Knowledge Base Send Create and send a broadcast

Create and send a broadcast

A broadcast is a one-off email campaign — one email, sent once to an audience you choose. RadarSend walks you through it as a short wizard: pick who it goes to, write the email, decide how it sends, then review and schedule.

Before you begin#

  • A confirmed sender — a from-address that’s passed its test send. Without one, there’s nothing to send from.
  • Some contacts in your workspace to send to.
  • At least one segment or list for the audience. A broadcast always sends to a segment — there’s no “send to everyone” button, so create a segment (or import a list) first if you don’t have one.

Create a broadcast#

  1. In the main sidebar, open Broadcasts.
  2. Click New broadcast (top right, or from the empty state if this is your first one).

The editor opens on step 1 of the wizard: Setup & Audience → Content → Review & Schedule. Your work is saved as a Draft — use Save draft or Save & exit any time, and pick it back up from the Broadcasts list under the Drafts tab.

Choose your audience#

On the Setup & Audience step, start with the Basics card:

  1. Broadcast name (required) — an internal label only; it’s never shown to recipients.
  2. Email type (required) — this sets how unsubscribes are handled and which sending identities are available. Pick the category this email belongs to.
  3. Link tracking — leave on (Tracked) to measure clicks per recipient, or switch to Pass-through to keep links at their original URLs.

Then the Audience card:

  • Include — add one or more segments/lists whose contacts should receive the email.
  • Exclude — optionally add segments/lists to hold back (a contact in both is excluded).

As you add segments, a summary shows Recipients for send, Reachable included, and Reachable excluded so you can see the real reach. You need at least one Include segment before the preview appears. In the segment picker, static lists are labelled (list).

Write your email#

The sender is chosen in the sidebar of the Setup & Audience step, in the Sender / Senders card:

  • Every sending identity that’s eligible for your chosen email type is listed. Tick the one(s) you want to send from. Each identity sends through its own configured route (its “lane”) — if you pick several, RadarSend splits the audience across them, and you can adjust the percentages.
  • If you leave the selection as the full set, the broadcast uses all eligible identities for that email type.

Move to the Content step to write the email:

  1. Mode — keep Single for a normal send (see Sending options for A/B test).
  2. Subject — supports merge tags, e.g. Welcome, {{first_name}}.
  3. Content format — choose HTML, MJML, or (if enabled for your account) Template. Author in the Code / Compose tab and check the Preview tab; MJML shows a Compiled HTML tab and every format has a Plain text tab.
  4. Merge / personalization — click { } Merge to open the Merge Tags panel. It lists system links ({{unsubscribe_url}}, {{view_in_browser_url}}), contact fields ({{email}} plus your custom fields), context tags ({{sender.name}}, {{account.name}}, and more), and Liquid syntax such as {{ field | default: "there" }} and {% if … %} conditionals. Click a tag to copy it.
  5. UTM parameters — optionally set source/medium/campaign/content/term in the sidebar for link attribution.
Note

{{unsubscribe_url}} is required in every email so recipients can opt out.

Sending options#

RadarSend routes each recipient through the lane of the sender it’s assigned to — you don’t pick a delivery service per broadcast; that’s set per sender. On the Review & Schedule step you control when and how fast:

  • Single broadcast — one pass, sent at your chosen send rate.
  • Spread out — an even daily pace to a Finish by date, with optional Weekdays only and Exclude dates… controls for the day-by-day plan.
  • Send rate (under the advanced disclosure) — how fast each batch goes out; lower protects sender reputation.

A/B testing is available on the Content step. Switch Mode to A/B test, then choose Test dimensions (Subject, Body, or both) and a Strategy:

  • All variants — every variant is sent, split by the weights you set.
  • Test + Send best — sends variants to a test cohort, then sends the winner to the rest (a holdout). This needs at least 3,000 recipients and adds a Split Test step where you set the success metric (Opens / Clicks / Conversions), confidence level (Exploratory ~90% / Standard ~95% / Strict ~99%), evaluation window, fallback if no winner, and release mode (Auto-send winner or Manual approval).

Review & send#

The Review & Schedule step is your final check:

  1. Preflight checks — a checklist that flags issues (e.g. broken links) before you commit. Resolve any warnings.
  2. Audience and Content summaries — confirm the reach and open the full email in Preview.
  3. Send a test (sidebar) — enter one or more addresses and click Send test. It sends a real preview using merge data from the first reachable recipient, from every selected sender. Save the draft first if the button is disabled.
  4. Schedule (sidebar) — set the Send date & time, then click Schedule broadcast. (For very large audiences the button may read Review & schedule or Schedule partial send and open a confirmation first.)

Once scheduled, the broadcast moves to the Scheduled tab, then Sending, and finally Sent on the Broadcasts list.

Common issues#

  • Can’t add a sender / Sender card is empty. No confirmed sending identity matches the chosen Email type. Confirm a sender for that type — see Add and confirm a sender.
  • Continue is greyed out. A required field is missing: broadcast name, an Include segment, a chosen sender, or (on Content) a subject and body.
  • Send test is disabled. Save the draft first — a test send needs a saved broadcast.
  • No capacity today. The selected sender has used its warming allowance for the day. Pick a different sender, spread the send over more days, or come back after the cap resets.
  • “Test + Send best” is locked. Your audience is under the 3,000-recipient minimum for a holdout split test. Use All variants, or grow the audience.
  • First-send warning on schedule. The sending domain has no prior sends and warming is off. Enable warming on the domain or choose Send anyway.

Good to know#

  • The broadcast name is internal only — recipients never see it. Your subject line is what they see.
  • Everything auto-saves as a Draft; you can leave and resume from the Broadcasts list.
  • Turning off Link tracking means clicks won’t be measured for that broadcast.
  • Spread out delivery honours excluded dates and weekends, and can extend past your Finish-by date if capacity is tight — the Delivery card tells you the true finish date.
  • Broadcast statuses on the list: Draft, Scheduled, Sending, Sent, plus Paused, Cancelled, and Failed.