Messages

What Are Messages?

A message is a single personalized email sent to one subscriber from a campaign. When you send a campaign to 1,000 subscribers, Laravel Mail Platform creates 1,000 individual messages—one for each recipient.

Think of it this way:

• Campaign — The overall mailing (e.g., "Summer Sale Announcement")
• Messages — Individual emails created from that campaign (one per subscriber)

Each message contains:

• Personalized subscriber data (name, custom fields)
• Unique tracking identifiers (for opens, clicks)
• Delivery status (sent, pending, failed, bounced)
• Timestamps (created, sent, opened)

Accessing Messages

To view all messages in your system:

1. Click Messages in the sidebar
2. You'll see tabs for Drafts and Sent
3. Filter by date, status, or campaign as needed

Message Types

Draft Messages

When they're created: Draft messages are generated when you send a campaign using the Queue Draft sending behavior. This creates one draft message for each targeted subscriber but doesn't send them immediately.

Why use Queue Draft?

• Review before sending — Check how each personalized message looks before it goes out
• Complex templates — Verify that dynamic content (names, dates, etc.) renders correctly for each recipient
• Manual control — Choose exactly when each message sends
• Quality assurance — Catch errors or formatting issues before they reach subscribers

Important: Queue Draft is only recommended for small subscriber lists (< 1,000). For large lists, manually reviewing thousands of messages is impractical.

What you can do with drafts:

• Preview the personalized message
• Edit the message content if needed
• Send now to that specific subscriber
• Delete without sending

The Drafts Tab

Click the Drafts tab to see all unsent messages:

Actions you can take:

1. Preview — Click the message to see how it will look to the recipient with all personalization applied

2. Send Now — Immediately send the message to the subscriber

3. Delete — Remove the draft without sending (useful if you change your mind about a subscriber)

4. Bulk Actions — Select multiple drafts to send or delete them all at once

Example workflow:

1. Create campaign with Queue Draft behavior
2. Drafts are generated for all 500 subscribers
3. Review a few sample drafts to check personalization
4. Send drafts in batches: morning audience, then afternoon audience
5. Or send all at once with bulk select

Sent Messages

When they're created: Sent messages are generated when you send a campaign using the Send Automatically sending behavior, or when you manually send individual drafts.

Key differences from drafts:

The Sent Tab

Click the Sent tab to view all dispatched messages:

Message Statuses Explained

Actions on Sent Messages

1. View Details — See full message content, delivery info, engagement metrics

2. Resend — Retry sending to this subscriber (useful for failed messages)

3. View Subscriber — Jump to the subscriber's profile to see history

4. Download — Export message content if needed

Finding Messages

Filter by Status

Use status filters to find specific messages:

Show: All | Sent | Delivered | Bounced | Failed | Opened | Clicked

Examples:

• Bounced messages — Find addresses that need to be cleaned up
• Failed messages — Retry or investigate errors
• Opened messages — See who engaged with content
• Clicked messages — Track conversions

Filter by Campaign

See messages from a specific campaign:

Campaign: [Select Campaign ▼]

Filter by Date Range

Find messages sent in a specific period:

Date: [From] to [To]

Search by Recipient

Find messages sent to a specific email address:

Search: user@example.com

Bulk Filter

Combine multiple filters to narrow results:

Example: "All messages from Campaign: Summer Sale, sent in June, with status: Clicked"

Working with Messages

Preview a Message

To see how a message appears to the recipient:

1. Click Preview on any message
2. View the complete email with personalization applied
3. Check formatting, links, and images
4. Close preview to return to list

For drafts: Make sure names and custom fields appear correctly before sending.

Send a Draft Message

To manually send an individual draft:

1. Go to Drafts tab
2. Find the message you want to send
3. Click Send Now
4. Confirm the action
5. Message moves to Sent tab

Note: The message is sent using your configured email service.

Resend a Failed Message

If a message failed to deliver, you can retry:

1. Go to Sent tab
2. Filter by Status: Failed
3. Click Resend on the message
4. System attempts delivery again

Useful for: Temporary failures (mailbox full, server timeout) that may succeed on retry.

Bulk Send Drafts

To send multiple drafts at once:

1. Go to Drafts tab
2. Select multiple messages using checkboxes
3. Click Bulk Actions → Send
4. Confirm batch send
5. All selected messages are sent

Example: Send morning batch at 9 AM, afternoon batch at 2 PM.

Bulk Delete Drafts

Remove multiple drafts without sending:

1. Go to Drafts tab
2. Select messages to delete
3. Click Bulk Actions → Delete
4. Confirm deletion

Warning: This cannot be undone. Ensure you're not deleting drafts you intended to send.

Export Messages

Download message data for analysis or record-keeping:

1. Select messages you want to export
2. Click Export
3. Choose format (CSV or JSON)
4. Save file

Exported data includes:

• Recipient email
• Campaign name
• Status
• Sent date
• Delivery information
• Engagement metrics

Understanding Message Analytics

Each sent message tracks important engagement metrics:

Delivery Metrics:

• Sent — Message dispatched to email service
• Delivered — Confirmed delivery to recipient's mail server
• Bounce Rate — Percentage of messages that bounced

Engagement Metrics (if tracking enabled):

• Open Rate — Percentage of recipients who opened the email
• Click Rate — Percentage of recipients who clicked links
• Unsubscribe Rate — Percentage who unsubscribed after opening

Example: 1,000 messages sent → 850 delivered → 200 opened (23.5% open rate) → 45 clicked (5.3% click rate)

Common Message Scenarios

Scenario 1: Checking Draft Quality

Situation: You created a campaign with Queue Draft to review before sending.

