Email broadcasts: write, check and send a one-off email

Email broadcasts (Engage → Email broadcasts, /app/email) sends one email, written for email, to the people who agreed to get it. It is not the newsletter: a newsletter is a post you publish to the email account (Email newsletters); a campaign has its own subject, preview text, button, simulation, test email, schedule and results per person.

Before you start

• Connect a forwarding email account (Email forwarding). Campaigns are sent from OmniBrand's mail server with that account's sender name, and replies go to the account's own address. Without one the page says No email account yet with Open Accounts. When the account is connected but disconnected (the platform no longer accepts its access), the page names it instead in a red box: [name] is disconnected, so it cannot send broadcasts. Reconnect it in Accounts. with Open Accounts, and New email broadcast is hidden until you reconnect it. The composer, opened by its address, shows the same red box instead of the form.
• Have people to send to: the account's newsletter subscribers (Email newsletters), and/or contacts whose Consent shows E-mail: Agreed (Consent; an import with a consent declaration grants it, see Importing contacts).
• Creating, sending, pausing and cancelling needs the Owner, Admin or Editor role. Everyone else can open the list and the results. Opening the new-broadcast page by its address shows Only Owners, Admins and Editors create broadcasts instead of the form, and an empty list says Broadcasts appear here once an Owner, Admin or Editor creates one. When saving says Fix the highlighted fields first., the page scrolls to the first field to fix and puts the cursor in it. A message over the length limit is marked red while you type, with the count beside it.

Step by step: write and send

1. Open Engage → Email broadcasts and press New email broadcast. The composer opens (/app/email/new).
2. Sender: pick the account under Send from. Two kinds of sender are listed: the forwarding email account (sent from OmniBrand's shared mail server, showing its name, address and number of active subscribers) and any connected Microsoft 365 or IMAP/SMTP mailbox (sent directly from that mailbox, shown as "your own mailbox"). Sending from your own mailbox is better for inbox delivery - see Send from your own mailbox below. Type a Broadcast name (only your team sees it) and, if it belongs to one of your campaigns, pick it under Part of a campaign (optional).
3. Message: choose Simple (free text, as before) or Design (a gallery of ready-made, block-based email designs) with the switch above the message. Under Simple, type the Subject (up to 150 characters), the optional Preview text (shown after the subject in most inboxes, up to 150) and the Message. A blank line starts a new paragraph and links become clickable. Press Insert first name to add {{first_name}}; {{name}} is the full name. Give a fallback for people without a name: {{first_name|there}}. Optionally add Button text (optional) and its Button link (must start with https://). Under Design, see Designed templates and the block editor below.
4. Who gets it: tick Newsletter subscribers of this account and/or Contacts who agreed to email marketing. For contacts you can narrow to one list or segment under Only contacts in (optional) (the default is All contacts with email consent), tick lists under Leave out people in, and type tags under Leave out people tagged (separated by commas). Anyone who unsubscribed, withdrew consent, bounced or is on the suppression list is always left out, and each address gets one email even if it is both a subscriber and a contact.
5. When: Send now, Schedule (then pick Send at, your local time) or Save as draft.
6. Tracking: Count link clicks is on; Count opens is off (see Good to know).
7. Check the Preview on the right: switch between Desktop, Phone (375 px) and Dark (how a dark-mode inbox renders it). It is the real email, with your name in place of each person's.
8. Press Run simulation (see below), then Send test email to yourself.
9. Press the button at the bottom: Send now asks Send this campaign now? with the number of people; press Send now (or Not yet to keep it as a draft). Schedule saves it as Scheduled; Save draft saves it as Draft. The campaign's results open.

The simulation

Run simulation is a dry run with the same rules as the real send; nothing is saved or sent. It shows:

• [n] would get it, and where they come from: Newsletter list, Contacts and Both.
• [now] right away · [later] later, in their local send window — people outside the send window of Settings → Messaging rules (quiet hours, Friday pause, Ramadan window) wait for it; the email goes when their window opens.
• over the frequency cap (skipped) — people who already got as many marketing messages as your caps allow (all channels together).
• Left out, by reason: never agreed to email marketing, unsubscribed or withdrew consent, bounced before, on the suppression list, no email address, not a valid address, duplicates.
• How long the send takes at the mail server's pace, a warning when people have no name for {{first_name}}, and A few recipients with what each one gets. A person who waits for their send window shows when it opens, in their time and in yours, for example Waiting until Oct 5, 2026, 9:00 AM their time (Europe/Berlin) · Oct 5, 2026, 8:00 AM your time.
• When nobody would get it (0 would get it), the Left out reasons come first and there are no "right away · later" or "About … min" lines.

