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Sending emails

Send an email to your whole audience or a group, now or later, and catch problems with a test and the pre-send checks first.

Select the send button in the upper right of an email to open the Send panel, where you run the checks, send a test, and choose between sending now and scheduling for later. Only a draft can be sent, and your physical address has to be set up first.

Choose an audience

You can send to everyone on your list, or to a saved group.

  1. Open a draft email.
  2. Select the audience and subject button at the top of the email.
  3. Choose Everyone or a group.

The button shows the email’s current audience and subject.

Send a test email

A test goes only to people on your team, and it doesn’t count as a send.

  1. In the Send panel, select Test.
  2. Choose which team members should receive it.
  3. Press and hold Hold to send test until the button fills.

If the email uses variables, the test fills in the recipient’s email address and shows each field’s fallback text, or leaves it blank when there isn’t one.

Review the checks

The Send panel runs a set of checks so an email doesn’t go out with a problem in it.

  1. In the Send panel, select the summary under Checks to show each row. The summary reads Ready or a count like 1 issue & 2 warnings.
  2. A passing row states its goal, like “Every link has a full, direct address”. A row that fails names the problem, like “A link goes through bit.ly”.
  3. Use the button under a finding to fix it: Edit subject, Edit preview, or Edit block jumps to what needs changing, and buttons like Add subscribers or Set up billing open the page that fixes it.

A blocking problem, like a missing subject or an empty audience, turns Now and Later off until it’s fixed. A warning, like a long subject, lets you send anyway.

What the checks cover

  • Account: your physical address, your subscriber limit, and your own domain once it’s required.
  • Audience: at least one subscriber to send to.
  • Subject: written, not too long, and free of all caps, extra punctuation, and too many emoji.
  • Preview: written and not too long.
  • Content: enough real text, not only images or the starter text, and a footer that carries the unsubscribe link.
  • Links: every link has a full, direct address. No shorteners, bare IP addresses, or link text that shows a different address than it goes to. Every button needs a link.
  • Personalization: every variable has a fallback.
  • Readability: text color with good contrast against its background.

Send an email now

  1. In the Send panel, select Now.
  2. Press and hold Hold to send now until the button fills.

After you send, the status card shows its progress, and tracking emails explains what you’ll see once it lands. How long it takes depends on your audience and your sending history, so see sending speed.

Caution

Once sending starts, the email can’t be edited. If you need a new version later, duplicate it from the actions menu.

Schedule an email

  1. In the Send panel, select Later.
  2. Choose a date and time. Times are in your device’s time zone.
  3. Press and hold Hold to send later until the button fills.

You can schedule up to a year ahead. A scheduled email uses the subscribers who match its audience when the send starts, so people who join in the meantime are included.

Cancel a send

A scheduled email or one waiting in review can be canceled any time before it starts. An email that’s already sending can be stopped for anyone who hasn’t received it yet.

  1. Open the email.
  2. In the Send panel, select Cancel on the status card.
  3. Select Cancel it to confirm, or Keep it to let the send continue.

Canceling a scheduled email returns it to a draft. Canceling one in review also returns it to a draft, and sending it again means a new review. Canceling one that’s sending marks it canceled, and it can’t be edited or resent. Select Duplicate email on the status card to try again.

Caution

Messages that were already delivered can’t be recalled.

Email reviews

Every email is reviewed before it goes out, to keep delivery healthy for you and for everyone else using XOXO. Most are approved right away. If one needs a person on the XOXO team to look at it, that can take up to 24 hours.

The review finishes before anything goes out. If the email is approved, it sends immediately or at its scheduled time. If it isn’t, the send is canceled, nobody receives it, and we email you. You can also cancel the send yourself while it waits. How we enforce this policy has the full rules.

Sending speed

Some sends go out all at once, and others go out in stages to protect your deliverability, especially in your first few weeks of sending. Stages add up, so a large send can take a few hours.

Sends from the shared XOXO email address you use until your own domain is set up (like yourname@xoxo-email.com) are slower than sends from your own domain. Sending from your own domain lets your sends finish sooner.

A send can also pause part way for our team to review if its bounces or complaints run too high. Performance requirements explains what that means.

A few other things can slow a send:

  • A review. If an email needs a person to look at it, it can wait up to 24 hours. See email reviews.
  • A scheduled start. A scheduled email can start late if it needs a review.
  • Busy times. When many emails are going out across XOXO, each one can move a little slower.

Sending limits

To prevent abuse, every account has a sending limit based on your subscriber limit. It’s enough to email your whole audience every day, with room for a quick correction or a few smaller emails to groups.

The limit is checked when an email starts sending. If you send now and it would put you over, the Send panel says so and shows how many people you can send to right now. Scheduling doesn’t check the limit, so a scheduled email is checked when its time comes. If it would go over then, it’s moved back to your drafts and we email you why.