New to Campaigns? Some common early mistakes that might occur

New to Campaigns? Some common early mistakes that might occur

Hello Marketers,
Welcome back to another post in Marketer's Space.
If you're just getting started with Zoho Campaigns, things can feel exciting and slightly confusing at the same time. You're not alone. Most early frustrations come from setup gaps rather than product issues.

Looking at all the features in the product, many new users tend to run into the same few roadblocks. In this post, we'll breakdown what usually causes trouble (and how to avoid it). Whether you're just setting up your first campaign or refining your existing process, this post will help you build a strong foundation early.

Skipping domain authentication   

Many users start sending campaigns before setting up SPF and DKIM properly. Here's what happens when they skip it:
  1. Emails are visibly sent from "via zcsend.net".
  2. They encounter lower inbox placement.
  3. They result in trust issues in Gmail or Outlook.
Domain authentication isn't optional if you care about deliverability; it should be step one.

What can you do instead?
  1. Add and verify your sending domain inside Zoho Campaigns before launching your first campaign.
  2. Configure SPF and DKIM records in your domain's DNS settings.
  3. Wait for verification confirmation before sending in bulk.
  4. Run a small test campaign after setup to confirm proper alignment.
Authentication issues don't just affect inbox placement; they can also prevent campaigns from going out altogether.

Campaign moves back to draft after sending   

This often happens because one of the final checks fails—like sender verification, mandatory fields, or authentication settings.
Before clicking send, ensure the following:
  1. Your sender email is verified.
  2. Authentication (SPF/DKIM) is properly configured.
  3. You've reviewed the campaign checklist inside the editor carefully.
Most "failure to send" cases are configuration-related, not system errors.

Uploading large or unclean contact lists without preparation   

Many new users decide to import a large database and send a campaign immediately. Others upload lists that haven't been cleaned in months or years. Both situations can quietly hurt performance.
Common issues include:
  1. Importing thousands of old or inactive contacts at once
  2. Sending to contacts who haven't engaged in a long time
  3. Including duplicate entries
  4. Not removing bounced or inactive addresses
What does this lead to?
  1. Low open and click rates
  2. Higher bounce rates
  3. Increased spam complaints
  4. Poor sender reputation
For new accounts especially, this can impact deliverability very quickly.
A better way to approach this is to do the following:
  1. Start with your most engaged contacts.
  2. Gradually increase volume over time.
  3. Remove duplicates and inactive addresses.
  4. Segment your contacts based on engagement before sending.
Good deliverability isn't just about authentication; it's also about list hygiene and sending behavior.

Open rates show zero (especially in Gmail)

Open tracking depends on images being loaded. If the recipient's email client blocks images by default, if privacy protection is enabled (especially on Apple devices), or if images are preloaded differently, the open may not register.
This is common with:
  1. Gmail (especially with image blocking)
  2. Privacy-focused email settings
  3. Apple Mail privacy protection
A sudden drop in open rate doesn't always mean your emails aren't being read.
So what is the fix?
  1. Send internal test emails to see if tracking pixels are functioning.
  2. Use A/B tests to validate subject line performance rather than judging from one send.
  3. Compare trends over a period of time instead judging from one campaign.
Your open rate should be treated as an indicator, not as an exact measurement—because it isn't.

Automation doesn't trigger for everyone   

A common assumption is that once automation is active, it applies to all contacts, and users forget that building automations without testing entry conditions might never yield expected results.
A workflow may look correct, but in reality:
  1. Contacts must meet the trigger conditions.
  2. They must enter the workflow at the correct stage.
  3. Timing filters and status settings matter
This is usually a logic issue, not a bug. So how can you solve it?
  1. Test the workflow using a sample contact before activating it fully.
  2. Double-check entry criteria and filter rules.
  3. Review contact status and segmentation settings.
  4. Use the workflow report to confirm whether contacts entered the automation.

