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Smartlead
Intermediate

Create a Campaign in Smartlead

Create and manage cold email campaigns in Smartlead

Instructions

Create a Campaign in Smartlead

Prerequisites

  • Smartlead account with connected sending accounts
  • Verified prospect list with email addresses
  • Smartlead MCP server connected (if using agent automation)

Steps

  1. Create a new campaign via API. Use the Smartlead REST API or MCP:

    POST /api/v1/campaigns/create
{ "name": "Q1 Series-A CTOs", "campaign_type": "email_only" }

    Name descriptively with audience and date context. Campaign types: "email_only" for pure cold outreach, "email_linkedin" for multi-channel.

  2. Upload your lead list via API. Import contacts:

    POST /api/v1/campaigns/<id>/leads
{
  "leads": [{"email": "jane@co.com", "first_name": "Jane", "last_name": "Doe", "company": "Acme", "custom_fields": {"tech_stack": "AWS"}}]
}

    Required fields: email, first_name, last_name, company. Add custom fields for personalization.

  3. Write your email sequence. Add 3-4 email steps via the API. Use Smartlead template variables: {{first_name}}, {{company}}, and custom fields. Each email should be under 100 words. Add 2 variants for Step 1 to A/B test subject lines.

  4. Configure sending schedule. Set timezone-aware sending via API parameters. Send window: weekdays 8am-11am. Set inter-email delay to 60-90 seconds to mimic human sending patterns.

  5. Set daily limits. Configure per-mailbox daily send limits (30-50 emails) via the API. Smartlead distributes sends across all connected accounts. Enable "stop_on_reply" and "stop_on_bounce" in campaign settings.

  6. Launch and monitor. Activate via POST /api/v1/campaigns/<id>/activate and pull analytics after 48 hours via GET /api/v1/campaigns/<id>/analytics. Key benchmarks: delivery rate (>95%), open rate (>45%), reply rate (>3%).