Campaigns
A campaign is a sequence of emails, the leads it goes to, the mailboxes it sends from and the hours it sends in. The editor has five tabs: Sequence, Leads, Schedule, Settings and Analytics. It saves as you type.
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Sequence and steps
- Up to 10 steps. Each step after the first waits a number of days after the previous one (0 to 60).
- Follow-ups reply in the same thread by default: no subject of their own,
Re:plus the subject the lead's first email really had, and threading headers so Gmail and Outlook group them. Turn off Reply in the same thread on a step to give it its own subject and start a new thread; later threaded steps join that one. - The editor does bold, italic, links and lists. Every email goes out with a plain text part and a minimal HTML part.
- Reorder steps with Move up and Move down.
Variants and weights
Each step can have up to 5 variants, A to E. Each lead gets one variant per step, picked by weight: a 2x variant goes out twice as often as a 1x one (weights go from 1x to 3x). Turn a variant off to stop it without deleting it. The pick is fixed per lead, so a preview shows exactly what that lead will get.
The Analytics tab compares variants by replies and names a winner once at least two variants have 50 sends each. See Analytics.
How many follow-ups
Ballast doesn't pick the number of steps or the waits for you. For what to write in each one and when to stop, read Cold email follow-up: how many, when, and what to write.
Variables
Type {{ in the editor to pick a variable; it becomes a chip. Add a fallback after a bar for leads missing the value: {{first_name|there}}. The preview warns when a lead has no value and no fallback.
| Variable | Value |
|---|---|
{{first_name}} | First name |
{{last_name}} | Last name |
{{full_name}} | Full name |
{{company}} | Company |
{{title}} | Job title |
{{email}} | |
{{domain}} | Email domain |
{{website}} | Website |
{{phone}} | Phone |
{{linkedin}} | |
{{country}} | Country |
{{sender_name}} | Sender name, from the sending mailbox |
{{sender_first_name}} | Sender first name, from the sending mailbox |
{{sender_email}} | Sender email, from the sending mailbox |
{{signature}} | The sending mailbox's signature |
{{unsubscribe}} | The unsubscribe line (required in the first email) |
Custom fields from your imports work the same way, by their column name: {{industry}}. A variable Ballast doesn't know blocks the launch, so a typo can't reach a lead.
Spintax
Write options in single braces and each email gets one: {Hi|Hello|Hey} {{first_name}}. Options can nest: {Hi|Hey {there|you}}. The choice is fixed per lead, and the preview has a shuffle button to see other combinations. Variables in double braces are never treated as spintax.
Content checklist
Under the editor, eight checks show how the email reads to a spam filter and to a busy person. Follow-ups get lower ranges than first emails.
| Check | First email | Follow-up |
|---|---|---|
| Words | 50 to 150 | 5 to 100 |
| Characters | 250 to 900 | 25 to 600 |
| Questions | 1 to 2 | 0 to 2 |
| Spam words | none | none |
| Variability (spintax options) | 3 or more | 2 or more |
| Images | none | none |
| Links | at most 1 | at most 1 |
| Emojis | at most 1 | at most 1 |
The checklist advises; it doesn't block the launch.
Preview
The preview renders the email for a real lead in the campaign, with variables filled and spintax picked. Pick another lead to check fallbacks.
Leads tab
Add leads from lists or from all leads. Ballast leaves out suppressed, bounced, unsubscribed and invalid leads, and tells you how many. The tab shows each lead's next email (when it goes, or why it stopped). Click a lead to see every email it got.
Schedule
- When to send: the days of the week and a window, 9:00 to 17:00 on weekdays by default. The window is in each lead's own time zone; a lead's time zone comes from its Timezone or Country column, and without either Ballast guesses the country from a phone number starting with + or a country domain like .de (never from .com, .io or Gmail). Leads still without one use the campaign's fallback time zone.
- When to run: an optional start day and end day. Launch any time and the first emails wait for the start day. After the end day nothing more goes out, follow-ups included, and the campaign pauses with "Ended" and the date.
- New leads a day: an optional cap on first emails the campaign starts each day. Follow-ups don't count. Empty means only the mailboxes' daily limits apply.
Settings
Mailboxes
Pick the mailboxes to send from. Each shows its provider, domain grade, and today's sends against its limit. Broken mailboxes can't be added, and Select healthy picks every working one. Each lead stays on one mailbox for the whole sequence.
Options
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Match providers | Gmail leads get email from your Google mailboxes and Outlook leads from Microsoft ones, when the campaign has both. Mail between the same provider tends to land better. If no matching mailbox is free for 30 minutes, another one sends. |
| Stop on reply | A lead who replies gets no more follow-ups from this campaign. Out-of-office replies don't count: they pause the lead until the return date instead. |
| Stop for the whole company | When someone replies, colleagues on the same company domain get nothing more from this campaign. Gmail, Outlook and other free addresses don't count as a company. |
| Skip risky leads | Leaves out shared inboxes (info@, contact@) and catch-all addresses when you add them, and before their first email if a check flags them later. |
| Pause at bounce rate | Pauses the campaign when hard bounces pass this share of emails sent. Empty uses the workspace default of 5%. |
Open and click tracking are off and can't be turned on today. Replies are the number that matters, and open pixels hurt delivery.
Launch checklist
Launch opens a sheet with everything Ballast checked. Required items block the launch; recommended ones only warn. Each has a Fix link to the right tab or page.
| Item | Required | Passes when |
|---|---|---|
| Sequence | Yes | Every step has an active variant with text, the first email has a subject, spintax braces close, and every variable is one Ballast knows. |
| Way to opt out | Yes | Every active variant of the first email has {{unsubscribe}}. |
| Mailboxes | Yes | At least one picked mailbox can send. |
| Leads | Yes | At least one lead to contact. |
| Schedule | Yes | At least one day, a window of an hour or more, and an end date that hasn't passed. |
| Mailbox health | No | None of the picked mailboxes are paused or failing. |
| Domain setup | No | SPF, DKIM, DMARC and MX pass on every sending domain. |
| Leads verified | No | 90% or more of the leads are confirmed by your verifier. |
A running campaign can be paused and resumed. Resuming starts a fresh bounce sample. Why sending pauses on its own: Sending safety.