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.

Configure 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.

Select existing content

Use the Type to search… field or open the dropdown and select the desired email content.

To change the order of email content in the dropdown, click the sort button above the dropdown and choose Newest first, Oldest first, Recently updated, Name A→Z, or Name Z→A. Until you pick an order, the list is sorted by Name A→Z. Pushwoosh remembers your choice and applies it to every email content picker you open, in one-time messages and journeys alike. More items load as you scroll.

Note

If content approval is on for your account, unapproved templates stay in the dropdown, but you can’t select them.

Create new content

Note

If content approval is on for your account, Create new isn’t available here. Submit and approve the template from Content → Email content first, then select it from the dropdown.

1. Click Create new and choose Create from scratch… (Drag and Drop Editor) or Create from HTML-code… (HTML code editor).

   

2. Create the email in the editor. It opens in a drawer over the campaign form, so you stay on the Content step.

3. Save your content, then click the back arrow at the top of the editor. The drawer closes, and the new content is selected in the Content step.

Learn more about creating email content

Edit content

Click Edit content above the preview to open the same drawer with the selected content loaded.

Save your changes, then click the back arrow at the top of the editor to close the drawer and return to the Content step.

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 control group users.
• Transactional message: Sent to all users regardless of subscription status. Bypasses opt-outs and frequency capping. Delivered to control group users.

Caution

If content approval is on for your account, an unapproved template blocks the send even for a Transactional message.

Learn how message type affects delivery.

Select subscription category

If the subscription preference center is enabled for your project and you selected Marketing message, 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 email list

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 subscribers

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 must have the Scheduled status. 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. Frequency capping isn’t available for a Transactional message. 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.

  

• Send messages without 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 in Limit to a maximum of N messages per N days. If the user exceeds this custom cap, the message is skipped for them.

  Under Counting mode, choose how sent messages are counted:

  • Rolling window: counts the messages sent within the last N×24 hours before each send, where N is the number of days in the limit. For example, with a limit of 3 messages per 2 days, a message sent Monday at 9 AM stops counting on Wednesday at 9 AM.
  • Calendar day: counts the messages sent today and on the previous N-1 calendar days, starting at midnight. With the same limit of 3 messages per 2 days, on Wednesday every message sent since Tuesday midnight counts. Right after midnight, the window moves to Wednesday and Thursday. Select a Capping timezone to set when midnight falls. If you don’t select one, calendar days are counted in UTC.
  

Important

Custom frequency capping replaces global capping for this message, so only the custom limit is checked. The message still counts toward the channel’s global counter, though, so it can use up part of the shared quota for other email messages that rely on global capping. 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 global 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. Set the maximum number of messages sent per second, giving you full control over delivery speed.

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

Audit your email

In the Audit step, Pushwoosh sends a real test email to an address you choose and checks it for issues that could hurt delivery, from broken links to missing unsubscribe mechanics. You must run the audit at least once before you can go to Review. Learn more about email deliverability.

Run the audit

1. Click Run audit.

   

2. Under Send test to, enter the email address the test should go to. It’s pre-filled with your own account email, but you can replace it with any address. An address on your account’s bounce list is rejected, with an error explaining why.

3. Click Run audit in the dialog to send the test email and run the checks.

The results appear in two groups, Content check and Compliance check. Before the audit runs, both show Not passed. After the run, each group shows its result and the number of errors and warnings found.

When to run the audit again

• After you change the content. Click Run again. The results don’t update on their own: until you rerun the audit, they show the checks for the previous content.
• When you edit a scheduled email. Each time you open the form, run the audit again before you can click Apply changes.

What the audit checks

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. If you send more than 5,000 emails a day, Gmail rejects messages without one-click unsubscribe or moves them to spam.
• 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.

If the audit finds issues

The audit doesn’t block sending. If errors, warnings, or pending checks remain when you click Next, the Continue bypassing the audit? dialog opens. Click Back to the audit to fix the issues first, or Confirm to go to Review without fixing them.

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. Clear it to enter a different Reply-to name and Reply-to email. The From and reply-to addresses must use a domain verified in your account. Otherwise, the message is rejected when you send it.

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. Both fields are required. They’re prefilled from the content or the platform default, so to use those values, keep them as they are.

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 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. Edit the follow-up Subject line if needed. It’s prefilled from the content, can differ from the original subject, and can’t be empty.

Tip

The earliest resend date is 3 days after the original send date. A resend 3–5 days later 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, link your email to an Aggregated messages campaign: enable Aggregated statistics and select the campaign in Link message statistics with. 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.

Name and confirm your send

1. Click Schedule message or Send now. The Confirm sending dialog opens.
2. Optionally edit Campaign name. It’s prefilled with the email’s subject line. Keep it to 255 characters or fewer: longer text is cut off without a warning.
3. Click Schedule message or Send now in the dialog.

The campaign name becomes this message’s bold title in Message History and its CSV export, in place of the subject line. If you clear the field, Message History shows the subject line.

A campaign name only labels this one send. To group the email with other messages, link it to an Aggregated Messages campaign (see above).

Cancel or edit a scheduled email

For emails that are scheduled and not yet sent (status Scheduled), 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 Stopped.
• Edit message: opens the one-time email form with the message data loaded.
• Rename: sets or changes the campaign name without opening the edit form. The limit is 255 characters. To remove the name, clear the field and save. The row shows the email’s subject line again.

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 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 email list. The audience size is recalculated after you make a change.
• If the message starts sending while you are editing, saving your changes fails with an error, and the message stays unchanged.
• In Review, the button is labeled Apply changes instead of Schedule message or Send now. Click it, then confirm again in the Confirm sending dialog to save your changes, including any edit to the campaign name.

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 Send message, then choose 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, enter a test email 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. In the Confirm sending dialog, enter New_Year_Sale_Email in Campaign name so the send is easy to find in Message History, and click Schedule message.