Campaigns · Elly Docs

Campaigns are multi-step email sequences sent automatically to a list of candidates. Use them for cold outreach, re-engagement, and any scenario where you want follow-ups sent on a schedule.

What a campaign is#

A campaign has three parts:

A sequence — An ordered list of steps (e.g., initial message, follow-up in 3 days, final follow-up in 7 days). Steps can be emails or LinkedIn reminders.
An enrolled candidate list — The people the sequence is sent to.
A sending email account — One of your team's connected mailboxes sends the messages.

Candidates progress through the sequence automatically at the intervals you define, unless they reply or are removed.

Creating a campaign#

From Sourcer → Campaigns, click New campaign and provide:

Name — Internal label.
Associated job — Optional. Links the campaign to a specific job so replies surface on that job's pipeline.

Writing the sequence#

For each step, configure:

From — Which of your connected email accounts sends this step.
Interval — How long after the previous step to send (e.g., 3 days or 18 hours).
Subject line — Supports variables like {{firstName}} and {{lastName}}.
Body — The message. Variables work here too.

You can have up to 10 steps, though 3–5 is typical.

Email threading#

By default, follow-up steps (step 2 onward) arrive in the candidate's inbox as replies to the previous email — keeping the conversation in one thread. If you'd rather a step land as a separate email, choose New Thread for that step.

If you want your emails to look like a single conversation, use the same account for every step. If you switch accounts mid-sequence, set the affected step to New Thread — Elly won't let you save a sequence that tries to thread across different senders.

LinkedIn reminder steps#

You can also add LinkedIn reminder steps. These don't email the candidate — instead, Elly emails the current campaign owner a reminder email when it's time, with the candidate's LinkedIn URL and the message you planned, so the owner can send it from their LinkedIn account manually.

Changing a sequence#

Once a campaign has enrolled candidates, the sequence is locked for those candidates. Editing the sequence creates a new version.

Candidates already enrolled continue on the version they were enrolled under.
Newly enrolled candidates get the new version.

This avoids weird half-sent sequences when you update a template mid-flight. If you want everyone to get the new version, you can un-enroll candidates from the old one and re-enroll them on the new version.

Enrolling candidates#

Candidates can be added to a campaign from:

Sourcer Search results — Bulk select and Add to campaign. See Search.
The Candidates list — Bulk select and Add to campaign. See Candidates.
A job's pipeline — Right-click or use the card menu to enroll.

If a candidate doesn't have an email address, Elly will warn you before enrolling. If their email is missing when a step is ready to send, that send will fail and you'll get a notification.

Activating and pausing#

A campaign has one of two statuses:

Active — New enrollments start sending immediately; scheduled steps fire on time.
Paused — No new sends. Candidates who've received step N stay at step N until you resume; the waiting timer picks back up right where it left off when you hit Resume.

For example, candidates who've received an email in step 3 will stay at step 3 until you resume your campaign.

Pausing is safe — nothing is lost — and is the right move whenever you need to review a sequence mid-flight.

Reply detection#

Elly watches the connected sending account for replies via Gmail or Outlook webhooks. When a reply is detected:

The candidate is automatically removed from the pending sequence (their state flips to Replied).
The reply is attached to the candidate's timeline.
You're notified so you can follow up manually.

Reply detection is not perfect — auto-responders and out-of-office messages sometimes cause a candidate to be removed. If a candidate is incorrectly marked as replied, you can re-enroll them manually.

Candidate states#

Within a campaign, each candidate has one of these states:

State	Meaning
Active	Currently in the sequence; next step is scheduled.
Completed	Reached the end of the sequence without replying.
Replied	Sent a reply; removed from further sends.
Failed	A send permanently failed (e.g., the email address bounced).

Retry and failure handling#

Temporary glitches (short-term service issues) — Elly retries automatically.
Permanent Failures — Candidate is marked Failed and no further sends are attempted. The reason appears on the candidate's campaign detail.
Rate limits — If the sending account hits a provider rate limit, sends are slowed but not lost.

Reviewing performance#

Check the campaign's candidates tab to see how many have been sent, replied, completed, or failed. A strong cold-outreach sequence typically lands in the 10–20% reply range; below 5% means the subject line or opening paragraph needs work.