Not testing across devices and email services 

Emails that look perfect in the Zoho Campaigns editor may:
  1. Break in emails formatting/structure.
  2. Stack oddly on mobile displays.
  3. Misalign buttons.
The clear action is to first find out how your email looks via the Preview and Test mode, after which you can always send those test emails from the same section and see the actual results.
You can send such emails to:
  1. Gmail
  2. Outlook
  3. Mobile devices


The editor preview is not a perfectly accurate reflection of the real inbox view, so we always recommend that you test your email campaigns first across different devices and email services before sending them in bulk.

Ignoring spam score or content red flags 

The actual content of your email plays a major role in where it lands.
Common content-related mistakes include:
  1. Using heavy promotional language like "BUY NOW," "LIMITED OFFER," or excessive exclamation marks
  2. Writing subject lines that feel overly aggressive or misleading
  3. Including too many links in a short email
  4. Using shortened URLs
  5. Designing image-only emails with very little supporting text
  6. Embedding large attachments directly in the campaign
Another common oversight is not checking the spam score before sending. Even if the content feels fine, running it through the built-in checks helps identify structural red flags early.
Here's a better approach:
  1. Maintain a healthy balance between text and images.
  2. Keep links purposeful and minimal.
  3. Avoid excessive capitalization and exaggerated claims.
  4. Write subject lines that are clear rather than sensational.
  5. Test-send and review how the email appears in different inboxes.
Sending successful campaigns is all about earning inbox trust through clean structure and responsible messaging.

If you're just starting out, take your time with the setup. A well-configured account will always outperform a rushed campaign.

If you've already encountered one or more of these issues, you're not alone; they're all part of the learning curve. Feel free to share your experiences or additional insights in the comments below. Your input might help another marketer avoid the same roadblock.

Until next time, happy campaigning!

Regards,
Yashwanth S
User Education
Zoho Campaigns Team

    • Recent Topics

    • Greek character in Deluxe script

      Hi, We have been using a script since 2022 which replaces characters in Greek contact names using replaceAll. Since this morning, all the Greek characters used in the script have turned to question marks. I tried retyping the characters, copy-pasting

    • Work Order Assignment for Engineers Handling Their Own Requests

      I’m setting up FSM for a business where there are multiple engineers, but each engineer handles their own process end-to-end receiving the service request, creating the work order, and completing the field service job. I noticed that I must create an

    • Experience Zoho Show on Mac now!

      Work today isn’t tied to a single place, time, or routine. It happens in cafes between meetings, on flights, or late at night when ideas strike. And when ins, your tools need to be ready, wherever you are. That’s why we built the Zoho Show app for Mac.

    • 【開催報告】東京 ユーザー交流会 Vol.4 | Zoho CRM 自動化のコツ ・Bookings のビジネス活用シーンとおすすめ機能を紹介

      ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 11月28日(金)に新橋で「東京 ユーザー交流会 Vol.4」を開催しました。ご参加くださったユーザーの皆さま、ありがとうございました。ユーザー交流会の年内開催は、今回が最後でした。 この投稿では、当日のセッションの様子や使用した資料を紹介しています。残念ながら当日お越しいただけなかった方も、ぜひチェックしてみてください😊 ユーザー活用事例セッション：関数やクライアントスクリプトまで、CRMをもっと便利に Zoho CRM には、ワークフローやブループリントなど、さまざまな自動化に役立つ標準機能が備わっています。さらに、関数（Deluge）のようにスクリプトを記述して高度な自動化を実現することもできます。

    • Kiosk Button Actions

      I need to add an action to a Kiosk Button to loop me back to start the kiosk again and I am not sure what that looks like (function, etc.).

    • Dependent drop-downs... how?

