Create a Regular Email

A campaign is a marketing message that you share through email, ads, or some other channel. In Mailchimp, a regular email is a bulk email campaign sent to many contacts at once. When you create a regular email, you’ll use a checklist-style email builder to add recipients, choose your settings, and design your content.

In this article, you'll learn how to create and send a regular email in Mailchimp.

Before you start

Here are some things to know before you begin this process.

• To send an email, make sure you have subscribers in your audience. If you don’t have subscribers in your audience, import your contacts or invite people to subscribe with a signup form.
• Be sure to verify your email’s domain before you send your first email.

Create an email

To create a regular email, follow these steps.

1. Click the Create drop-down and choose Email.
   
2. On the Regular tab, enter a campaign name and click Begin.
   

This will take you to the builder, where you’ll choose your settings and design your content.

Setup and design

Our email builder is designed to let you work on the different parts of your email in the order you choose, and review everything at once before you send.

There are four main things to do before you can send.

• Add your recipients in the To section.
• Add your from name and from email address in the From section.
• Add your subject line in the Subject section.
• Design your email in the Content section.

As each task is completed, a green checkmark will appear next to the corresponding section.

You may also want to review your tracking options and other settings.

Add recipients

To choose your recipients, follow these steps.

1. In the To section, click Add Recipients.
   
2. In the Audience drop-down menu, choose the audience you want to send to.
3. In the Segment or Tag drop-down menu, choose All subscribers in audience, Group or new segment, or one of the available saved or pre-built options.
   
4. Optional: Check the Personalize the "To" field box to display the recipient's name instead of their email address. This is more personal and may help you avoid spam filters.
   
   After you check the box, you'll choose a merge tag that corresponds with the data you want to display in the "To" field. For example, if you choose *|FNAME|*, a recipient named Bob will see "To: Bob" instead of "To: bob@example.com." The default options are *|FNAME|*, *|LNAME|*, and *|FNAME|* *|LNAME|*, but you can click Custom to enter an alternate tag or text.
5. Click Save.

Add from name and from email address

To set your from name and from email address, follow these steps.

1. In the From section of the email builder, click Add From.
   
2. Enter your from name and email address.
   
   You may be asked to verify the domain in your email address.
3. Click Save.

Add subject

To set your subject line and optional preview text, follow these steps.

1. In the Subject section of the email builder, click Add Subject.
   
2. In the Subject field, enter a subject line for your email.
   
3. In the Preview text field, you can enter up to 150 characters that will display next to your subject line in recipients’ inboxes. This field is optional.
   
4. Click Save.

Design email

To design the content for your email, follow these steps.

1. In the Content section of the email builder, click Design Email.
   
2. Choose a template to start with. Depending on your plan, you may not have access to all of the template options. To find out what features are included in each plan, check out our pricing page.
   
   You’ll see five categories of templates: Layouts, Themes, Saved, Campaigns, and Code your own. To learn more about each, take a look at Types of Templates.
3. In the email designer, input and customize your content.
4. Click the Preview drop-down menu to access powerful testing tools before you send your email.
   
   Learn more about how to preview and test your email for web and mobile.
5. After you complete your design, click Continue.
   

Settings and tracking

When you create a regular email, we enable certain tracking options by default. This includes open and click tracking, as well as e-commerce tracking if you have a connected online store.

To edit your tracking options, follow these steps.

1. Scroll to the Settings & Tracking section and click Edit.
   
2. Check the boxes next to the tracking options you want to enable.
3. Click Save.

Other settings

You can also choose to manage subscriber replies with conversations, and auto-convert embedded videos. To learn more, check out these articles.

Set Up and Use Conversations

Add Video to a Campaign

Send campaign

After you’ve completed the To, From, Subject, and Content sections of the email builder, you should see a green checkmark next to each. That means your regular email is ready to schedule or send immediately.

If you're ready to send the email to your subscribers, click Send. Then, in the Review Your Campaign modal, click Send Now to confirm your send.

Your email is on its way!

Next steps

You’ve sent a regular email in Mailchimp. Nice job! Now you can view your report to watch the data roll in.

When you’re ready to create your next email, you may want to try an A/B test to learn more about your contacts’ preferences. You can also add a social post to your email to coordinate multiple marketing efforts at the same time.

About Email Campaign Reports

Create an A/B Testing Campaign

Publish a Social Post When You Send an Email

Troubleshooting

If your email doesn’t send as expected, take a look at some of these troubleshooting resources. You can also search the Knowledge Base for other topics you want to learn about.

Troubleshooting Your First Campaign

Resolve the Default Text Content Alert