When you change the campaign after a run it says You changed the campaign since the last run.; press Run again.

The test email

Send test email to yourself sends the message to the address you sign in with, with [Test] in front of the subject, over the same sender you picked under Send from (your own mailbox, or the shared server) - so it shows you exactly what a real send would look like and where it would land. Links in a test are not tracked and its unsubscribe link does nothing. You can send 10 tests an hour; a test that was not sent does not count. When the 10 are used up, Send test email to yourself stays off and the line under it says You can send 10 tests an hour. Send test works again in [minutes] min.

Send from your own mailbox

A message sent from OmniBrand's shared mail server carries the shared omnibrand.app domain, which a reader's mail provider does not yet know or trust the way it trusts a mailbox you have used for years - see My email broadcast went to Junk/Spam for the full explanation. To send from your own mailbox instead:

1. Connect a Microsoft 365 (Microsoft 365 mailboxes) or an IMAP/SMTP mailbox (Any mailbox (IMAP/SMTP)) under Accounts. A Microsoft 365 mailbox needs the Mail.Send permission; if it was connected before that permission existed, reconnect it once to add it.
2. Back in the composer, pick that mailbox under Send from - it is listed alongside the forwarding email account, shown as "your own mailbox".
3. A note under Send from shows the mailbox's own send rate and how much of today's limit is left: about 30 messages a minute and 10,000 a day for Microsoft 365; a lower, provider-dependent limit for IMAP/SMTP mailboxes (Gmail and Google Workspace are the most common). A broadcast that reaches its mailbox's daily limit pauses with Paused: This mailbox has sent its daily limit of [perDay] emails. Press Resume after [date] to send the rest.; the day is counted in UTC, and the date is shown in your own time.

The one-click List-Unsubscribe header stays on every message either way, whichever sender you choose.

Designed templates and the block editor

Switch Message to Design to start from one of 8 ready-made, block-based email designs instead of free text: Announcement, Offer with coupon, Newsletter (3 articles), Product grid, Event invitation, Travel package, Welcome and Simple letter. After picking one:

• Add, remove and reorder blocks with the buttons under the block list and the up/down/remove buttons on each block: Heading, Text (supports {{first_name}} / {{name}} with a fallback, exactly like the Simple editor), Image, Button, Divider, Spacer, Columns (1-3) (side-by-side cards, for a newsletter's articles or a product grid) and Itinerary / price table (label/detail rows plus an optional price line, for an event, an offer or a travel package's plan and price).
• An Image block's picture comes from Media library (pick an existing file or Upload an image) or a pasted https:// link; every image needs alt text, a width and height, and an optional link. Images that are not https:// are refused.
• A Button block has its own text, link and colour (defaults to the brand kit's primary colour).
• Every Link and image address must be a full link starting with https://. Type a bare address such as www.example.com/order and https:// is added when you leave the field. A field that cannot be used is outlined in red with what to fix under it - Use a full link starting with https://, like https://example.com., Fill this in, or remove the block. or Add an image: pick one from the library, upload one, or paste its https:// link. Pressing Save (or Run simulation) puts the cursor in the first one. Each block is numbered at the top of its card (1. Heading, 2. Button, ...). While a block is not finished - a new Heading, Text or Button block starts empty, and a half-typed link counts too - the line Block [n] ([block]) is not finished: fill in its empty fields and start its links with https://. shows under the blocks straight away, and the Preview keeps the last version it could show, with Showing the last version that could be previewed. and the same line above it (with no earlier preview, the line takes its place). The preview updates by itself once the block is finished. When the preview cannot be updated for another reason it says Preview could not be updated. with the reason.
• Brand kit (above the block list, Edit to open it) is one look shared by every Design-editor broadcast in the workspace: a Logo, a Primary colour, a web-safe Font and optional extra Footer text. The footer always also shows your company's legal name and address (from Company information) and the unsubscribe line - the brand kit's footer text adds to that, it does not replace it. The Preview, the test email and the simulation use the brand kit as it is now; a broadcast keeps the brand kit it had when you pressed Send now, Schedule or Save draft (press Save changes on a broadcast that has not started to give it a newer brand kit).
• The email is built as a table-based, inline-styled HTML document that keeps its layout in Outlook, Gmail and Apple Mail and degrades safely in dark mode; a plain-text version is generated automatically. Very large designs (many big images) are refused with a message naming the size limit - remove a block or a large image and try again.

