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Quickstart

This guide walks you through creating and running your first Outreach campaign from start to finish. It covers the standard flow for both SMS and Email campaigns. In Outreach you build a campaign and then send it as one or more runs.

Before You Begin​

You'll need a contact file (CSV, JSON, or XML) containing your recipient data and message content planned (including any required compliance text such as opt-out language).

Everything else — Outreach access, channel configuration, sender verification — is covered in the Getting Started guide. Make sure you've worked through it before continuing.

1. Create a New Campaign​

  1. Navigate to Outreach → Campaigns in the sidebar.
  2. Click Create Campaign.
  3. The campaign wizard opens on the Overview step.

2. Set Up Campaign Basics​

On the Basics step:

  1. Enter a Campaign Name. Choose something descriptive (e.g. "March Payment Reminders").
  2. Enter an optional Description.
  3. Select a Delivery Channel:
    • SMS: for text message campaigns
    • Email: for email campaigns
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The delivery channel cannot be changed after the campaign is created.

  1. Choose a Schedule:
    • Manual: you create and start each run yourself.
    • Repeat: runs are created and started automatically on a cadence (see Scheduling).

3. Upload and Map Contacts​

On the Add Contacts step:

  1. Upload a contact file (CSV, JSON, or XML) containing your recipient data.
    • Maximum 300,000 rows and 50 MB file size.
  2. Before upload begins, you must confirm that you have obtained explicit consent from recipients for communication.
  3. Once uploaded, map your fields:
    • Select exactly one column as the Destination (phone number for SMS, email address for Email).
    • Optionally select other columns as Custom Variables for personalisation.
    • Optionally map a Priority column, if your file carries a per-contact priority of High or Normal.
    • Columns you do not need can be set to Do not import.
  4. Review the contact summary:
    • Total contacts: number of valid rows that will be imported
    • Invalid contacts: rows with missing or invalid recipient values, or with missing values for any column mapped as a variable, that will be skipped

A typical CSV looks like this:

first_namephone_numberaccount_balance
Jane+61412345678123.45
Mark+6149876543287.20

For SMS campaigns, destination phone numbers must be in E.164 format. See Files and Formats for the full rules and limits, or copy a ready-made example file.

4. Build Your Template​

SMS​

On the Message Template step:

  1. If your organisation uses Sender Selection, choose a Sender from the approved list. (Under Sender Pool there is no sender field.)
  2. Write your message content in the text editor.
  3. Insert variables from the toolbar. These are the custom fields you mapped from your file.
  4. Use Insert Quick Text to add compliant text such as opt-out instructions (e.g. "Reply STOP to opt out").
  5. Preview your message in the phone preview panel. Enter example values for variables to see how they render.
  6. Optionally send a test message to up to 10 recipients to verify your template.

Email​

On the Message Template step:

  1. Choose your editor experience:

    • Design Editor: block-based layout builder (add blocks by hovering and clicking)
    • Code Editor: HTML editor with syntax highlighting and live preview

    Not sure which to pick? See Choosing an Email Editor.

  2. Build your email content using the editor.

  3. Configure Sender Settings in the Sender tab:

    • From Email: select from your verified sender emails
    • Reply-to Email: select from your verified sender emails
    • Subject: enter your email subject line (supports variables)

  4. Add an unsubscribe link. This is required to finish the campaign.

  5. Optionally add attachments (up to 20 MB total) in the Attachments tab.

  6. Use the Test Data tab to enter example variable values and preview how they appear.

  7. Optionally send a test email to up to 10 recipients to verify everything looks correct.

5. Finish and Save​

When you click Finish in the campaign wizard:

  • SMS campaigns save immediately.
  • Email campaigns run a checklist of required items:
    • Sender email is set (required)
    • Reply-to email is set (required)
    • Unsubscribe link is present (required)
    • Subject is set (optional, shows warning if missing)
    • Test email has been sent (optional, shows warning if not done)

If all required checks pass, the campaign is saved with a status of Ready to Run. No messages are created yet — that happens when you create a run.

6. Create and Start a Run​

  1. Open your campaign and click New Campaign Run.
  2. Give the run its own name (and optional description), review the template preview, and create it. Messages are created at this point and you are taken to the new run.
  3. Click Start to open the Start Run page, then:
    • Review the template preview (and, for Sender Selection SMS, the sender).
    • Choose Now (sends after a 5-minute warming-up window) or Later (pick a future date and time, at least 15 minutes away in 15-minute intervals).
    • Read and accept the terms and conditions confirming you are responsible for lawful use of recipient data.
    • Click Start.
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Runs send in parallel — you are not blocked by another campaign's run, or by another run of your own campaign. A run started Now warms up for 5 minutes (and can be cancelled in that window, returning it to Ready to Run); a run scheduled for Later skips warming up and starts automatically at its time.

7. Monitor and Export​

Once a run has started:

  1. Open the run to view its progress panel and messages table.
  2. The progress panel shows real-time counts of messages by status (e.g. Queued, Sending, Delivered, Failed).
  3. Use filters and search to find specific messages or filter/sort by status, failure reason, or priority.
  4. Retry failed messages individually from a message's action menu, or all at once with Resend Failed on a run that finished with failures.
  5. Export to CSV for reporting or audit purposes.

See Monitoring and Messages for detailed guidance on statuses, retries, and exports.

Next Steps​