Getting started with MailMachine

Your roadmap from a new MailMachine account to your first campaign - brand, senders, contacts, design, test and send.

Welcome to MailMachine! This guide is your roadmap from a brand-new account to your first successful campaign. Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach your audience - a direct line to people who've asked to hear from you - and the steps below set you up with good habits from day one. Work through them in order; you can always come back and refine later.

1. Add your brand details

Spend a few minutes adding your brand so every email looks unmistakably like you.

Logo: a transparent PNG works best, around 400 x 200 pixels.
Colours: add your brand's hex codes if you have them, or pick from the palette.

Once your brand is set, you can immediately start building newsletters with Smart Templates - your logo and colours are applied automatically.

⏱ About 30 minutes.

2. Invite your team

Depending on your plan, you have between one and five user accounts available. Invite your colleagues so they can help manage the account - they'll receive an invitation email to accept, then set their own secure password.

⏱ About 15 minutes.

3. Set up and authenticate your senders

This is the most involved step, but also the most important. First, add the email addresses you'll send from. Then authenticate your domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC so inbox providers trust your mail.

Gmail and Yahoo now require authentication to accept bulk mail, and sending from an unauthenticated domain causes serious delivery problems with every major provider. Don't skip this. See Authenticate your sending domain.

⏱ About 1 hour, plus up to 24 hours for DNS to propagate.

4. Import your contacts and create segments

Bring your audience in by uploading a CSV file or copy-pasting. While you're at it, you can import tags and build segments so you can target the right people later.

You must have consent from everyone on your list before adding them - MailMachine has a strict anti-spam policy, and good consent is also what keeps your deliverability healthy.

See Import your contacts.

⏱ About 30 minutes, depending on how complex your list is.

Start from a Smart Template and the drag-and-drop designer applies your logo and colours for you, so you get a neat, on-brand email without starting from a blank page.

See Create and send a campaign.

⏱ Anywhere from 1 to 3 hours, depending on complexity and how familiar you are with the editor.

6. Test, then send

Before sending to your whole list, always send yourself a test and check it on both desktop and mobile - small rendering differences are common between email apps. When you're happy, add your subject line, choose a date and time, and send.

Common first-campaign problems

Can't import contacts? Make sure your CSV has proper headers and valid email addresses, remove any special characters, check the file size, and try a smaller test batch first.

Domain authentication failing? Allow 24-48 hours for DNS to propagate, check the records match exactly with no extra spaces, and authenticate one protocol at a time.

Campaign stuck in draft? Confirm every required field is filled in, your sender is authenticated, and your recipient list has active contacts.

Not receiving test emails? Check your spam folder, confirm the test address is correct and your domain is authenticated, and try a different provider - delivery can take a few minutes.

If you get stuck on anything, open a support ticket and we'll help you get moving.

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