheader — the inbox snippet next to the subject. Up to 150 characters.
Use the preheader to extend the subject, not repeat it. If your subject is “What’s new in April”, your preheader can be “Three product updates and a shoutout to our top integrators.”
5

Test send to yourself

Click Test send and pick your own email as the recipient. The test send renders against a sample contact (you pick which one), so personalization is exercised end-to-end.Check three things in your inbox:
  • Subject and preheader render the way you expect.
  • Personalization variables resolved (no {{first_name}} showing through).
  • Links work — click each one.
If anything looks wrong, fix it and re-test. Test sends don’t count against your audience metrics.
6

Schedule or send

You’re ready to ship. Two options:
  • Send now — fires immediately.
  • Schedule — pick a date and time. The coach suggests an optimal window based on past open rates for the audience.
On click, Hiveku materializes the recipient list, snapshots audience membership, and (for scheduled sends) holds until the send time.
Once a send starts, you can cancel further dispatch but you can’t recall what’s already gone. Big sends fan out in seconds — only schedule when you’re confident.

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Verification

After the send completes, the campaign report at /dashboard/marketing/email/campaigns/{id} shows:
  • Sent count — should match your audience size minus suppressions.
  • Delivered rate — typically 95%+ on a clean list.
  • Opens and clicks start streaming in within minutes.
  • Bounces and complaints post over the next 24-48 hours.
Watch the deliverability dashboard for an hour or two after a first send. If bounce rate climbs above 2% or you see any complaints, treat that as a signal to slow down before your next send.

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Troubleshooting

Three usual causes:The coach surfaces the specific blocker inline.
Most often, the recipient is already on your suppression list. Check /dashboard/marketing/email/deliverability and the per-recipient log on the campaign report.
The variable name is misspelled or the contact is missing the property. Use {{contact.first_name | default: "there"}} so blank values fall back gracefully.
On a first send to a fresh import, open rate is usually 20-40% for engaged lists, 10-20% for older ones. Lower than 10% with no bounces usually means inboxing — landed in spam folders. See Diagnose Email Deliverability.

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What’s next

Build a dynamic audience

Move from one-time CSVs to live, rule-based segments.

Set up a drip sequence

Turn your one-off welcome into an automated nurture flow.

A/B test subject lines

Build subject-line intuition with real data.

Diagnose deliverability

Stay ahead of bounce and complaint spikes.