Create your first outbound campaign
Step-by-step guide to setting up a campaign in CarcMail — from selecting leads to writing your first email and setting send controls.
Before creating a campaign, make sure you have at least one connected inbox and at least one lead imported. Both are required before a campaign can go active.
Overview
A campaign in CarcMail is a targeted outbound email effort to a specific group of leads. Each campaign has its own lead list, sending inbox, email content, and daily send settings. You can run multiple campaigns at once with different audiences and goals.
When you start a campaign, CarcMail’s AI pipeline takes over: it validates each lead, generates a personalised email draft, runs a spam-risk check, and rewrites the draft if needed before sending. All of this happens automatically for each lead in your list.
You stay in control by reviewing and editing the email template before the campaign starts, and by setting daily send limits to pace the outreach at a safe volume.
Before you start
- At least one inbox connected and showing 'Connected' status
- At least one lead imported under the Leads section
- A clear goal for this campaign — what action you want the prospect to take
- An idea of your daily send limit based on your inbox's warmup stage
Step-by-step
Open the campaign builder
In the CarcMail sidebar, click Campaigns, then click New campaign in the top right.
Name the campaign and choose an inbox
Give the campaign a name that describes its audience or goal (e.g., “Q3 agency outreach” or “SaaS founders — June”). This is just for your internal reference.
Then select the inbox you want to send from. Only connected inboxes appear here. If you need to add one, go to Settings → Inboxes first.
Add leads to the campaign
Click Add leads. You can:
- Select from your existing imported leads, filtered by tags or import date
- Import a new CSV specifically for this campaign
Select the leads you want to include and confirm. The campaign will show a total lead count.
Write your campaign goal and generate the email
In the email section, type a campaign goal. This is a plain-language description of what you want the email to accomplish. Be specific — the AI uses this alongside your Identity profile to write a relevant, personalised email.
Example goals:
- “Book a 15-minute discovery call to discuss how we help B2B agencies reduce proposal turnaround time.”
- “Introduce our cold outreach automation to startup founders and get a reply with their current tool stack.”
Click Generate email. The AI will produce a subject line and email body. Review it and make any edits you like — tone, length, specific details you want added or removed.
Review the spam-risk score
Before launching, CarcMail shows your email’s spam-risk score. A score of 0–2 is good. A score of 3 or higher means there are specific signals in the content or structure that could trigger spam filters.
CarcMail shows you exactly what’s flagged. Common fixes include removing spammy phrases, reducing all-caps, or shortening a very long subject line.
If the score is high, click Rewrite for deliverability to have the AI revise the email with those issues resolved.
Set daily send limit and launch
Choose how many emails per day this campaign should send. For a new or warming inbox, start at 20–30. For a well-established inbox, you can go higher — up to your plan’s daily limit.
When you’re ready, click Start campaign. CarcMail will begin sending immediately, queuing emails across the day rather than firing them all at once.
How to confirm it worked
- The campaign appears on the Campaigns page with an “Active” status
- The Send logs page shows outgoing emails with timestamps
- Your credit balance decreases as emails are sent
- If any lead fails validation (e.g. malformed email), it appears in the campaign’s “Skipped leads” list
CarcMail sends one email per lead. No lead in a campaign receives more than one initial email unless you add follow-up sequences separately.
Common issues
| Issue | What to check |
|---|---|
| Campaign won’t start | Check your credit balance and confirm your inbox is still showing “Connected”. |
| All leads are skipped | Your lead list may have validation errors. Go to Leads and check for flagged rows. |
| Email looks wrong for some leads | Leads with missing first name or company fields get a generic version of the email. Enrich your lead data for better personalisation. |
| Campaign pauses unexpectedly | This happens if you hit your daily credit limit or your inbox reconnection is required. Check both. |
Frequently asked questions
There is no hard cap per campaign. Your daily sending limit (set by your plan and inbox warmup stage) controls how fast leads receive emails.
Yes. CarcMail supports up to 3 concurrent active campaigns on Starter, and unlimited on Growth and Scale.
Put it into practice
Try CarcMail — free to start.
Set up your first campaign in 4 minutes. AI drafts, spam-risk checks, follow-up automation, and reply classification — all in one workspace.
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