September looked quiet in the changelog. A handful of changes, a few fixes, no headline feature. The reason: most of the team's time went into Campaign Builder, our answer to the question we get most often. It is almost ready for general availability.
The pieces around it are shipping this week: a Management API for contacts and lists, reusable templates, and a new dashboard navigation. Here is what Campaign Builder is, why we built it, and what September's small fixes have to do with it.
Why a transactional email provider builds a campaign tool
Almost every customer who sends transactional email with us also sends a newsletter, a product update or a launch announcement somewhere else. Many tried sending it through AhaSend and discovered that our content review treats unsolicited marketing on a transactional account as a problem, which it is: one newsletter with a bad list can hurt the reputation of the IP pool that carries everyone's password resets.
So the choice was either to keep saying "not here" or to build the thing properly: its own network, two WYSIWYG editors, with contact lists, unsubscribe handling and reporting, on the same account, the same domains and the same suppression list you already use.
What is in it
Contacts and lists. Import a CSV on the Contacts page, into an existing list, or while creating a new one. Existing contacts are updated, never duplicated, and an import only writes the columns it contains, so an address-only file never wipes names or attributes. Globally unsubscribed contacts never make it into a campaign, and imports never re-subscribe anyone. Large files run in the background and you get an email with the outcome.
Two editors. The Simple editor works like a document: write, add an image, a button or a column as you go. It suits welcome emails, onboarding and product updates. The Full editor is a drag-and-drop MJML editor with fifteen block types, from columns and heroes to navbars and raw MJML, with a desktop, tablet and mobile preview. It imports MJML and exports both MJML and HTML, so nothing is locked in.
Reusable templates, for campaigns and transactional mail. Templates live in one place. Create, edit, copy and delete them in the dashboard, use them in a campaign, or reference a stored template in a transactional CreateMessage call instead of sending the full body every time. Drop into a template and it resolves per recipient at send time, with the same per-recipient substitutions on both sides.
Four steps to send. Sender, recipients, subject and preview text, design. Send a test to yourself, then schedule or send now.
A report that tells you what happened. Delivered, opens, clicks and unsubscribes per campaign, deliverability per list, and a breakdown of bounce reasons. Click webhooks for campaigns are delivered since August, so your own systems can follow along.
Contacts and lists in the Management API
Campaign Builder is not only a dashboard feature. The Management API now covers contacts and lists: create, read, update and delete contacts, create and edit lists, and add or remove contacts from a list. That means your application can keep AhaSend in sync with its own user table.
A new menu
With marketing features next to transactional ones, the old sidebar stopped making sense. The dashboard navigation is now grouped into transactional, marketing, developer and settings, so the campaign pages, templates and contacts sit together and the sending, domains and webhooks you use every day stay where you expect them.
Which editor would you pick?
Campaign Builder is in early access now. If you want to try it before launch, send me an email or drop me a message on our Discord. And I'd love to know which editor you reach for first, the simple one or the full one.