Switch back to Simple at any time (your Design content is kept if you switch back to Design later); a campaign is saved as either Simple or Design, never both.

The results

Click a campaign in the list (on a phone it opens full screen; All email broadcasts goes back). You see:

• The status (Draft, Scheduled, Sending, Paused, Sent, Failed, Cancelled), From (sender name) and Replies go to (the account's address), and Part of the campaign when it belongs to one.
• A paused or failed broadcast says why in a box under its name, starting with Paused: or Failed: (see If something goes wrong). When reconnecting is the fix it ends with Open Accounts, and the platform's own words, when it sent any, follow under What the platform said:. While the account it sends from is still disconnected, that one red box names it: Paused: [name], the account it sends from, is disconnected. Reconnect it in Accounts: Resume stays off until then. with Open Accounts. Once you have reconnected it, the box says Paused: It paused because the account was disconnected. It is connected again: press Resume to send to the people left. A Viewer or Reviewer has no Resume: their box gives the reason and then who can act, for example The account it sends from is disconnected. An editor or admin can resume it once the account is reconnected. On a draft or scheduled broadcast the second sentence is An editor or admin can send it once the account is reconnected.
• Recipients, Sent, Delivered, Clicked and Opened (with the share of delivered; Not tracked when switched off), Unsubscribed, Bounced, Failed, Skipped and Still to send (queued, waiting for a send window or a retry, or going out now: who Resume sends to; a paused broadcast's box says it too, for example It has not been sent to 3 recipients yet.). Delivered counts emails the mail server accepted that did not bounce; Clicked and Opened count each person once.
• Left out when it was created: the same reasons as the simulation, frozen when you saved it.
• Message: the subject, preview text, button and which tracking is on.
• Recipients: filter by status (Queued, Waiting, Sending, Sent, Bounced, Failed, Skipped, Unsubscribed) or by Clicked / Opened, search by address or name, and Load more. Each row shows where the person came from (List, Contact or List + contact), when it was sent, their clicks, and a note in your language: for a person waiting for their send window, the same Waiting until … their time (…) · … your time as the simulation; while the broadcast is paused, Waits for Resume: the broadcast is paused; for any other wait the reason and the next try, for example Waiting: the mail server is not answering · next try Oct 5, 2026, 9:05 AM (your time); Not sent: the broadcast was cancelled after Cancel broadcast; or why they failed, bounced or were skipped, for example Not delivered: the receiving mail server refused this address or Not sent: a reserved test address (like example.com). The mail server's own words, when it gave any, follow on a second line after What the platform said:. A person waiting for another try reads Not sent yet: a temporary error, so it is tried again with the next try; one every try failed for reads Not sent: a temporary error kept happening; gave up after 3 tries.

The page refreshes itself every few seconds while the campaign is a draft, scheduled, sending or paused, so what a teammate does shows up on your screen too. You also get a notification when it finishes, pauses or fails.

The list shows the newest 200 broadcasts. When there are more, Show older campaigns under the list loads the next 200.