      Good day. I have 2 different situations where I need a dependent drop-down field. First is for a subform, where I want to show related fields for a specific customer on the main form. In my case it is a parent whose children make use of our school transport

    • Reporting Limitation on Lead–Product Relation in Zoho CRM

      I noticed that Zoho CRM has a default Products related list under Leads. However, when I try to create a report for Lead–Product association, I’m facing some limitations. To fix this, I’m considering adding a multi-lookup field along with a custom related

    • Series Label in the Legend

      My legend reads 'Series 1' and 'Series 2'. From everything I read online, Zoho is supposed to change the data names if it's formatted correctly. I have the proper labels on the top of the columns and the right range selected. I assume it's something in

    • Dynamic Signature - Record owner

      Hi everyone, I’m using Zoho Writer merge templates from Zoho CRM and have two questions: Owner signature: How can I automatically insert the CRM record owner’s signature in the merged document? I’m not sure where this signature is stored or how to reference

    • Printing from Zoho Creator hosted on my own server to printers hosted on my clients local network

      Hello. Fairly new to Zoho Creator and looking for best options to be able to print from my application hosted on my own server to any printer hosted on my clients own local network. Any advice is welcome. Thank you.

    • Add System Pre-Defined Lookup Field to Subform?

      Hi there! New to using Zoho, so this may already exist, but I'm having trouble figuring it out. Is there a way to get the system pre-defined Account Lookup field (in our case, renamed to Company Name), as the starting point for a subform? In our company,

    • Numbered / bullet point List in Zho Cliq

      Hi, is there a way to format chat messages in Cliq like this Topic 1 Hey, I finished this project yesterday etc... Topic 2 I am still working on this etc...

    • Cannot Access Subform Display Order in Deluge

      As highlighted in this community post, we still have to deal with the significant limitation of not being able to access the user-sorted order of subform rows through Deluge. This creates a major disconnect between the UI capabilities and backend automation,

    • How many groups in Zoho Mail can I make?

      I'm currently on the free plan, which has a limit of 10 users. Does that limit includes groups too? If not, what is the limit for groups? Thanks!

    • Feature Suggestion for Zoho Social: Auto-reply to Comments or Keywords

      Hi Zoho team, I'd like to suggest a very specific feature that would be extremely helpful for customer engagement: the ability to automatically send a reply to comments on posts — either all comments or those containing specific keywords. For example,

    • Already have Zoho account. Not letting me log in

      I already have a Zoho account that is associated with my Google email and my phone number. Even though I'm already logged in to Zoho, when I click on the mail icon to access my email, it takes me to the pricing page. When I click on the free option, it

    • ZOHO Mail App Not working

      There seems to be an issue with Zoho Mail App today. It is not connecting to server, internet is working fine, tried uninstalling app and reinstalling, loading circle keeps spinning round. Is there an update on the way?

    • facing error 550 5.4.6 while sending emails

      Please help me fix this issue

    • Allow Itemization for Recurring Expenses

      For whatever reason, one cannot itemize a Recurring Expense. This capability should be added. The use cases to support this are largely the same as what they were to allow for itemization in Expenses. Anything that would need to be itemized for a regular

    • Zoho reply to not working. just reply to my self

      Hello. i using on my wordpress website a contact form from Wsform. i can set the reply to email there. normally it works. but since i am using your wordpress plugin zoho mail it doesn`t work. its not using the reply to (email from customer). I just can

    • Can't receive any email from other platform

      Hello,everyone, i'm just join zoho and create two email accounts for my own business. I was using it to get a verified email from stripe, but can't receive it. and I use my private gmail account to send test email twice, first time show below reply, but

    • Your Incoming has been blocked and the emails will not be fetched in your Zoho account and POP Accounts

      Can some on help me regarding our account . thank you so much

    • Zoho Creator integration with Sage 50

      Hi, Wondering if anyone has had any experience connecting Zoho to Sage 50 and could share any information on this matter. Thank you.

