Create and Send a Regular Email

In Mailchimp, a regular email is a bulk email sent to many contacts at once. When you create a regular email, you’ll use a checklist-style email builder to add recipients, choose your settings, and design your content.

In this article, you'll learn how to create and send a regular email in Mailchimp.

Before you start

Here are some things to know before you begin this process.

• To send an email, make sure you have subscribed contacts in your audience.
• Be sure to verify your email’s domain before you send your first email.
• If you’re planning to use our Marketing API with an email, you should name the email when you create it.
• To create an email on your mobile device, check out Create an Email on iOS or Create an Email on Android.

Create an email

To create a regular email, follow these steps.

1. Click the Create button.
2. Click the Email drop-down, then choose Regular.
3. Enter a name and click Begin.

This will take you to the email checklist, where you’ll choose your settings and design your content.

Setup and design

Our email checklist is designed to let you work on the different parts of your email in the order you choose, and review everything at once before you send.

There are 4 things to do before you can send.

• Add your recipients in the To section.
• Add your From name and From email address in the From section.
• Add your subject line and optional preview text in the Subject section.
• Design your email in the Content section.

As each task is completed, a checkmark will appear next to the corresponding section.

You may also want to share your email, add a social post, and review your settings and tracking options.

Add recipients

To add your recipients, follow these steps.

1. In the To section, click Add Recipients.
2. In the Audience drop-down, choose the audience you want to send to.
3. In the Send to drop-down, choose All subscribers in audience, Target contacts, Pasted emails, or one of the available saved or pre-built options.
4. Optional: Check the Personalize the "Send To" field box to display the recipient's name instead of their email address. This makes the email more personal and may help you avoid spam filters. After you check the box, you'll choose a merge tag that corresponds with the data you want to display in the "To" field. For example, if you choose *|FNAME|*, a recipient named Bob will see "To: Bob" instead of "To: bob@example.com." The default options are *|FNAME|*, *|LNAME|*, or both *|FNAME|* *|LNAME|*, but you can click Custom to enter an alternate tag or text.
5. Click Save.

Send to a new segment

To send an email to a custom segment within your audience, follow these steps.

1. Select the audience you want to work with in the Audience drop-down.
2. Click the Send to drop-down and choose Target contacts.
3. Click + Add filter and create the segment that you want to work with. To learn more about creating segments, check out Create and Send to a Segment.
4. Click Review segment.
5. When you're ready, click Apply segment.

Exclude contacts from an email

To exclude a specific segment of contacts, use the Do not send to drop-down, or build a segment that won't include certain contacts.

The Do not send to drop-down makes it easier to remove contacts who are a part of a segment or tag. Select the audience and any segments, tags, or groups you want to send to. Next, use Do not send to drop-down to choose a segment or tag to exclude certain contacts.

You can also use the segment builder to exclude certain contacts from receiving an email. For example, to exclude all contacts who joined via your Hosted Signup Form, you would build your segment as Signup Source | was not | Hosted Signup Form.

Send to a new advanced segment

Advanced segmentation is available with a Standard plan or higher. To send an email to segments that use Any or All logic, follow these steps.

1. Select the audience you would like to send to in the Audience drop-down menu.
2. In the Send to drop-down menu, choose + New advanced segment.
3. Create the segment that you would like to send to. To learn more about creating advanced segments, check out About Advanced Segmentation.

Add From name and From email address

To set your From name and From email address, follow these steps.

1. In the From section of the email builder, click Add From.
2. Enter your From name and email address. You may be asked to verify the domain and your email address.
3. Click Save.

Add subject

To set your subject line and optional preview text, follow these steps.

1. In the Subject section of the email builder, click Add Subject.
2. In the Subject field, enter a subject line for your email.
3. In the Preview text field, enter up to 150 characters that will display next to your subject line in recipients’ inboxes. This field is optional.
4. Click Save.

Design email

To design your email, navigate to the Content section and click Design Email.

By default, you’ll design your email in the new builder unless you’ve chosen the classic builder previously. Here’s an overview of each option.

• New Builder
  Use our new builder to add and edit content directly to your layout. The new builder helps your marketing efforts with the Creative Assistant, Apps content block, and much more. To learn how to use this builder, check out Design an Email with the New Builder.

• Classic Builder
  Use our classic builder to design emails in our traditional builder. If you’ve previously worked in the classic builder, it’s still available for you to work with. To learn how to use this builder, check out Design an Email with the Classic Builder.

You can manually set or change your default email builder in your Account Details. To switch builders, check out Switch Your Default Email Builder.

For more information on each email builder and their content blocks, check out About Mailchimp's Email Builders.

Use Inline Content Generation

For customers on a Standard plan or higher, take advantage of Inline Content Generation to have custom subject lines and email copy created for you. This feature uses Intuit Assist, a generative AI tool that helps you create on-brand content with speed and efficiency based on prompts you provide. To learn more about this feature, check out Use Inline Content Generation.

Settings and tracking

When you create a regular email, we enable certain tracking options by default. This includes open and click tracking, as well as e-commerce tracking if you have a connected online store.

To edit your tracking options, follow these steps.

1. Scroll to the Settings & Tracking section, then click Edit.
2. Check the boxes next to the tracking options you want to enable.
3. Click Save.

Other settings

In the Settings & Tracking section, manage contacts' replies with your Mailchimp Inbox and convert embedded videos automatically. To learn more, check out these articles.

About Your Mailchimp Inbox
Add Video to an Email

Send email

After you’ve completed the To, From, Subject, and Content sections of the email builder, you should see a checkmark next to each. That means your regular email is ready to send immediately.

When you're ready to send your email to your contacts, follow these steps.

1. In the Send time section, click Add send time.
2. Click Send now, then click Save.
3. Click Send.
   
4. In the Ready to send? popup, click Send now to confirm.

Your email is on its way!

Schedule your email for a future date or time

If you have a Mailchimp paid plan, you can schedule your email from the builder checklist. To set your delivery date and send time, follow these steps.

1. In the Send time section, click Add send time.
2. Click Schedule.
3. Choose the Delivery date and Delivery time. To learn more about email scheduling features like Send Time Optimization and Batch delivery, check out Schedule or Pause a Regular Email.
4. Click Save.
5. Click Schedule.

If you’re sending to the entire audience or a regular segment, we will finalize your recipient count at the send time for your email.

An advanced segment will take a snapshot when generated, but doesn’t automatically update before sending. To re-run your advanced segment before a scheduled email send, enable the Finalize your recipients at send time feature. This feature can be found by clicking the Schedule button in your campaign, and will capture email addresses that have been added or removed between scheduling and sending.

Your email can't be stopped or edited after it's sent. However, Premium accounts have the option to cancel sending for emails with more than 10,000 recipients after they've begun sending.

Next steps

You’ve sent a regular email in Mailchimp. Nice job! Now, you can view your report to watch the data roll in. To learn more, check out About Email Reports.

When you’re ready to create your next email, you can also add a social post to your email to coordinate multiple marketing efforts at the same time. To learn more, check out Publish a Social Post When You Send an Email.

Accounts on paid plans can schedule an email to send at a later time, or use A/B or Multivariate testing to learn more about contacts’ preferences. To change your plan type, visit the plans page in your account. To learn more, check out these articles.

Create an A/B Test
Create a Multivariate Test
Schedule or Pause a Regular Email

Troubleshooting

If your email doesn’t send as expected, take a look at some of these troubleshooting resources. You can also search our guides and tutorials for other topics you want to learn about.

Troubleshooting Your First Email
Resolve the Default Text Content Alert