Creating and Sending Broadcasts

Broadcasts are one-time email campaigns sent to a group of subscribers. Think product announcements, weekly newsletters, event invitations, or promotional offers. Unlike sequences (which are automated and ongoing), a broadcast goes out once to the audience you choose. This guide covers the full lifecycle: creating, configuring, testing, sending, and analyzing your broadcasts.

Starting a New Broadcast

Navigate to Broadcasts in the sidebar and click New Broadcast. You’ll land in the broadcast editor, which is organized into tabs for Content, Settings, and Audience.

Choosing a Content Format

The first decision is how you want to build your email. Broadcast offers three content formats:

Rich Text – a visual editor with formatting tools for bold, italic, links, images, lists, and headings. This is the fastest way to compose professional-looking emails without touching any code.
HTML – write or paste custom HTML for complete control over layout and styling. Ideal if you have a designer providing email templates or if you want pixel-perfect formatting.
Template – start from a saved template. Templates let you define reusable layouts so every campaign maintains a consistent look and feel. You can customize the content while keeping the structure intact.

Choose the format that fits your workflow. You can always create templates later from broadcasts that perform well.

The Content Tab

This is where you write your email.

Broadcast Name

Give your broadcast an internal name (e.g., “March Newsletter” or “Product Launch Announcement”). This name is for your reference only and is not visible to subscribers.

Subject Line

The subject line is the first thing recipients see. Make it count:

Keep it under 50 characters so it displays fully on mobile devices
Be specific about what’s inside the email
Avoid spam trigger words like “FREE!!!”, “Act Now”, or excessive punctuation
Use personalization when it makes sense: {{ subscriber.first_name }}, your March update is here

Preview Text

Preview text appears next to or below the subject line in most email clients. It gives recipients a second reason to open your email. If left blank, email clients pull the first few words of your email body, which may not look great. Write a short, compelling teaser that complements your subject line.

Reply-To Address

Set a reply-to address if you want responses to go somewhere other than your default From address. This is useful if your marketing emails come from “[email protected]” but you want replies to land in “[email protected].”

Writing Your Email

Compose your email body using the editor for your chosen format. In the Rich Text editor, you have access to:

Text formatting (bold, italic, underline, strikethrough)
Headings and paragraphs
Bullet and numbered lists
Links and images
Block quotes and horizontal rules

Personalization with Liquid

Use Liquid variables to tailor each email to the recipient:

Hi {{ subscriber.first_name | default: "there" }},

Thanks for being part of our community!

Available variables include:

{{ subscriber.email }} – the subscriber’s email address
{{ subscriber.first_name }} – first name
{{ subscriber.last_name }} – last name
{{ subscriber.data.custom_field }} – any custom data field you’ve stored
{{ unsubscribe_url }} – the unsubscribe link (always include this in your emails)

Inbox Preview

Use the preview feature to see how your email renders before sending. This shows you the formatted email as it will appear to subscribers, with Liquid variables replaced by sample data.

The Settings Tab

Tracking

Control what gets tracked for this broadcast:

Open tracking – inserts a tracking pixel to measure how many recipients open the email
Click tracking – wraps links to measure which links get clicked and by whom

Both are enabled by default. You may want to disable tracking for sensitive communications or when sending to privacy-conscious audiences.

Email Server Selection

If you have multiple email servers configured, choose which one sends this broadcast. This is useful when you have different providers for different types of emails or different sender domains.

Custom Headers

Add custom email headers using Liquid syntax for dynamic values. Custom headers are an advanced feature used for things like list-unsubscribe headers, campaign tracking IDs, or integration-specific metadata.

The Audience Tab

Choosing Your Recipients

You have two main options for targeting:

All Subscribers – send to every active subscriber in your current broadcast channel
Specific Segments – target a defined subset of your list based on tags, subscriber activity, custom data, or other criteria

You can select multiple segments for a single broadcast. Broadcast automatically deduplicates, so subscribers who appear in more than one selected segment will only receive the email once.

Segments are defined in advance under the Segments section. If you haven’t created any yet, check out the Segments documentation to learn how to build targeted audience groups.

Saving Your Work

Broadcast saves your work automatically as you edit. You’ll see a save indicator in the editor. You can also navigate away and come back to continue editing later – your draft will be right where you left it.

Testing Before You Send

Always send a test email before delivering to your full list. Here’s the testing workflow:

Click Send Test in the broadcast editor
Enter the email address you want to receive the test (your own or a colleague’s)
Check the test email in your inbox
Verify that the subject line, preview text, formatting, links, images, and personalization all look correct
Click links to make sure they work and point to the right destinations
Check how the email renders on mobile if possible

Testing catches mistakes that are easy to miss in the editor: broken links, typos in subject lines, missing images, or Liquid variables that didn’t render.

Sending Your Broadcast

When you’re satisfied with your test, it’s time to send.

Send Immediately

Click Send Now to begin delivery right away. Broadcast starts processing your recipient list and delivering emails through your configured email server. Depending on your list size and email server throughput, delivery may take anywhere from seconds to several minutes.

Schedule for Later

Prefer to send at a specific time? Click Schedule and configure:

Date – pick the day you want the broadcast to go out
Time – select the hour and minute
Timezone – choose the timezone for the scheduled time so it sends exactly when you intend

Scheduled broadcasts appear on your Broadcasts page with their scheduled date and time. You can edit or cancel a scheduled broadcast at any point before its send time.

Broadcast Statuses

Every broadcast moves through a lifecycle:

Draft – still being edited. Not yet sent or scheduled.
Scheduled – set to send at a future date and time. Can still be edited or cancelled.
Sending – currently being delivered to subscribers. Delivery is in progress.
Sent – delivery is complete. Analytics are now available.
Failed – something went wrong during sending. Check the broadcast detail page for error information.

Analytics After Sending

Once your broadcast is sent, the detail page shows real-time performance metrics:

Open Rate – percentage of delivered emails that were opened (requires open tracking enabled)
Click Rate – percentage of delivered emails where at least one link was clicked
Delivered – total emails successfully delivered to recipient mail servers
Bounced – emails that failed to deliver (hard bounces from invalid addresses, soft bounces from full mailboxes)
Unsubscribes – subscribers who opted out via the unsubscribe link in this email

These metrics help you understand what resonates with your audience and inform how you write future campaigns.

Managing Your Broadcasts

From the Broadcasts list page, you can:

Edit – return to the editor for any draft or scheduled broadcast
Duplicate – create a copy of an existing broadcast as a starting point for a new one. This saves time when your campaigns follow a similar structure.
Archive – move sent broadcasts out of your active list to keep things tidy
Delete – permanently remove a draft broadcast you no longer need

Best Practices

Always send a test first – catch formatting errors, broken links, and typos before they reach your subscribers
Include an unsubscribe link – this is legally required under CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and other regulations. Use {{ unsubscribe_url }} in your content.
Write for mobile – over half of all emails are read on phones. Keep paragraphs short, use large tap targets for links, and preview on a mobile device when possible.
Segment when it matters – targeted emails consistently outperform blanket sends. Use segments to match content to the right audience.
Maintain a consistent schedule – subscribers who know when to expect your emails are more likely to open them. Whether it’s weekly, biweekly, or monthly, pick a cadence and stick to it.
Watch your metrics – use open and click rates to learn what subjects and content perform best. Iterate based on data, not guesses.

Looking to send emails automatically? Learn about Sequences to build automated drip campaigns that nurture subscribers over time.