Email Campaigns let you send promotional emails, product announcements, and newsletters to your audience.
You can customize design, target specific segments, schedule delivery, and track performance – all from Omnisend's drag-and-drop builder.
Before You Begin
Before you create your first campaign, make sure:
Your sender email address is verified. Go to Store Settings → Email Addresses and verify the email you'll send from. Learn how to verify your sender email.
Your domain is authenticated (optional but recommended for better deliverability). Set up your email domain in Omnisend.
Your contacts are subscribed to the Email channel. Only contacts with "Subscribed" status will receive campaigns. Import contacts from a file.
To create an Email Campaign, go to Campaigns → Create Campaign → Email Campaign.
Step 1: Email Settings
Configure how your campaign appears in recipients' inboxes.
Required Fields
Subject line – The first thing recipients see. Keep it under 50 characters. Use the Subject Line Tester or generate options with Omnisend AI.
Preheader – Short text that follows the subject line (appears in inbox preview). Use it to add context or urgency. Learn about preheaders.
Sender's email address – Must be a verified email from Store Settings → Email Addresses. Use a professional address like
[email protected]or[email protected].Sender's name – The name that appears in the inbox (e.g., "Sarah from YourStore" or "YourStore Team").
Inbox Preview – See how your campaign will look in recipients' inboxes.
Optional Settings
Facebook auto-post – Share your campaign on Facebook automatically. Learn more about auto-posting to Facebook.
UTM tracking – Omnisend adds UTM tags automatically for Google Analytics. The internal campaign name becomes the
utm_campaignparameter. Customize UTM tags.
Click Next step to choose your template.
Step 2: Email Template
Select a template that fits your campaign goal – promotional sale, product launch, newsletter, or custom design.
You can filter templates by goal or start from scratch using the Email Builder.
Each template is mobile-responsive and fully customizable. You'll adjust colors, fonts, layouts, and brand assets in the next step.
Click Use Template to move to content editing.
Step 3: Edit Content
Use the drag-and-drop builder to customize your email design.
Adding Items
Drag items from the left sidebar into your email:
Text blocks
Images
Buttons
Product recommendations
Discount codes
Social media icons
Customizing Items
Click any item to edit its content and layout in the right-hand panel. Each item has:
Content settings – Text, images, links, colors
Layout settings – Padding, alignment, borders
💬 Learn more about Omnisend Email Builder: Items.
Email-Level Settings
Click the email background to access global settings:
Width – Adjust content width (default: 600px)
Background – Set background color or image
Button styles – Define default button design
To access the Email settings tab, click on the Email background, as shown in the screenshot below. Here, you can adjust your email's width, background (color or image), and buttons.
⚠️ Please be aware that specific devices might not support the width, and your email might look distorted; we recommend testing it before sending your campaign.
⚠️ Note: Some email clients (like Outlook) don't support background images and will show background color instead.
Preview & Test Your Design
Before finalizing your content, click Preview & Test (top toolbar) to:
Preview – See how your email looks on desktop and mobile
Send test email – Send a quick test to your inbox to check formatting
⚠️ Important: Test emails don't show dynamic content (discount codes, contact names, product recommendations) and may not accurately reflect email size for Gmail clipping. For the most accurate preview, send a live version to yourself after completing all campaign steps.
Saving Templates
To reuse your design in future campaigns:
Click the arrow icon (top-right corner).
Select Save as template.
Name your template and click Save.
Saved templates appear under Store Settings → Saved Templates. Click Save & Choose recepients to choose your audience.
Step 4: Campaign Audience
Choose who receives your campaign. You can send to:
All contacts – Everyone subscribed to Email
Specific segments – Target groups based on behavior, location, purchase history, etc.
Important Notes
Only subscribed contacts receive campaigns. Contacts with "Non-subscribed" or "Unsubscribed" status are automatically excluded.
Duplicate contacts are sent only once. If a contact appears in multiple segments, they'll receive one email.
Exclude segments – Use this option to exclude specific groups (e.g., exclude "Recent Purchasers" from a discount campaign).
💬 If you're new to Omnisend, follow the warm-up plan. Start by sending to your most engaged contacts and gradually increase volume.
Click Review campaign to review and send.
Step 5: Review and Send
Review your campaign details and choose when to send.
Campaign Booster
Want a second chance to reach unopened contacts? Use Campaign Booster to automatically resend your campaign to contacts who didn't open or click the first time.
Send Now
Click Send Now to deliver your campaign within 5 minutes.
⚠️ First campaign? If this is your first campaign or your first in 90+ days, it will go through verification – we send to ~1,000 contacts first, monitor metrics for up to 60 minutes, then send to the rest automatically. Your campaign will show "Paused" during this time.
Schedule for Later
Pick a specific date and time. You can schedule based on:
Your time zone – Sends to all contacts at the same moment.
Subscriber's time zone (TZO) – Sends to each contact at the same local time based on their location.
