When you create a campaign using MailChimp's Campaign Builder, you can select a campaign type, add recipients, choose a template design, and add your own content! In this article, we'll show you how to create an email campaign using our Campaign Builder.

Contents

• Create a campaign
• Tips for creating your HTML Campaign

Create a campaign

1. Navigate to the Campaigns page in your account.
2. Click the Create Campaign button in the top right corner to create a Regular Ol' Campaign.

   If you'd like to create a Plain-Text Campaign, A/B Split Campaign, RSS-Driven Campaign, or an Inbox Inspection Campaign click the drop down and select that option.
   

3. On the Recipients step, select the list that you'd like to send your campaign to.
4. To send to your entire list and proceed to the next step, click the Setup step in the progress bar or the Next button in the bottom right-hard corner.
   

   To send to a segment of your list, click the name of the list and select the Send to a segment option to add your segmenting conditions. Then click the Setup step in the progress bar or the Next button in the bottom right-hard corner.
   

5. On the Setup step, add your Email subject, From name, and Reply-to email address. Use the options below to select tracking, connect Social Media options, and set advanced options. When you're finished, click the Design step in the progress bar or the Next button in the bottom right-hard corner.
6. On the Design step, select one of the following options to create and add your content:
   
   • Use the Drag & Drop Editor to create your design from scratch or select one of our Basic, or Predesigned templates to get started.
   • My Templates allows you to select from any templates you've previously saved or imported
   • Paste in code that you've created outside of our system.
   • Code a reusable template directly in MailChimp.
   • Import your code from a URL.
   • Import a zip file to use as a campaign.
7. Once you've completed your design, Use the Preview & Test drop down at the top of the page to Open Popup Preview or send a test email.
   
8. Once you're satisfied with your design, click the Plain-Text step in the progress bar or the Next button in the bottom right-hard corner to move forward.
9. Use the Copy Text From HTML button to automatically generate the plain-text portion of your campaign. Use the Preview & Test drop down at the top of the page to preview the plain-text section.
   
10. Once you've finalized the Plain-Text step, click the Confirm step in the progress bar or the Next button in the bottom right-hard corner.
11. Review the pre-delivery checklist presented on the Confirm step.
    

    Any errors or missing info will be noted on this screen, click Resolve to navigate directly to the step to fix the error. If you'd like to make any additional changes, click the Edit button to return to a step.

12. Use the Preview & Test drop down at the top of the page to Open Popup Preview, Send a Test Email, Run Inbox Inspection, or Test with Delivery Doctor. For additional campaign testing tips, click here.
13. When you've completed testing your campaign, use the Send Now or Schedule buttons at the bottom of the page to send to your list.
    

    When you select the Schedule option you'll be able to select the delivery date and time using a calendar picker and drop down menus. The timezone that's set for your account will also be displayed here and you'll have the option to edit it if it's incorrect.

    
    

Tips for creating your HTML Campaign

When sending a campaign through MailChimp, there are a few things you'll want to keep in mind while creating your content. Below we'll go over a few tips that are helpful for you to to keep in mind.

• MailChimp does not use a BCC field as each recipient on your list is hidden from all other recipients on your list. We deliver a completely separate copy of your email to each recipient on your list, allowing you to personalize your content for each recipient, track clicks and opens, and address each email to the recipient's name.
• Before you send your email campaign to your entire list, you'll definitely want to do some testing. To ensure the best possible result, we recommend sending tests to all the popular web based email services, like Yahoo!, Hotmail, and Gmail. Depending on your audience you might consider setting up AOL and Comcast accounts if possible, or set up accounts with major ISP's in your area. You can also use the Inbox Inspector tool to preview how your email will appear in multiple clients. Take a look at this article for more email testing tips.
• When using a bulk emailing service like MailChimp, it's important that your campaigns include both an HTML version as well as a plain-text alternative. Having both of these versions available will ensure the best possible delivery of your emails, as well as make sure that your subscribers can view your content as expected, regardless of the email client or program they're using.
• MailChimp is designed to send email campaigns that contain only HTML code and plain text content. While what you put in the code is completely up to you, we do advise against using Flash in your emails. As there are a only handful of email apps where flash might work, it's not enough for us to recommend doing this. The best way to send Flash content would be use an image in your campaign, and link the image to the flash content hosted on an external server or website.

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