Getting started
From a fresh install to your first campaign. The program's own help covers every screen in more detail: press F1 on any page.
1. Add a sending account
Go to Settings, choose Sending accounts and click Add. Enter the account's SMTP server, port and encryption (usually 587 with STARTTLS, or 465 with SSL), and its user name and password. Then click Test connection: it signs in without sending anything, and if it fails, it says what to check.
For Gmail and Microsoft 365 you will often need an app password made in the account's security settings rather than your normal password.
Add more accounts with Use for campaigns and put them in order. A campaign sends through the first until it reaches a limit, then moves on.
2. Set its limits
Select the account, click Limits and pick the preset for your provider, then adjust. For a new account or a new domain, tick warm-up: choose the first day's volume and how much more each day. Going over a provider's limit is the quickest way to get an account blocked.
3. Fill in your sender details
Under Settings, Sender details: the From name and address, your company name and postal address, and tick One-click unsubscribe. Anti-spam law such as CAN-SPAM requires a postal address in commercial email; it goes into the footer of every message with your unsubscribe link.
Send from an address at a domain of your own. You cannot publish the records below for a free Gmail or Outlook.com address.
4. Check your sending domain
Click Check domain. It looks up your domain's SPF, DKIM and DMARC records for the accounts you send through and gives the exact record to publish for anything missing. You add them in your DNS or hosting control panel, where your domain is managed. Typical records look like this:
; SPF: which servers may send for example.com example.com TXT "v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all" ; DKIM: your provider gives you the selector and the key google._domainkey TXT "v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=MIIBIjANBgkq..." ; DMARC: start with p=none, tighten it later _dmarc.example.com TXT "v=DMARC1; p=none"
Records can take an hour or so to be seen. Click Check again, then Send a test and read the verdict to see how a receiving server actually judges your mail. Why these records matter.
5. Set up the bounce mailbox
Under Settings, Bounce mailbox, enter the POP3 details of the mailbox your bounces come back to, usually the one for your From address, and tick Check every 15 minutes. Addresses that no longer exist then go on your suppression list by themselves. Nothing is deleted from the mailbox.
6. Import a contact list
On the Lists page, click New list and follow the wizard: choose a CSV or text file, an Excel workbook, an Access database or an ODBC source; say whether the first row holds column names; tick the columns to import and rename any; choose the email column; click Start.
Every column can be used in a message as a merge tag, under the name you gave it.
7. Write a message
On the Messages page, click New, or Import an HTML email you already have. Write in the visual editor; the HTML source and a preview are one tab away. Put {{FirstName}}, or any other column name, where each person's own value should go; tags work in the subject line too.
To start from the AI, describe what the email is for and choose a tone: Generate template designs a complete email (2 credits), Generate content rewrites the words of the one you have (1 credit). Save with Ctrl+S.
8. Test, then send
On the Campaigns page, click New campaign: a name, the subject, the message and the lists it goes to, and tick Active. Then:
- Send Test to your own address. Check how it looks, that the links work, and whether it reached your inbox or your spam folder.
- Send Campaign. The confirmation says how many people it goes to, how many are left out and why, and the state of your sending domain. Click Yes.
- Watch the delivery report fill in. You can keep working, or close the program: the sender carries on in the background.
Or give the campaign a schedule: once at a set time, or on chosen days every week.
Start small. Receiving servers judge a new sender by its first messages. Send your first campaigns to a small list of people who know you, and build up.
When something goes wrong
"could not connect" when testing an account
The message says whether the server name, the port, the encryption or the sign-in failed. Check them against your provider's setup page, and try an app password for Gmail or Microsoft 365.
"Receivers will reject this campaign"
Your domain's DMARC record says to reject mail that fails SPF and DKIM, and yours would fail both. Run Check domain and publish the records it gives.
"Send halted"
Every sending account was refused, or 25 messages in a row failed: usually a wrong password, or a provider blocking or throttling the account. The report shows the reason on the last messages.
A merge tag arrives as {{Something}}
No column of that contact's list has that name. Check the spelling against the list's columns.
A scheduled campaign did not go out
Check that the campaign is Active, that the computer was on or asleep with wake timers allowed, and that someone was signed in to Windows. A missed send is offered the next time the sender starts.
Still stuck? Email support@marketingemailer.com with the lines from C:\ProgramData\Marketing Emailer\email.log around the time of the problem. Passwords and message text are never written to it.
Where your data is
| Lists, campaigns, reports | C:\ProgramData\Marketing Emailer\meml.db |
|---|---|
| Messages | C:\ProgramData\Marketing Emailer\emailtemplates |
| Log | C:\ProgramData\Marketing Emailer\email.log |
| Settings | The Windows registry, for your Windows account. Passwords are stored encrypted. |
Back up the C:\ProgramData\Marketing Emailer folder to keep a copy of everything.