NexlyFlowCreate and send a campaign
16 steps · About 25 minutes
What you will finish with. A live outreach campaign sending from your own mailbox, with replies landing in your Pipeline.
Who this is for. Anyone ready to send their first real outreach.
Before you start: finish SMTP setup and domain verification, and have at least one contact list ready.
1Prepare your contact list
Open Contacts and confirm the list you want to target exists and contains the people you mean to reach. Note its List ID.
Why this matters. Sending to the wrong list cannot be undone once emails leave – the list is the one thing worth double-checking.
Expected result. Your list shows the expected number of contacts.
If it fails. If the list is empty, import a CSV or claim leads from Find Leads first.
2Write your email template
Open Email Templates, create a template, and write a subject and body that read like a real person wrote them to one specific reader.
Why this matters. Cold outreach lives or dies on the first two lines. A template that reads like a mass mailing gets deleted regardless of how good your data is.
Expected result. Your template is saved and appears in the template list.
If it fails. Keep it short. Long templates get skimmed and skipped.
3Add personalization variables
Insert the personalization placeholders offered in the editor toolbar where you want the contact name or company to appear.
Why this matters. Personalised openers get materially better reply rates, and variables let one template serve thousands of contacts.
Expected result. The variables appear in your template text.
If it fails. Do not type placeholder names by hand – insert them from the toolbar so they are recognised at send time.
4Preview personalization
Use the preview to see how the email reads for a real contact from your list.
Why this matters. A variable pulling from an empty field can produce an awkward sentence; preview is how you catch that before your prospects do.
Expected result. The preview reads naturally with the contact details filled in.
If it fails. If a variable looks empty, open that contact and fill the missing field, or reword the sentence so it works either way.
5Create the campaign
Open Campaigns and click + Create campaign. Give it a name you will recognise in three months.
Why this matters. Campaign names become your reporting labels; vague names make results impossible to compare later.
Expected result. A new campaign is created and its settings open.
If it fails.
6Select contacts or list
Set the Target to the list you confirmed in step 1.
Why this matters. This is the step where a mistake is most expensive – it decides who actually receives your email.
Expected result. The campaign shows the correct list and recipient count.
If it fails. If the count looks wrong, go back to Contacts and check the list before continuing.
7Select the sending mailbox
Choose the mailbox you connected in Sending Setup.
Why this matters. Emails must go out from a tested, verified mailbox or they will bounce or land in spam.
Expected result. The campaign shows your business mailbox as sender.
If it fails. If your mailbox is not listed, it has not been saved after a successful connection test.
8Select your template
Pick the template you built. The campaign will use its subject and body for every recipient, filling in the variables per contact.
Why this matters. Keeping copy in templates means you can reuse and improve what works instead of rewriting each time.
Expected result. The campaign preview shows your subject and body.
If it fails.
9Set the schedule
Set the start time and the sending window. Business-hours sending in your recipients time zone generally performs better than nights and weekends.
Why this matters. Emails arriving at 3am look automated and get lower engagement.
Expected result. The campaign shows a start time and daily window.
If it fails.
10Set your daily sending limit
Set a daily limit you are comfortable with. New mailboxes should start low – a few dozen a day – and increase gradually over the following weeks.
Why this matters. Mail providers watch for sudden volume from a new sender and treat it as spam behaviour. Ramping slowly is how you build reputation instead of burning it.
Expected result. The limit is saved and the campaign respects it automatically.
If it fails. If you need volume immediately, spread it across more days rather than raising the limit sharply.
11Send a test email
Send a test to yourself and open it on both desktop and phone.
Why this matters. Your reader sees the rendered email, not your editor. Broken spacing, an odd subject or a wrong name is obvious in a real inbox and invisible in a form.
Expected result. The test arrives in your inbox and reads correctly on both screens.
If it fails. If the test never arrives, the mailbox connection is the problem, not the campaign – re-run Test connection in Sending Setup.
12Check compliance elements
Confirm the unsubscribe link is present and that your identity and business details are clear in the message.
Why this matters. Recipients must always be able to opt out; unsubscribes are added to your suppression list and skipped automatically in future campaigns.
Expected result. The test email contains a working unsubscribe link.
If it fails.
13Launch the campaign
Review the summary and launch. Sending begins at your scheduled time and follows your daily limit automatically.
Why this matters. Everything before this step is reversible; this is the point of no return, which is why the test came first.
Expected result. The campaign card shows a live status and the first sends begin in the window you set.
If it fails.
14Watch the progress
The campaign card shows sent, delivered, opened, clicked and replied counts as it runs. Reports shows the funnel across all campaigns.
Why this matters. Early numbers tell you whether to let it run or stop and fix the copy – the first fifty sends are your cheapest feedback.
Expected result. Counts increase steadily during your sending window.
If it fails. A high bounce rate early means list quality problems – pause and check the data source.
15Pause or stop if needed
You can pause or cancel a running campaign from its card. Emails already sent are unaffected.
Why this matters. Being able to stop quickly limits damage from a typo or a wrong list – use it without hesitation.
Expected result. The campaign status changes and no further emails go out.
If it fails.
16Work the replies in Pipeline
As replies arrive they appear in Pipeline with the reply text. Accept the suggested stage move or drag the card yourself.
Why this matters. Replies are the only metric that pays. Handling them same-day is the difference between a warm conversation and a dead lead.
Expected result. Replying leads appear in Pipeline within minutes of answering.
If it fails. If replies never appear, reply detection is off or its inbox test failed – see the SMTP guide, step 6.
Tell us the campaign name and what you expected to happen. Contact support.