Change, pause, cancel, delete

• Send now starts a draft or a scheduled campaign at once.
• Edit (only before it starts) reopens the composer; Save changes checks the audience again.
• Pause stops sending. Resume first asks Resume sending?, for example Sending carries on where it stopped, with the 3 recipients it has not been sent to yet., then, when some already got it, The 4 recipients it was already sent to are not messaged again. (for one, The recipient it was already sent to is not messaged again.); press Resume sending to carry on where it stopped, or Not yet. A paused broadcast with nobody left to send (Still to send 0) has no Resume: after the reason it paused, its box says Nothing is left to send: no recipient of this broadcast is still queued, so there is nothing to resume. Press Cancel broadcast to close it, or make a new broadcast. (without Resume stays off or Open Accounts: reconnecting would give it nobody to send to), and Cancel broadcast is the main button; a Viewer or Reviewer reads Nothing is left to send, so there is nothing to resume. An editor or admin can cancel it. While the broadcast is open, its numbers and the first page of Recipients update by themselves (a list you extended with Load more stays as it is). After Pause, Resume or Cancel broadcast that first page is read again with the status filter and the search you set, and Refresh at the top of the page reads the open broadcast again too, its numbers and Recipients included.
• Cancel broadcast asks Cancel this campaign?: nobody else gets it; who already got it stays in the results.
• Delete is only there for a campaign that sent nothing.
• While the account it sends from is disconnected, a red box names it with Open Accounts, and Send now (on a draft) or Resume (on a paused broadcast) is off: Send now stays off until the account is reconnected. or Resume stays off until the account is reconnected. Reconnect the account under Accounts, then press Resume. The red box at the top of the list leaves out the account of the broadcast you have open: its own box already says it.

Unsubscribe, bounces and compliance

• Every email has a personal Unsubscribe link in the footer and the one-click unsubscribe headers mail apps use for their own Unsubscribe button (Gmail and Yahoo require them for bulk senders). One click ends the person's newsletter subscription on that account, writes Withdrew marketing consent (E-mail) in their consent history, and they are skipped by every email broadcast that has not reached them yet.
• An address the mail server refuses for good, or that a delivery report says bounced, is marked bounced on the contact and on the subscriber list, goes on the suppression list, and is never emailed again. Sent from your own mailbox (Microsoft 365 or IMAP/SMTP), the bounce notices that come back to that mailbox are read too: a hard bounce (the address does not exist or is disabled - status 5.1.x, 5.2.1, or 5.4.x saying the user is unknown) marks the recipient Bounced and the address bounced on your contacts and on the account's list, so later broadcasts leave it out; a temporary one (mailbox full, try again later, refused as spam) changes nothing. Those notices are not added to your inbox.
• Consent is checked again just before each email goes, so someone who unsubscribes in the middle of a send does not get it.
• Sent from a Microsoft 365 mailbox, an email whose answer from Microsoft was lost (the connection dropped or Microsoft did not answer within 30 seconds after the message had left) is not sent again: Microsoft may already have it, so the person stays Failed with Not sent again: the answer was lost, so it may have arrived. It is not retried, so nobody gets it twice. When Microsoft asks OmniBrand to slow down, the next try waits as long as Microsoft asked.
• Emails count toward the frequency caps of Settings → Messaging rules and respect its send windows.

