Send one-time emails

To send a one-time email in Pushwoosh, navigate to the Campaigns section, select One-time messages, and click Send message > Email.

Select or create email content

In the Content step, select or create your email content. You can create content in multiple languages, either from scratch or using HTML code.

• To find existing content, use the Type to search… field or open the dropdown and select the desired email content.

• To create new content, click Create new and choose the Drag and Drop Editor or HTML code editor. Learn more about creating email content

Note

You will be redirected to the selected email builder when you create new content. After you save, the content appears in the Email content list. To continue configuring your one-time email campaign, click Send email next to the content you created to return to the form and complete the setup.

Select message type

Choose how this email is treated for subscription and delivery rules:

• Marketing message: Respects user subscription preferences, opt-outs, and frequency capping. Not sent to global control group users.
• Transactional message: Sent to all users regardless of subscription status. Bypasses opt-outs and frequency capping. Delivered to control group users.

Learn how message type affects delivery.

Select subscription category

Select a Subscription category from the dropdown so the message aligns with your subscribers’ preferences. Categories are defined in the subscription preference center.

Select the audience for your email campaign

In the Audience step, define who will receive your email. Pushwoosh offers several targeting options to match your campaign goals:

Send to segment

Choose this option to target a predefined segment of your audience. This allows you to focus on specific groups based on their actions, behavior, or attributes. There are two options:

• Select a segment from the drop-down list of pre-built options.

• To create a new segment, click Create segment. Then select one of the following actions from the dropdown menu:

  • Build segment: Create a new segment using the Segment builder. Learn more
  • Import segment: Import a segment from a CSV file. Learn more.

Send to list of addresses

Use this option to send the email to a specific list of email addresses. Enter the email addresses as a list, separated by commas. This is ideal for one-time or special communications that don’t fit into a predefined segment.

Send to all users

Select this option to target your entire subscriber base, regardless of their segment or behavior.

Important

When choosing this option, ensure the email content is relevant to a broad audience. Irrelevant messages may lead to increased unsubscribe rates.

Once you’ve set your audience, click Next to proceed to the scheduling step of your email campaign.

Schedule email

Then, choose when to send your email. You have several options:

• Send it immediately
• Schedule it for a specific date and time

Send immediately

Choose this option if you want to send the email as soon as the campaign setup is complete. This is ideal for urgent or time-sensitive messages that require immediate delivery.

Selected time

Choose this option to schedule your email for a specific date and time.

Set the date and time

Use the calendar to pick the exact date for your email. Then, specify the time in hours and minutes (using the 24-hour format).

Select the timezone

• Subscriber’s device timezone. The email will be sent based on each recipient’s local timezone, ensuring delivery at the specified time in their location.
• Custom timezone. Set a specific timezone to send the email at the same time for all recipients. This is useful for targeting users in a particular region.

Tip

You can cancel a scheduled email before it is sent. The message status must be PENDING. On the One-time messages list, open the actions menu (⋮) for the message and choose Delete message.

Configure message delivery settings

Set frequency capping

Use Frequency capping to limit how often users receive email messages, preventing over-messaging and reducing churn. Choose one of the following options:

• Use Global frequency capping settings

  Apply the project-wide limits configured in your Global frequency capping settings.

  For example, if the global limit is set to 3 messages in 9 days, additional messages exceeding this limit will be skipped.

  

• Ignore Global frequency capping

  The user will receive this message even if they’ve exceeded the channel’s message limits. Use this option with caution to avoid over-messaging.

  

• Use custom frequency capping

  Set a custom message limit for this message. If the user exceeds this custom cap, the message will be skipped, and the user will proceed to the next step.

Important

Custom frequency capping does not isolate the message from Global frequency capping. All messages sent on the same channel, including those from other journeys or campaigns, are still counted toward the global cap. If the user has already received 3 email messages this week from other sources, this message may still be blocked, even if the custom capping would allow it. Learn more

Set send rate limits

The Send rate setting controls how quickly messages are delivered to your audience. Adjusting the send rate helps you manage delivery speed, prevent backend overload, and improve overall deliverability.

Choose one of the following options:

• Use global send rate settings Applies the send rate limits configured in your project’s message delivery settings. If no limits are set, all messages will be sent immediately. Use this option when you want delivery speed to follow your project’s default rules. Learn more about global send rate limits

• Send messages without send rate Sends messages as fast as possible, ignoring any global send rate limits. Use with caution to avoid overloading your backend or creating delivery spikes.

• Use custom send rate Overrides the global send rate for this message only. Allows you to specify the number of messages sent per minute, giving you full control over delivery speed. Messages will be sent at the custom rate you define in the message element.

Once you’ve configured the desired options, click Next to proceed to the audit step.

Audit your email

In the Audit step, run a deliverability and compliance check on your email before it goes out. The audit sends a real test message to a verified test address and reports on issues that could hurt delivery, from broken links to missing unsubscribe mechanics. Learn more about email deliverability.

Run the audit

Click Run audit. In the dialog:

1. Under Send test to, select a verified test email address. If none are configured yet, click Manage addresses to add one on the Test devices page.
2. Click Run audit to send the test email and run the checks.

Pushwoosh sends the test email and reads back what happened to it, then reports the results in two groups: Content check and Compliance check.

