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Nothing reaches a list until a person approves it in the app. Your AI can draft, design, test, and request a send, but the approval is always a click in Zeno, on a screen that shows exactly who the issue goes to.

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Sending a test

On All campaigns, click Send Test on the issue. It goes to your own email address, with [TEST] at the start of the subject. Your AI can send a test to any address you name, for example “Send a test to maria@example.org.” A test isn’t exactly what a recipient gets:
  • The greeting uses the name “Test” instead of the recipient’s, and custom-field tags like {{renewal_date}} show as written.
  • A test of an issue that hasn’t gone out has no “Read this issue on our website” link yet.
  • The unsubscribe link does nothing and says so. See Unsubscribes.

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Choosing who receives it

Open the campaign and pick a segment in the To: line. It shows how many people will receive the issue today. See Audience for building segments, or ask your AI, for example “Send this to the volunteers segment.”

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Checking an issue

Every issue is checked against your Style guide before it can send. Open Preview & Design and the Checks tab: Select a check’s referenced section to highlight it in the email. For a check that needs review, choose Your assessment — I verified this, Needs a fix, Still needs review, or Not applicable to this issue — and note what you checked. Required checks block sending until they’re resolved; preferences stay visible but don’t block. Your AI can record its own assessment of an instruction, but a check that needs a person’s review has to be confirmed by a person in the app. A check that’s never been answered is never treated as passed. These always block sending until they’re resolved:
  • Complete newsletter setup, while the style guide isn’t finished
  • Add your organization’s mailing address, while it’s blank
  • Confirm proposed newsletter instructions, while your AI’s proposals are waiting
  • Rebuild flyer or page images as email text, when the issue looks like a picture of a flyer, until a person confirms it
Changing the content, audience, brand kit, or style guide makes earlier reviews out of date, and they have to be done again.

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Approving a send

  1. Click Review & Send on the issue in All campaigns, or ask your AI to request the send.
  2. The campaign opens on Review before sending, with the subject, the estimated number of recipients, and the Checks panel.
  3. Choose Send now, or Schedule and pick a time.
  4. Click Approve & Send or Approve & Schedule.
The screen tells you what’s still blocking, for example a missing audience or unresolved required checks. Zeno checks readiness again when you approve and keeps that review with the sent issue. When your AI requests a send, it gives you a link to this screen. Typing “go ahead” in the chat doesn’t send anything. Any change after the request, to the issue, its audience, the brand kit, or the style guide, clears the approval. If the link is out of date, the screen says so; ask your AI to request a new one.

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Scheduling

A scheduled send has to be at least a few minutes away. The audience is worked out at send time, so people who join or leave the segment before then are counted correctly. To cancel a scheduled send, click Unschedule, or ask your AI to stop it. The issue goes back to Draft. Once a send has started, it can’t be stopped.

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Testing two subject lines

Ask your AI to give a draft a second subject, or set it on the campaign under Test two subject lines: “Test with N % of recipients, then after N hours send the subject with more opens” (or clicks).
  • The test group is 10% to 50% of the audience, split evenly between the two subjects.
  • The wait is 1 to 72 hours.
  • The winner is the subject with the higher open or click rate among delivered emails. A tie goes to the first subject. Some mail apps open every email automatically, so clicks are the steadier measure when the email has a link to follow.
  • The rest of the audience gets the winning subject. With fewer than 20 recipients, everyone is in the test and there’s no remainder.
While the test runs, the campaign shows Testing subjects. The report shows each subject’s sent count, open rate, click rate, and the Winner. Subject tests are for regular campaigns, not welcome emails.

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Sender address

Campaigns go out under your brand kit’s sender name and address. Zeno can only send from a verified sending domain. If your sender address is on another domain, the email goes out from your organization’s sending domain under the same name, and your address becomes the reply-to so replies still reach you. A reply-to address set in the brand kit takes priority.

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Who doesn’t get it

Anyone on Do not email is left out of every send, and the report lists them as suppressed. Permanent bounces and spam complaints add the address to that list automatically. Temporary bounces are recorded but don’t block future sends.

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Campaign statuses

A campaign that needs attention isn’t retried automatically. Some recipients could already have it, so review the report’s recipient activity before you send again.