Platform tour

A map of the navigation#

This page is a map. It names each area of the navigation, says what you would go there to do, and points at the page that covers it properly. Read it once and the rest of the documentation stops needing directions.

Dashboard#

Dashboard is the landing screen after you sign in. It summarizes recent sending activity and the state of your account, so it answers "did that campaign go out, and how did it do" without you opening the campaign itself.

On a new account it is mostly empty. It fills in after your first send.

Campaigns#

Campaigns is where one-time sends live. Everything you have drafted, scheduled, sent or paused is listed here, and this is where you create a new one.

A campaign has an audience, content, a subject line and a send time. You build the content in the email builder, send yourself a test, then either send immediately or schedule. After it goes out, the campaign's own page is where you read opens, clicks, bounces and unsubscribes.

Covered in Create a campaign and The email builder.

Lists#

Lists holds your contacts. A list is a group of people who agreed to hear from you about a particular thing. Most accounts need fewer lists than they expect; one main list with good fields on it is easier to work with than eight overlapping ones.

Two things live inside a list.

Segments are saved filters over a list. "Joined in the last 30 days", "opened one of the last three campaigns", "field plan equals pro". A segment is a live view, not a copy, so it re-evaluates every time you use it. You send to segments constantly once you have them.

Fields are the columns on a contact beyond the email address: first name, company, city, renewal date. Define a field before you import the data that fills it, otherwise the column has nowhere to land. Fields are what personalization reads from.

Covered in Create a list and Import contacts.

Automations#

Automations is the email that sends without you touching it. You define a trigger, then the sequence that follows: send a message, wait three days, check a condition, send another.

A welcome series is the usual first one. Someone joins a list, they get a greeting immediately, then two more messages over the following week. After that, most accounts add a re-engagement sequence for contacts who have gone quiet.

The mental split against campaigns is timing. A campaign goes to a group at one moment. An automation runs per contact, whenever that contact meets the trigger, which could be at three in the morning six months from now.

Covered in Automation overview.

Forms & Popups#

Forms & Popups is how contacts get in without a CSV. You build a signup form, choose the list it writes to, then embed it in your site or use the hosted version behind a link.

This is also where double opt-in belongs. Asking new subscribers to confirm costs you some signups and buys you a list that complains less and bounces less. On a form fed by paid traffic, it is worth the friction.

Forms write into the same lists and fields as an import, so anything you have set up for imported contacts applies here too.

Templates#

Templates stores reusable email designs. Start a campaign from one instead of from a blank canvas, and your sends stop drifting apart visually.

Save a template once your layout settles: header, body structure, footer with the unsubscribe link and postal address already in place. The footer is the part people forget when they build each email from scratch, which is the real argument for templates.

Covered in The email builder.

The account area#

The settings that apply across the whole account, rather than to one campaign, live together in the account area.

API token is the credential for programmatic access. The API base is https://mail.igsendmail.com/api/v1 and requests authenticate with an api_token parameter. Treat the token like a password: it can read and change your contacts.

Sending domains is where you authenticate the domain you send from, by adding SPF, DKIM and DMARC records at your DNS host. This is the highest-leverage thing in the entire product for inbox placement. See Authenticate your domain.

Blacklist is the suppression list. Addresses here are never mailed, regardless of which list they sit on. Unsubscribes and hard bounces are handled for you, and you can add addresses yourself when someone asks to be removed by email rather than by clicking.

Bounce handlers and Senders sit alongside them, covering how bounced mail is processed and which from identities you can send as.

Billing is also here: your current plan, your usage against this cycle's allowance, invoices, and add-on credit packs. See Plans and upgrades.

Email verification checks addresses before you mail them and returns deliverable, undeliverable or risky per address. Run an imported file through it before the first send to that data.