# Creating a Mailout A mailout is a one-off email send to contacts in your UbiQuity database. Before you can send a mailout, your database must be configured for email. See First Time Setup if this has not been done. The quickest way to create a new mailout is to copy a previous one. Copying a mailout brings across the full email template and any filters that were applied — you simply step through the wizard and make your changes. When you create a mailout you are taken to the **Mailout Dashboard**. UbiQuity saves your progress each time you click **Back** or **Next**, and you can also click **Save** to return later. Click **Confirm** to jump directly to the confirmation step at any time. Once the mailout is scheduled, the dashboard updates and the mailout can no longer be edited — but you can pause, cancel, and view reports from there. *** ### Content and Preview Content and Preview is where you build the email content. See Email Templates for details on editing and previewing templates. *** ### Track Links UbiQuity scans your email template and lists all links. Check the boxes next to the links you want to track. Tracked links are reported on in the mailout report and can also be used for filtering and segmenting contacts based on click behaviour. Tracking a link changes the URL in the email. By default, tracked links appear as `http://engage.ubiquity.co.nz`. Custom link domains can be set up for your account — contact UbiQuity to arrange this. **Friendly Names** — click **Get Friendly Names** and UbiQuity will fetch the page title for each link automatically, making reports easier to read. **Link Personalisation** — UbiQuity automatically personalises links that belong to your own UbiQuity account. You can choose to depersonalise specific links if you need to share content externally without recipient-specific data appended. **Google Analytics** — add UTM tags to your links if you are using Google Analytics on your website. Log in to Google Analytics to view visit data from your mailout. **Text version links** — if your email has links in the text version, you can choose to track these as well. *** ### Filter Filter your database to target a specific segment of contacts. You can filter by: * Database contact fields * Results from previous mailouts * Interactions with other UbiQuity channels such as TXT messages and push notifications If a filter has been set on the Mailout Folder, it will be applied automatically in addition to any filters you set here. #### AND and OR conditions **AND** — all conditions must be true for a contact to be included. *Example: Country = New Zealand AND Segment = Customer includes only contacts who are customers in New Zealand.* **OR** — either condition can be true for a contact to be included. *Example: Country = New Zealand OR Segment = Customer includes all contacts in New Zealand plus all customers, regardless of country.* #### Automatically excluded contacts Contacts flagged as **GNA (Gone No Address)** and contacts who are **Opted Out** are automatically excluded from all mailouts. See [Email Delivery and Statuses](/documentation/channels/email/email-delivery-and-statuses.md) for more detail on GNA and opt-out management. *** ### Dedupe The Dedupe screen lets you exclude duplicate contacts from the mailout. Select the field or fields that indicate a duplicate — UbiQuity will randomly select which duplicate to exclude. Dedupe is not a substitute for good database hygiene. To prevent duplicates entering your database in the first place, set Unique Fields under **Database > Edit Database Fields**. *** ### Schedule and Confirm You can choose to prepare the mailout now or at the time of sending. | Option | Behaviour | | -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Prepare now | Filters and contact data are applied immediately. Changes to your database after this point will not affect the mailout. | | Prepare at send time | Filters and contact data are applied at the scheduled send time, reflecting your database as it is then. Note: preparation takes a little time, so emails may not send at exactly the scheduled time. | To spread a send over a time window, set both a start and end time — UbiQuity will distribute the sends between the two times. If the mailout invites recipients to contact a call centre, consider scheduling at an hourly rate to manage incoming call volume. The **Confirm** screen shows a summary of all mailout settings. It also runs an **Authentication Audit** to check that the From Address is correctly configured for spam filter compliance and that bounced messages will be returned to UbiQuity for processing. Contact UbiQuity if you see any warnings. *** ### Pre-send Checklist We recommend prior to sending a mailout that you go through the pre-send checklist to make sure that everything has been double checked. {% file src="/files/6WzlxCixHSqX8JAZYBhj" %} We also strongly recommend that you do a live email test send to yourself and/or other stakeholders to ensure that everything is working correctly for your email. *** ### Pausing and cancelling Once a mailout has been scheduled, you can pause or cancel it from the Mailout Dashboard, provided not all emails have been delivered. * **Pause** — stops sending. You can resume the mailout or reschedule the remaining emails to send at a later time. * **Cancel** — stops the mailout entirely. To resend to the remaining contacts, create a new copy of the mailout and filter for contacts from the original mailout whose message status is *Cancelled*. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.ubiquity.co.nz/documentation/channels/email/creating-a-mailout.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.