What is the difference between a campaign and a newsletter?

Newsletter

You write one email. You pick who gets it. You send it now, or you pick a date and time.

It is built at Emails, then Newsletters, then Create. The popup asks for a Subject, a Sender name, a Sender email address, and which editor to write in, classic or visual.

When it is written, the buttons are Save and test, Save and send, Save and schedule, Save draft, Create an A/B test, and Exit. Save and send goes now. Save and schedule asks for a date.

Use it for anything tied to a moment: a launch, an offer ending, a piece of news, a normal weekly email.

Campaign

You write several emails once and set a delay on each one. When somebody joins, the clock starts for them personally. Email one lands an hour later, email two a day after that, and so on.

It is built at Emails, then Campaigns, then Create. That popup asks for a name, a sender email address and a description.

The emails are added afterwards: click the campaign's name, then Create, and fill in a Subject, a Sender name, a Sender email address and an editor type for each one.

Someone who joins today gets the same run as someone who joined last March. You never touch it again.

Use it for anything that should happen to every new person: a welcome sequence, a free course delivered over five days, the follow-up after a purchase.

Where the timing is actually set

A newsletter has one timing control, the date on Save and schedule. A campaign email has four fields, and they sit in the panel on the right of the email editor:

• This email will be sent after
• Delay before sending email
• Times when email should be sent
• Days of the week when this email should be sent

systeme.io recommends against setting several delays on the same email, to avoid confusion.

Who ends up receiving it

This is the difference that surprises people more than the timing does.

A newsletter is addressed. In its Email settings you pick tags to include and tags to exclude, and every contact carrying an included tag gets it when you press send. A contact who joins tomorrow has missed it.

A campaign is entered. Nobody receives it by existing on your list. Somebody or something has to subscribe them: an automation rule with a Subscribe to campaign action, or by hand from CRM, then Contacts, ticking the addresses, then More actions, then Subscribe to campaign. From that moment they walk the sequence at their own pace, so a contact who joins tomorrow starts at email one.

Side by side

Switching editor part way through an email loses whatever you had written in the one you left. That applies to both.

The rule that catches people out

A campaign email only sends once every delay you set on it has been met. If you add a delay and also restrict it to Sundays only, the email waits for both. Stack enough conditions and an email can look broken when it is just waiting.

Which one do I want?

• Everyone gets it at the same moment, once: newsletter.
• Everyone gets it at the same point in their journey: campaign.

The welcome sequence guide builds the campaign half of that, with a delay on each email and a test before any of it goes out.