    • Conditional Email Forwarding

      How can I set conditional email forwarding of the users? For example: Mail should be forwarded to a address only if it comes from a particular sender. So, I want such email forwarding, which forwards mails based on particular conditions, like the incoming

    • Incoming emails not appearing in Inbox

      Hello, I have an issue with incoming emails sent from my website (domain: h2ostop.si). Emails are visible in the Sent folder, which means they are successfully sent through Zoho SMTP, but they never appear in my Inbox. Nothing arrives in Inbox, Spam,

    • Email Opt Out Question

      Has the problem where if a customer is emailed opt out prevents you sending standard emails? For me this feature is simply to stop any email marketing and should not block people from receiving emails via Zoho mobile, which makes no sense.

    • Can No Longer Access Zoho Email Accounts from iPhone or iPad Apple Mail Apps ,.

      Keeps asking for password, Says ID or password incorrect. Tried creating a new app specific password. Same result. Is this possibly related to the server maintenance. Have verified all email settings, userid and password. This has worked for years until

    • Latest update caused issue in using marathi typingzoho

      With latest update now marathi typing does Not work in zohonotebook. I preferred zoho over other because it was supporting marathi font without any distortion.. But after new update,keyborad simply does not work

    • Login verification emails never received.

      I can't login to my account. You send a verification email, but it never arrives. This is a common problem, frequently caused by some relay point out there classifying the sender as a spammer. Is there anything I can do to bypass this? Maybe get a text

    • Global lists for Multi select

      It would be great if I could select a global list to use for a multi select dropdown filed.

    • Yahoo is rejecting e-mails sent from a Zoho server

      Diagnostic-Code: 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 136.143.169.51 temporarily deferred due to unexpected volume or user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://postmaster.yahooinc.com/error-codes Remote-MTA: dns; mta5.am0.yahoodns.net

    • Yahoo blocks e-mail sent from Zoho servers

      Getting this for a bunch of Yahoo addresses. Do you know if some of your servers got blacklisted? Diagnostic-Code: 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 136.143.169.51 temporarily deferred due to unexpected volume or user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://postmaster.yahooinc.com/error-codes

    • Working with dates and Function Field

      Hello friends! I'm trying to add days to a date, however the field function will always shows 00:00:00 after the resultant date. How can I display only the date, whithout the time? toDate(input.request_date.addDay(input.Prazo_acordado),"MM,d,yyyy") The code above will result something like "11-Feb-2020 00:00:00", but I want to display only "11-Feb-2020"

    • What's New in Zoho Analytics - November 2025

      We're thrilled to announce a significant update focused on expanding your data connectivity, enhancing visualization capabilities, and delivering a more powerful, intuitive, and performant analytics experience. Here’s a look at what’s new. Explore What's

    • Unable to send message;Reason:550 5.4.6 Unusual sending activity detected. Please try after sometime.

      Please help my account got blocked automatically, can you help me how to avoid it? Thanks so much

    • temporary system errorlouis

      J'essaye d'envoyer des mails avec mes 2 adresses mail qe nous avons sur le compte arthur@lepunch.fr et louis@lepunch.fr mais j'ai toujours le message temporaire system error, je reçois les mails mais impossible d'en envoyer a qui que ce soit

    • How to Cancel/Delete Queued Mail Merge?

      Hi. I just tried to do a mail merge before realizing there's a limit on number of sends. I accidentally sent one of my lists twice, and all of those emails are currently queued. Is there any way to cancel or delete a queued mail merge? Would love to be

    • SOLVED: Stopping Multiple Invitations when sync with Google Calendar

      I wanted to share this solution as I wasn't able to find it when searching through the Zoho community and via web search. The issue: When requestor books a meeting through Zoho Bookings, the requestor receives a confirmation email from both Bookings and

    • Need to add a new admin for my domain

      Hello Zoho Support, I am the owner of the domain localeistanbul.com. The current super admin account (admin@localeistanbul.com) is not accessible. I do not want to reset or delete the existing account because I need to keep all existing emails. Please

    • Possible Fraud Site.

      Hello. I received a text with the sender's name as zoho, claiming that my account was at risk and that I should sign in at https://verify.zohomails.ru/signin to verify my account. I signed in on the web address above, and a few days later someone hacked

    • Next Page