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Step-by-step guides for everything in utobo Email — from adding your domain to sending campaigns and managing billing. Stuck? Search below or email us.
Getting Started
Welcome to utobo Email! Here's how to go from a blank account to sending your first email campaign in under 15 minutes.
Step-by-step: your first campaign
Create your account
Sign up at email.utobo.com. Enter your name, email, and password.
Verify your sending domain
Go to Account → Domains and add your domain (e.g. yourcompany.com). Follow the DNS verification steps — this proves you own the domain and dramatically improves deliverability.
Import or add contacts
Go to Contacts → Import to upload a CSV file, or click Add Contact to enter individual subscribers manually.
Create a list
Go to Lists → New List. Give it a name (e.g. 'Newsletter subscribers') and add your imported contacts to it.
Create a template
Go to Templates → New Template. Use the visual builder to drag-and-drop your email design, or use the AI writer to generate copy.
Create and send a campaign
Go to Campaigns → New Campaign. Choose your list, your template, write a subject line, and hit Send Now — or schedule it for later.
Campaigns
Campaigns are bulk emails sent to one or more subscriber lists — newsletters, announcements, promotions, and re-engagement emails.
Creating a campaign
Go to Campaigns → New Campaign
Click New Campaign in the top right of the Campaigns page.
Choose your recipients
Select one or more lists to send to. The total recipient count is shown at the top. Duplicate subscribers across lists are automatically deduplicated.
Choose a template
Select an existing template or create a new one. You can also use a plain HTML/text editor.
Set subject and preview text
The subject line is what recipients see in their inbox. The preview text (preheader) is the grey snippet shown beneath the subject in many email clients.
Send or schedule
Click Send Now to send immediately, or Schedule to choose a future date and time.
Campaign statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved but not yet sent or scheduled. |
| Scheduled | Will send at the chosen date and time. Can be rescheduled or cancelled. |
| Sending | Currently being delivered. Large campaigns may take a few minutes. |
| Sent | All emails have been dispatched. Check analytics for opens and clicks. |
| Paused | Sending paused (e.g. bounced past the threshold). Resume from the campaign page. |
Campaign analytics
After sending, click a campaign name to see its performance:
Contacts & Lists
Adding contacts
You can add contacts three ways:
CSV import
Go to Contacts → Import. Upload a .csv file. Required column: email. Optional: name, and any custom fields. utobo Email skips duplicate and invalid addresses automatically.
Manual entry
Click Add Contact, enter an email address and name. Good for adding individual subscribers.
API
Use the utobo Email API to programmatically add contacts from your app (e.g. when a user signs up). See the Developer Docs for details.
CSV file format
Your CSV file should look like this:
email,name,company alice@example.com,Alice Smith,Acme Corp bob@example.com,Bob Jones, carol@example.com,Carol Lee,Startup Inc
The email column is required. All other columns are optional. Column headers are case-insensitive.
Managing lists
Unsubscribes and bounces
When a contact unsubscribes or hard-bounces, utobo Email automatically marks them as unsubscribed. They will not receive any future campaign emails — you do not need to manually remove them from lists.
Templates & Design
Templates let you design your email once and reuse it across multiple campaigns.
Three ways to create a template
Visual builder
Drag-and-drop blocks: text, images, buttons, dividers, columns. No code required.
AI writer
Describe your email goal and let AI generate the content. Edit to personalize.
Code editor
Paste or write raw HTML for full control. Best for custom designs.
Merge tags (personalization)
Use merge tags to personalize your emails with subscriber data. They are replaced with the subscriber's actual values when the email is sent.
| Tag | Replaced with | Fallback if empty |
|---|---|---|
| {{name}} | Subscriber's full name | "there" (e.g. "Hi there") |
| {{email}} | Subscriber's email address | — |
| {{unsubscribe}} | Unsubscribe link URL | — (always present) |
Email design tips
Domain Verification
Verifying your sending domain is required before you can send any emails. It proves you own the domain and sets up the DNS records that tell receiving servers your emails are legitimate.
What DNS records are needed?
| Record | Purpose | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| DKIM (TXT) | Cryptographically signs your emails, proving they came from you and weren't tampered with. | Yes |
| Return-path (CNAME) | Points a bounce subdomain at utobo so SPF passes for your domain. | Yes |
| DMARC (TXT) | Sets policy for what happens to emails that fail SPF/DKIM checks. | Suggested |
| MX | Only needed if you set up Receiving to get replies in utobo. | Only for Receiving |
How to verify your domain
Account → Domains → Add Domain
Enter your root domain (e.g. yourcompany.com — no www or http://).
Copy the DNS records shown
utobo Email displays the exact TXT and CNAME records to add. They are unique to your account.
Add the records to your DNS provider
Login to your DNS provider (Cloudflare, Namecheap, GoDaddy, Route53, etc.) and add all the records exactly as shown.
Click Check DNS
Return to utobo Email and click Check DNS. Records usually propagate within 5–15 minutes, though it can take up to 48 hours for some providers.
Adding your domain — pick your DNS provider
Search for where your domain is hosted and we'll show you exactly where to paste the records from Account → Domains.
