Quick Start
The fastest path from a blank Owlat workspace to a live email campaign, from your first template through sending and reviewing results.
This is the fastest path from a blank workspace to a live campaign. If you want to understand all the options and features, start with Welcome to Owlat instead.
Before you start
Make sure you have:
- An active Owlat workspace with your organization set up
- A verified sending domain in Settings > Technical > Sending Domains (see Deliverability if you haven't done this yet)
- At least a few contacts to send to — you can import from CSV or create them manually in Audience > Contacts
1. Create a marketing template
- Open Mail > Marketing.
- Click New Marketing Template and give it a name.
- Build your email using slash commands in the editor. Type
/in any text block to open the menu:
| Command | What it adds |
|---|---|
/text | A paragraph of body text |
/h1, /h2, /h3 | Headings at different sizes |
/image | An image block |
/button | A call-to-action button |
/columns | A multi-column layout |
/social | Social media icon links |
Your Saved Blocks also appear in this menu — they're listed by their own name under a Saved category, so type / and start typing the block name to insert one.
To add a personalization variable (like a first name), type @ or {{ inside a text block. That opens a separate variable picker where you can pick the field to insert.
- Save your template when you're happy with the design.
Don't worry about perfection on your first template. You can always edit it later, or duplicate it as a starting point for future emails. See Email Editor for all available blocks and features.
2. Create your campaign
Open Campaigns > All Campaigns and click New Campaign. The campaign wizard walks you through three steps:
Setup
Name the campaign, set the sender details (from name, from email, optional reply-to), and choose the audience — exactly one Topic or one Segment. To send to everyone, choose a Topic that contains all of your subscribers. The step shows the eligible recipient count for the audience you select. This step also has a quiet Add an A/B test option — leave it closed to send a single version, or open it to compare two subject lines or two templates and send the winner to the rest. See A/B Testing for details.
Content
Enter the email subject line and select the marketing template you just built. The subject is what recipients see in their inbox.
Review
Verify the campaign summary, send yourself a test email, then choose Send Now or Schedule for Later.
The preheader (the snippet shown next to the subject in the inbox) is set on the email template in the Email Editor, not in the campaign wizard.
3. Validate before launch
Before hitting send, take a moment to verify:
- Send a test email — deliver the email to your own inbox first. Check the layout on both desktop and mobile.
- Review the subject line — typos in the subject line are forever.
- Confirm the sender — make sure your domain is verified and the "from" address looks professional.
- Check recipient count — is the audience size what you expected? Too many or too few contacts might signal a targeting issue.
Always send a test email before your first real campaign. It takes 30 seconds and can save you from sending a broken layout or wrong content to your entire list.
4. Send or schedule
On the Review step you have two options:
- Send Now — delivery begins immediately after you confirm
- Schedule for Later — pick a date and time for delivery. Consider when your audience is most likely to check their email.
The confirm button reads Send Campaign or Schedule Campaign depending on which option you chose.
When scheduling, you can also enable Send at recipient's local time. The campaign then arrives at the chosen local time for each contact; contacts without a known timezone receive it at your scheduled time.
5. Review your results
After sending, check how your campaign performed:
- Sent — how many emails were sent
- Delivered — how many reached the recipient's inbox
- Open rate — what percentage of recipients opened your email
- Click rate — what percentage clicked a link
- Bounces — emails that couldn't be delivered
Find these metrics in the campaign detail page (click into your campaign from Campaigns > All Campaigns) or in the aggregate view at Campaigns > Reports.
What to do next
Now that you've sent your first campaign, explore the features that will make your next one even better:
- A/B Testing — test different subject lines to improve open rates
- Segments — target specific groups for more relevant content
- Automations — set up emails that send themselves
- Saved Blocks — build a library of reusable content
- Contact Properties — personalize emails with custom data