Steps:

1. Go to Drafts
2. Click Preview on 3-5 sample messages
3. Verify personalization looks correct
4. Check formatting and links
5. If satisfied, click Bulk Select All → Send

Scenario 2: Investigating Failed Messages

Situation: Some messages failed to deliver. You need to fix and resend.

Steps:

1. Go to Sent tab
2. Filter by Status: Failed
3. Click View Details on a failed message
4. Read error message (invalid address? auth error? provider issue?)
5. Click Resend if it's a temporary error
6. Or go to Subscribers to fix the recipient's email address and resend

Scenario 3: Following Up with Engaged Users

Situation: You want to send a follow-up campaign only to people who clicked your last campaign.

Steps:

1. Go to Sent tab
2. Filter by Status: Clicked
3. View list of engaged subscribers
4. Export subscriber emails
5. Use this list for your next campaign targeting

Scenario 4: Cleaning Up Bounced Addresses

Situation: Multiple emails bounced. You need to remove bad addresses.

Steps:

1. Go to Sent tab
2. Filter by Status: Bounced
3. For each bounce, review the bounce type:

• Hard Bounce (invalid address) — Remove subscriber
• Soft Bounce (mailbox full) — Keep for now, maybe retry later

4. Go to Subscribers and mark/remove bounced addresses
5. Update suppression list

Best Practices

When to Use Each Sending Method

Use "Queue Draft" when:

• Subscriber list is small (< 500 recipients)
• You have complex personalization that needs review
• You want manual control over when each message sends
• Quality assurance is critical (important announcements)

Use "Send Automatically" when:

• Subscriber list is large (> 1,000 recipients)
• You want fire-and-forget simplicity
• You've tested the campaign and are confident
• Speed is important (time-sensitive campaigns)

Monitoring Message Health

Check your messages regularly for:

1. High bounce rates (> 5%) — May indicate list quality issues
2. Failed messages — Retry or investigate
3. Undelivered messages — Review error logs
4. Low engagement — Check email content or timing

Managing Queue Size

If you have thousands of draft messages:

1. Don't use Queue Draft for massive lists
2. Send drafts in batches over time
3. Delete old drafts you won't use
4. Archive sent messages after review period

Troubleshooting Messages

"Message won't send" or "Send Now button disabled"

Possible causes:

• Email service not configured (go to Settings → Email Services)
• Message missing required fields
• Subscriber email invalid
• Campaign deleted (orphaned message)

Solution: Check email service is active and subscriber email is valid.

"Bounced message" with generic error

Meaning: The recipient's email provider rejected the message.

Common reasons:

• Invalid email address
• Mailbox doesn't exist
• Recipient's mail server rejected sender IP

Solution: Verify email address in subscriber profile; remove if hard bounce.

"Failed message" with authentication error

Meaning: Email service rejected sending.

Causes:

• Wrong email service credentials
• Email service account suspended
• Rate limit exceeded

Solution: Go to Email Services; verify credentials and test connection.

High bounce rates on a campaign

Investigation:

1. Check if subscriber list was recently imported
2. Compare bounce rate to historical campaigns
3. Review email content (may trigger spam filters)
4. Check sender reputation with email service

Action:

• Use email validation before importing
• Verify SPF/DKIM/DMARC records
• Consider list cleaning service

"Cannot resend" old message

Reason: Email service may not store message history long-term.

Solution: Recreate the campaign and send again to the subscriber.

Advanced Message Operations

Segmented Sending

Send the same campaign in waves:

1. Create campaign with Queue Draft
2. Tag subscribers by segment (morning people, evening people, etc.)
3. Create separate messages for each segment using campaign targeting
4. Review a sample from each segment
5. Send each segment at optimal time of day

Conditional Resending

Automatically resend to failed recipients:

1. Filter messages by Status: Failed
2. Identify the root cause (temporary vs. permanent)
3. Use Resend for temporary failures
4. Update subscriber data for permanent failures
5. Retry failed group

Message Archiving

Keep sent messages but archive old ones:

1. Export sent messages older than 30 days
2. Download CSV for record-keeping
3. Delete old messages to clean up database
4. Repeat monthly

Limits and Performance

Message limits:

• No hard limit on total messages
• Display shows 100 messages per page (pagination available)
• Bulk operations limited to 1,000 messages at a time

For large volumes:

• Use filters to narrow results
• Export data periodically
• Archive old sent messages
• Use bulk operations instead of individual edits

Related Documentation

• Campaigns — Create and send campaigns
• Email Services — Configure sending providers
• Subscribers — Manage recipient lists
• Analytics — View campaign performance

Quick Reference

Key Actions:

• Preview — See message as recipient will see it
• Send Now — Immediately send a draft
• Resend — Retry a failed message
• Export — Download message data

Filters:

• Status (Sent, Bounced, Failed, Opened, Clicked)
• Campaign name
• Date range
• Recipient email

Common Statuses:

• Draft — Not sent yet
• Sent — Dispatched successfully
• Delivered — Confirmed receipt
• Bounced — Rejected by recipient's mail server
• Failed — Sending attempt failed
• Opened — Recipient opened email
• Clicked — Recipient clicked a link

Tabs:

• Drafts — Messages queued for manual sending
• Sent — Messages already dispatched