Campaigns Overview
Campaigns are the core unit of work in Outreach. Each campaign packages together a set of recipients, a message template, a delivery channel, and an execution lifecycle. This page explains the fundamental concepts and how campaigns work.
What Is a Campaign
A campaign represents a single bulk send operation. It contains:
- Campaign name and description: identifies the campaign
- Delivery channel: either SMS or Email (set at creation, cannot be changed)
- Contacts: recipients uploaded from a CSV file
- Template: the message content, with optional personalisation variables
- Status: the current lifecycle state (Ready, In Progress, Complete, etc.)
Campaign Types
| Type | Delivery provider | Template format |
|---|---|---|
| SMS | Twilio | Plain text with variable insertion |
| SendGrid | HTML via visual or code editor, with sender settings, attachments, and unsubscribe links |
Each campaign uses a single channel. You cannot mix SMS and email recipients in the same campaign. The campaign type is visible in the campaigns list and campaign detail views.
Campaign Lifecycle
Every campaign moves through a defined set of states:
Created → Ready → In Progress → Complete
- Ready: the campaign has been saved with valid content and is waiting to be run
- In Progress: messages are actively being sent
- Complete: all messages have reached a final state (Delivered, Failed, Opted Out, or Assumed Delivered)
Additional states may appear depending on outcome:
- Complete (with errors): the campaign finished but one or more messages failed
- Active Retries (Email only): all messages completed their initial send, but one or more are in a deferred/retrying state
For a full breakdown, see Campaign and Message Statuses.
What You Can Do with Campaigns
| Action | When available | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Create | Any time | Start the campaign wizard to build a new campaign |
| Edit | Ready campaigns only | Modify template content and sender settings (contacts and channel cannot be changed) |
| Run | Ready campaigns, when no other campaign of the same type is running | Execute the campaign and begin sending messages |
| Stop | In Progress campaigns only | Halt the campaign; only queued (unsent) messages are cancelled |
| Delete | Ready or Complete campaigns | Remove the campaign and its associated data |
| Export | Any time | Download campaign or message data to CSV |
| Retry | Complete campaigns with failed messages | Resend failed messages individually or in bulk |
Concurrency Rules
- Only one campaign per channel type can be running at a time.
- An SMS campaign and an Email campaign can run simultaneously.
- Two SMS campaigns or two Email campaigns cannot run at the same time.
- If a campaign is in progress, you cannot run another campaign of the same type until the current one completes.
Guides in This Section
- Creating a Campaign. Step-by-step campaign wizard walkthrough
- Contacts. Uploading, mapping, and validating recipient data
- SMS Templates. Building SMS message templates
- Email Templates. Building email templates, editor selection, sender settings, and attachments
- Running a Campaign. Run rules, disclaimers, and what happens during execution
- Monitoring and Messages. Track progress, filter messages, retry failures, and export data
- SMS Reporting. Delivery analytics via Twilio Messaging Insights
- Email Reporting. Delivery analytics via SendGrid dashboards
- Editing a Campaign. What can and cannot be changed after creation
- Campaign and Message Statuses. Definitions of every campaign and message status
- Terms and Conditions. The run disclaimer and compliance requirements