If something goes wrong

• Saved as a draft: nobody can get it yet — every person was left out when you pressed Save draft or Send now (the simulation lists why; usually no email consent yet). The broadcast is kept as a draft, nothing is sent, and its page says Nobody in this audience could get it when it was saved. When people have given consent, open it and press Send now: the audience is checked again and it goes to whoever can get it by then.
• "Nobody in this audience can get it yet. Run the simulation to see who is left out and why." — you pressed Schedule and nobody can get it. A broadcast nobody can get cannot be scheduled; save it as a draft instead. If you press Send now on such a draft and still nobody can get it, the broadcast's page says Still nobody can get it: nobody in this audience can receive email from you yet (usually no email consent). Collect consent, then press Send now again. with Edit it to see who is left out in the Simulation. The link opens the broadcast in the composer, where the Simulation says who is left out and why.
• That email account is no longer connected to this workspace. Pick another sender, or connect one under Accounts. — the account was removed; pick another under Send from.
• Paused: The account it sends from is disconnected. Reconnect it in Accounts, then press Resume. — the account was disconnected while the broadcast was sending. It pauses (nothing is lost) and carries on with the people who have not got it once you reconnect the account under Accounts and press Resume. Pressing Resume or Send now while it is still disconnected says [name] is disconnected. Reconnect it under Accounts, then try again. An older broadcast that stopped this way before it paused instead reads Failed: The account it sent from was disconnected, so this broadcast stopped and cannot be resumed. Reconnect the account in Accounts, then create a new broadcast for the people it did not reach.
• Editing a draft whose account is disconnected shows the red box and This draft stays read-only until its account is reconnected. Reconnect it in Accounts, then come back to edit or send it. When another account is connected you can pick it under Send from instead (the disconnected one is listed as [name] (disconnected)).
• Paused: Email sending is not set up on this server, so nothing was sent. Press Resume once it is, or contact support. — the campaign paused before sending anything; press Resume once OmniBrand support has fixed the mail server, or send from your own mailbox.
• Paused: Your account is suspended, so nothing is sent. Once it is active again, press Resume. or Paused: This workspace is archived, so nothing is sent. Restore it under Workspaces, then press Resume. — sending waits until the account or workspace is active again; then press Resume.
• This broadcast started sending in the meantime, so it can no longer be changed. Open it to see how it is going. — it was sent, or its scheduled time came, while you edited.
• Someone changed this broadcast in the meantime: it is now Cancelled. The page shows where it stands. (or another status) — a teammate paused, resumed or cancelled it just before you pressed a button; the page now shows its real status and buttons.
• That send time has passed. Pick a time in the future. — pick a later Send at.
• Only a broadcast that sent nothing can be deleted. Cancel it instead; its results stay.
• The test was not sent. Check the account it sends from under Accounts, then try again. — the mail server or mailbox refused the test; it does not count toward the 10 an hour. When the mailbox gave a reason, it follows after What the platform said: in the mailbox's own words (for example a sign-in or sending-permission refusal). Email sending is not set up on this server yet, so nothing was sent. … means the shared mail server is not set up: send from your own mailbox.
• You can send 10 tests an hour. Try again in [minutes] min. — the hour's tests are used up; Send test email to yourself comes back by itself.
• Block 3, Link: use a full link starting with https://, like https://example.com. (or … this is empty. Fill it in, or remove the block.) — a block of the Design editor needs fixing; the field is outlined in red.
• A recipient Failed after three tries means the mail server kept refusing it for a temporary reason; a Bounced one has a dead address. A recipient Failed with a message such as 5.7.1 … rejected as spam or Message size exceeded was refused because of the message or your mailbox, not the address: the address stays usable (it is not marked bounced) - see My email broadcast went to Junk/Spam.
• Paused: This mailbox has sent its daily limit of [perDay] emails. Press Resume after [date] to send the rest. — a mailbox sender hit its own daily cap (see Send from your own mailbox); the count restarts at midnight UTC, so press Resume after the date and time shown (in your own time).
• Paused: The account's connection could not be used. Reconnect it in Accounts, then press Resume. with Open Accounts, and the mailbox's own words under What the platform said: (for example Microsoft 365 refused the send (401 …) or The mailbox refused the login: …; a new app password may be needed) — the Microsoft 365 or IMAP/SMTP mailbox itself can no longer send (sign-in lapsed, password or app password changed, permission removed). The broadcast pauses and nobody's address is marked bounced; reconnect the mailbox under Accounts, then press Resume - it carries on with the people who have not got it yet.
• Your test or broadcast arrived, but in Junk/Spam rather than the inbox — see My email broadcast went to Junk/Spam.

Good to know

• Link clicks: each link goes through a short redirect on our API domain (for example api.omnibrand.app/email/c/…) that counts the click and opens the page. It is standard for email broadcasts; mention it in your privacy notice. Switch Count link clicks off to send links as written. Leaving the composer with something typed that is not saved - reloading, closing the tab or following a link - first asks Leave this page? What you typed here has not been saved and will be lost. Press Cancel to stay.
• Opens are off by default. Turned on, an invisible 1-pixel image reports opens; many mail apps block or pre-load images, so the number is an estimate, and some privacy laws treat it as tracking.
• Replies go to the account's own address (your mailbox), not into the OmniBrand inbox.
• Sent from the shared server, emails go out at OmniBrand's mail server's pace, shared by all campaigns; sent from your own mailbox, at that mailbox's own rate (see Send from your own mailbox). The simulation shows how long yours takes either way.
• Up to 200,000 people per campaign.
• An email broadcast made by Send across channels on a campaign's page (its name ends in "- Email") has no Edit: its people were chosen by that send, each on one channel (Campaigns).

Related

• Email newsletters
• Campaigns: posts, WhatsApp broadcasts and emails under one goal
• Consent
• Lists and segments
• Settings → Messaging rules
• My email broadcast went to Junk/Spam
• Microsoft 365 mailboxes
• Any mailbox (IMAP/SMTP)