Send an Email Campaign

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Create a campaign using a selected audience segment.
  
• Design an email with customized content.
  
• Test and publish the final email.
  
• Send or schedule the campaign.
  

Move Your Message from Idea to Inbox

You’ve finished your preparations for email sending. Now it’s time to build your first email campaign for Northern Trail Outfitters (NTO) using Marketing Cloud Next. Creating an email campaign often involves many steps and people. Here, you follow specific steps to build and send a single email campaign—from selecting an audience to activating the send.

Create a Campaign and Select an Audience Segment

Before composing your message, create a campaign and decide who will receive it. Use the campaign record to connect the audience, message, and send settings in one place. Starting with a campaign also makes reporting easier, since Marketing Cloud Next tracks how the email performs as part of the campaign.

Follow these steps to create your campaign and select an audience.

Important: Take these steps in your Trailhead playground to pass the hands-on challenge at the end of the unit.

1. In the Marketing app, select the Campaigns tab.
   
2. Select New and enter NTO Monthly Gear Update as the campaign name.
   
3. In the Type dropdown, select Email, then click Save.
   
4. In the Single Email section, click Select to create a single email campaign.
   
   • Other options are available, but we’re focusing on a single email send.
     
5. Click Select Segment in the Start Trigger section.
   
6. Select Use Quick Filters and click Next.
   
7. Choose Leads, then click Create.
   
   • It can take some time for the segment to populate. Wait until you see a number under Segment Population before proceeding to publishing.
     
8. Select Publish in the Start Trigger section so that the Publish Status displays as Success. It can take a few minutes for publishing to complete. If you skip publishing, you won’t be able to continue to the sending step.
   

When you finish this setup, you have a campaign framework and an audience segment you can use to create your email. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for!

Customize Your Email

Now that your campaign has a name and an audience, you’re ready to shape the message NTO will send. In this step, you customize the email that Marketing Cloud Next automatically creates for your campaign. You choose the message purpose, update the content, include required compliance details, and personalize the email for your audience.

Follow these steps to build your email.

Important: Take these steps in your Trailhead playground to pass the hands-on challenge at the end of the unit.

1. In the Send Email Message section of your campaign, click Edit to open the email and begin customizing it.
   
2. Find the Message Purpose dropdown list and select Promotional.
   
   • Promotional messages include marketing content, offers, or announcements.
     
   • Transactional messages relate to something the customer did—like a receipt or account update.
     
   • Your selection determines which compliance elements the editor prompts you to include, such as a mailing address or unsubscribe link.
     
   • Marketing Cloud Next applies consent rules based on the message purpose. Promotional email sends only to subscribers who have opted in, while transactional email follows your org’s transactional messaging rules.
     
3. For Subject Line, enter: Your NTO Adventure Starts Here: Monthly Gear Update.
4. For Preheader, enter: Glad you’re here! Let’s get you trail-ready with new finds.
   • Tip: A preheader is a short line of text that appears next to or below the subject line in the inbox. It gives subscribers an early hint about what’s inside the email and can boost open rates when it complements—not repeats—the subject line.
     
5. Customize the layout and content using headings, images, paragraphs, buttons, or dividers (you don’t need to do this in your playground).
   
6. Verify that required compliance merge fields appear, including:
   
   • Your organization’s physical mailing address.
     
   • The unsubscribe or preference center link is required for all promotional email.
     

14. Click Save.
    

After you set the message purpose, customize the content, and confirm required compliance elements, your email is branded and compliant. It’s ready for testing.

Some fields in the email editor include Agentforce buttons that can help you generate content using AI. When you provide a few details—such as tone, topic, or keywords—Agentforce suggests text you can refine and use in your message.

Test Your Email

Before you send your message to real subscribers, you want to make sure it looks and behaves the way you expect. In this step, you preview the content and test how it renders in an inbox.

Email sending is disabled in the Trailhead Playground. But you can still navigate through these steps to familiarize yourself with the process or try it in your production org. It is always a best practice to preview and test an email before sending.

Follow these steps to test your email.

1. Click Preview, select a segment, and select a sample recipient to check any personalization you added.
   
2. Select the Test tab and enter your email address in the Test Send Email Address field to receive the test email.
   
3. Select your name and address in the From Name and Address field.
   
4. Click Send Test to send an email to your own inbox to confirm the layout, images, and links display correctly.
   

When you finish, you have a final version of your email ready to publish and activate in your campaign.

Send or Schedule the Campaign

Your email is almost ready to go. Now you decide when your audience receives it. You can send the message immediately or choose a time that best fits your communication plan.

Follow these steps to publish the final version and send your campaign.

Important: Take these steps in your Trailhead playground to pass the hands-on challenge at the end of the unit.

1. Click Publish, and Next.
   
2. Select Publish Now.
   
3. Review the campaign and confirm that the audience segment is marked as Success and the email is marked as Published.
   
4. In the Send Email Message step, click Configure.
   
5. Your From Address should automatically populate, then select the Marketing subscription you previously created in the required Select Communication Subscription dropdown, and click Save.
   
6. Add a scheduling element to this flow by selecting Open Flow.
   
7. Select Set Schedule, and under Set One-Time Schedule, choose Start Immediately After Activation, then click Save.
   
8. Navigate back to the Campaign page and click Activate, then Activate again, to send right away.
   
   • You also have the option to select Schedule to choose the date and time for delivery, but you are activating right away in this instance.
     
9. Check that the Flow Status updates to Active, which confirms your email send is underway or queued.
   

• If you select Schedule, the status should update to Scheduled.
  

When you finish this step, your message is officially on its way to the selected audience—your first NTO campaign send is complete!

Resolve Any Activation Issues

When you click Activate, the Marketing app checks whether the campaign meets send-time requirements. If something isn’t ready, you’ll see warnings or errors instead of activation. At this point, review the campaign setup—such as the audience, sender, and required compliance elements—and resolve any issues shown. For a complete list of send-time validations, see the Email Send Validations in Unified Messaging article in Resources.

Let’s Recap

Congratulations—you just delivered the first Marketing Cloud Next campaign for NTO! You segmented the audience, crafted the message, tested the details, and activated the send. With your email out in the world, you’re excited to move on to analyzing results and planning what comes next.

Resources

• Salesforce Help: Quick Start: Send an Email Campaign
• Salesforce Video: Marketing Content: Personalize Emails with Merge Fields
• Salesforce Help: Email Send Validations in Unified Messaging
• Implementation Guide: Marketing Cloud Next (Spring ’26)