Note: TZO identifies time zones by IP address (collected via Omnisend signup forms). If a contact's IP is missing, they'll receive the campaign based on your store's time zone.
If a subscriber's local time has already passed when you schedule the campaign, the email will send immediately (within 5 minutes).
Reviewing Results
Gmail limits the total file size of your email messages, including text, images, and any tracking codes or HTML-based components. The size increases with the number of items, text, and other components. Using many different text styles also increases the size.
If your message exceeds this limit (102KB), Gmail will “clip” the message by removing all but 50KB of its content. Your subscriber must click “View entire message” to see the full email.
⚠️ Due to a known Gmail-specific behavior, your content blocks or images might be duplicated when clicking the "View entire message" button. There are two common reasons:
When your email contains content blocks set to show only on desktop or only on mobile, Gmail may ignore those visibility settings once a user clicks "View entire message." At that point, Gmail renders the full raw HTML, showing everything, even content that was originally hidden based on device type.
Gmail clips emails that exceed 102 KB and adds a "[Message clipped] View entire message" link. When the user clicks it, Gmail attempts to reconstruct the full email. However, in doing so, it can mistakenly display the entire message again, resulting in what appears to be duplicated content.
Please note that this is a limitation specific to Gmail's interface and not caused by Omnisend.
We always recommend testing your message with a real email to yourself and adjusting the copy as needed. A good rule of thumb is to keep your message below 102KB.
How to Send a Test to Yourself
Go to Audience → Segments → Create Segment.
Add the filter: "Email address is [your email]".
Save the segment.
4. When creating your campaign, select this segment in the Campaign Audience step.
5. Send the campaign live.
⚠️ Please make sure to delete the previous copy of the same email in Gmail before sending yourself another one. If multiple emails are sent with the same subject line from the same email campaign, they're grouped in one thread, and this will cause clipping, even if the email wouldn't be clipped if it were sent separately.
Troubleshooting
Why can't I click "Send Now"?
The Send Now button may be disabled if:
Your sender email address is not verified (go to Store Settings → Email Addresses).
Required fields (subject line, sender name, recipient list) are incomplete.
Your campaign contains broken or incomplete links (all URLs must start with
https://).Your segment contains 0 subscribed contacts.
Your campaign is undergoing verification (first-time senders).
Check for error messages in the campaign editor or highlighted fields.
Why don't dynamic fields appear in test emails?
Test emails and previews don't populate dynamic content like discount codes, contact names, or live links. To see exactly how your campaign will look, create a segment with only your email address and send the campaign to that segment as a live send.
My campaign is stuck in verification. How long does it take?
If this is your first campaign or your first in 90+ days, verification takes up to 60 minutes. We send your campaign to ~1,000 contacts first, monitor metrics (bounce rates, spam complaints), and if everything looks good, the rest of your campaign sends automatically. Your campaign will show a "Paused" status during this time – this is normal and helps protect your sender reputation.
My segment has contacts but Recipients = 0. Why?
Campaigns are sent only to contacts who are subscribed to the Email channel. Your segment may include non-subscribed or unsubscribed contacts. To ensure your segment includes only email subscribers, add the filter: "Subscription status is subscribed to Email". You can also check individual contact profiles under Audience → Contacts to verify their subscription status.
Why is Gmail clipping my email?
Gmail clips emails larger than 102KB. To prevent clipping:
Reduce the number of images or compress them
Simplify text formatting
Remove unnecessary elements
Test your campaign by sending it to yourself as a live send. Important: Delete previous test emails with the same subject line before sending a new one – Gmail groups emails into threads, which can cause clipping even for smaller emails.
My campaign won't send because of "broken links." How do I fix this?
All links in your campaign must start with https:// (or http://) and lead to working, high-quality pages. Incomplete links (like yourstore.com/product instead of https://yourstore.com/product) will prevent your campaign from sending.
To fix:
Check all links in your email template and brand assets (Store Settings → Brand Assets).
Use the Review issue button in the editor to locate the problematic link.
Update the link and create a copy of your campaign to resend (campaigns with errors cannot be resent directly).
FAQ
Why can't I see some of the details in the test email?
Dynamic elements like discount codes, links, and contact names won't update in Test Emails or the Preview. We recommend sending the final version to yourself (as a live campaign to a test segment) to see exactly how your campaign will look.
How do I verify my sender email address?
Go to Store Settings → Email Addresses and add your sender email. Check your inbox (including Spam/Promotions folders) for the verification email and click the link. If you don't receive the email, send a message from the address you're trying to verify to [email protected], and our team can verify it manually.
What does "Time Zone Optimization (TZO)" mean?
TZO sends your campaign to each contact at the same local time based on their location (detected via IP address from Omnisend signup forms). If a subscriber's local time has already passed your scheduled time, the email will send immediately. If you want to send to everyone at the same moment, choose "Send based on your time zone" instead.
If you have any questions or need help, contact our support team at [email protected] or via in-app chat.