Content check

• Subject line: Flags an empty subject line in any content language.
• Link health: Flags broken links in the email body.
• Safe browsing: Flags links marked as malware, phishing, a known shortener, a raw IP address, a suspicious top-level domain, or where the visible link text doesn’t match its destination.
• Click tracking: Checks that links are wrapped by the click tracker.
• Email size: Checks the email size against Gmail’s clipping limit. Oversized emails get clipped. Recipients see “[Message clipped]” and the unsubscribe link is hidden.
• Spam score: Score from Pushwoosh’s antispam engine. It’s a useful indicator, not a guarantee of inbox placement at Gmail or Outlook.

Compliance check

• One-click unsubscribe headers: Checks for List-Unsubscribe headers. Gmail rejects messages or sends them to junk from senders above 5,000 emails/day that lack one-click unsubscribe.
• Unsubscribe link health: Checks that the unsubscribe link works. A broken link leads to spam complaints instead of opt-outs.
• Visible unsubscribe link: Required by CAN-SPAM. Recipients must be able to opt out from within the email.
• Physical address: Required by CAN-SPAM and most ESP policies. Your company’s street address must appear in the footer.

Each check shows Not passed until the audit runs, then updates with its result and the number of errors and warnings found.

Tip

You don’t have to resolve every issue to move on. If you click Next without a clean audit, or without running it at all, Pushwoosh asks you to confirm bypassing the audit before you proceed to Review.

Review and edit your content

In Review, check the preview and the summaries for content, audience, and schedule. Update anything that still needs to change before you send or schedule.

Email details

In Email details, review and edit the Subject line, From name, and From email.

Enable Use this as the reply-to address to receive and track replies if you want replies to go to the same address. The email address must belong to a verified domain in your project.

How sender details are determined

Sender set in the one-time email form has the highest priority: it overrides sender in the email content and platform default. The From name and From email values you set here are saved with this message and do not sync with changes in the content or platform.

If you later change the sender in the content or platform settings, this message will still use the values set here. To use the sender from the content or platform default instead, leave From name and From email empty here.

How sender priority works in journeys

Resend to non-openers

If you want to send the email again to users who did not open it, enable Resend email to non-openers before you send or schedule the message. Pushwoosh then creates a follow-up send to those recipients using the same email content.

1. Enable Resend to non-openers.
2. Set Send date, Time, and Timezone for when the follow-up should be delivered.
3. Optionally edit Subject line for the follow-up. It can be different from the subject of the original message.

Tip

Schedule the resend about 3–5 days after your initial send. That spacing usually improves engagement and open rates because people have more time to see and open the first email. If the follow-up lands too soon, you often get fewer opens and weaker engagement.

Link to Aggregated Messages

Optionally, you can link your email to an Aggregated messages campaign. This allows you to group the email with related messages and track their combined performance over time in the Aggregated Messages section. Use this feature to monitor message effectiveness as part of a broader communication strategy.

Once everything is confirmed, click Schedule to set it for later delivery or Send Now to send it immediately, depending on your selected scheduling options.

Cancel or edit a scheduled email

For emails that are scheduled and not yet sent (status PENDING), you can change or cancel them. Open the list of messages in Campaigns → One-time messages.

Then, open the actions menu (⋮) for the message you want to change or cancel:

• Delete message: cancels the scheduled delivery and changes the status to Canceled.
• Edit message: opens the one-time email form with the message data loaded.

While editing

• You can update content and audience.
• In Review, you can change the subject line without reopening the email builder.
• In Review, you can change Resend email to non-openers, including the follow-up Subject line, Send date, Time, and Timezone.
• The scheduled send time cannot be changed. To reschedule, use Delete message and create a new message.
• On the Audience step you can change the segment, create a new one, or change the list of addresses. The audience size is recalculated after you make a change.
• If the message enters Processing (message is being sent) while you are editing, saving is disabled. Use Go to Message History or Close to leave the form.

Example scenario

Imagine you are the marketing manager of an e-commerce platform, and you want to send an email promoting an upcoming New Year Sale to a targeted group of users who have previously made purchases. The email should be delivered at a specific date and time, right before the sale begins. You can set up this campaign in Pushwoosh as follows:

1. First, navigate to Campaigns, and select One-time messages. Click on Send message, then choose Send email to start setting up your one-time email campaign.

2. You decide to use existing email content for this campaign. In the Content step, open the dropdown menu and select the pre-built email content titled New Year Sale Promo.

Review the email content:

“Our New Year Sale is just around the corner! 🎉 Get ready to enjoy up to 50% off on your favorite products. The sale kicks off on January 1st, so mark your calendars and make sure you don’t miss out! 🛍️✨”

Once you’re satisfied with the content, click Next to move to the audience selection step.

3. Since you want to target users who have made previous purchases, choose Send to segment. From the dropdown menu, select the segment Returning customers, which is based on users who made purchases within the past year.

After confirming the audience, click Next to proceed to the scheduling step.

4. To ensure the email is sent at the right time, select Selected time in the scheduling options.

• Set the date to December 30 and the time to 10:00 AM using the 24-hour format.
• Choose Subscriber’s device timezone so the email is sent at 10:00 AM in each recipient’s local timezone, regardless of their location.

5. In the Audit step, click Run audit, select a verified test address, and run the checks to confirm the email has no broken links or missing unsubscribe mechanics before it goes out.

6. Review all the campaign details, including the audience, schedule, and email content. Use the Preview feature to see how the email will appear in recipients’ inboxes.

Once everything is verified, click Schedule message to finalize and schedule the email for delivery at the specified time.