Billing & Plans
Plan overview
utobo Email is à-la-carte. Pick any combination of three channels — Transactional (API sends, from $9/mo), Marketing (campaigns, from $9/mo for 1,000 contacts) and Cold outreach (campaigns from your own mailboxes, from $29/mo) — and size each one independently. Combine two or more and save a flat 10% (one bill); all three together is the all-in-one platform. Annual billing saves another 20%, and there are no overage charges.
See the full plan comparison at utobo.com/email/pricing.
How billing works
Managing your subscription
Go to the Billing page (bottom of the left sidebar in your dashboard) to:
Team & Permissions
Invite your team members to collaborate in utobo Email. Each member gets their own login and permissions.
Inviting a team member
Go to Account → Team
Find Team in the Account section of the left sidebar.
Click Invite Member
Enter your team member's email address and select their role.
They accept the invitation
They receive an email with a link to set up their account and join your organization.
Roles
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Owner | Full access. Manage billing, team members, API keys, and all settings. Cannot be removed. |
| Admin | Full access except billing. Can manage team members and API keys. |
| Member | Can create and send campaigns, manage contacts, templates, and lists. |
Integrations & CRM
utobo Email connects to your CRM, your app or any other tool in three ways. Pick the one that matches what you want to happen — you can combine them.
| You want to… | Use |
|---|---|
| Update your CRM when someone opens, clicks, bounces or joins a list — without writing code | Zapier |
| Send utobo events to any URL your CRM or app can receive | Webhooks |
| Push leads from your CRM into utobo, tag them and start a sequence | API |
| Ask an AI to review campaign results and draft new campaigns | Claude |
1. Zapier — no code (utobo → your CRM)
The utobo Email app on Zapier lets a Zap start whenever something happens in utobo, and then do anything in your CRM: create or update a lead, add a note, move a deal stage.
Open Integrations → Zapier → Connect
In the utobo sidebar, open Integrations and click the Zapier card.
Create a Webhooks (integrations) API key
The dialog sends you to Account → API Keys. Create a key with the “Webhooks (integrations)” permission and copy it.
Click Open Zapier and paste the key
Add utobo Email as a connection in Zapier. Paste the key when Zapier asks for it.
Build your Zap
Choose a utobo trigger — New Contact, Email Opened, Link Clicked, Email Bounced or Campaign Completed — then pick the action in your CRM.
2. Webhooks — utobo → any tool
Most CRMs and automation tools can receive an incoming webhook (they give you a URL). Add that URL in utobo and we send a signed JSON message the moment an event happens.
Copy the incoming-webhook URL from your CRM or tool
Look for “incoming webhook”, “catch hook” or “HTTP trigger” in the other tool.
Go to Account → Webhooks → Add endpoint
Paste the URL and choose the events you want — or all of them.
Click Test
utobo sends a sample event so you can map the fields on the other side. Every delivery is retried automatically if your endpoint is down.
Events you can subscribe to:
| Group | Events |
|---|---|
| Contacts | created, updated, deleted, added to a list, removed from a list, unsubscribed, suppressed (bounce or complaint) |
| sent, delivered, opened, link clicked, bounced, spam complaint, received (inbound mail to your domain) | |
| Campaigns & sequences | campaign completed, contact enrolled in a sequence |
Payload format and signature verification are in the developer docs.
3. API — your CRM or app → utobo
When your CRM should drive utobo — new lead comes in, it lands in a list and starts an onboarding sequence — use the API.
Create an API key
Account → API Keys → Create key. Give it only the permissions you need, e.g. Contacts and Sequences.
Call utobo from your CRM, app or automation tool
Add or update contacts and put them in lists, add or remove tags, enroll a contact in a sequence (or remove them), and send transactional email.
Close the loop with webhooks
Subscribe to opens, clicks, replies and unsubscribes so your CRM stays in sync.
Endpoints, examples and SDKs are in the developer docs. Sequences and Inbound examples are under Developers → Docs inside the app.
4. Claude — AI connector
Add utobo Email to Claude from Integrations → Claude or at claude.ai/directory/utobo-email. Claude can read your campaigns and reports, see your audiences and draft new campaigns. It never sends.
Deliverability Tips
Email deliverability is whether your emails land in the inbox or the spam folder. utobo Email is built on AWS SES — one of the most reputable sending infrastructures in the world — but your own practices matter just as much.
The most important things
Verify your domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
This is non-negotiable. Without these records, Gmail and Outlook will send your emails straight to spam. Copy the records shown in Account → Domains to your DNS provider, then check the domain's verification status.
Follow sending policies and the law
Follow utobo's published sending policies and applicable law. Keep records supporting your permission to contact recipients and honor unsubscribe requests.
Keep your bounce rate below 1.5%
High bounce rates tell mailbox providers your list is low quality. Monitor the Delivery Issues page weekly. Remove bounced addresses immediately.
Warm up your sending volume
New accounts warm up automatically: utobo applies a daily sending limit that rises from 1,000 emails in the first 24 hours to 250,000 a day from day 16 (5,000 a day on days 2–4, 25,000 a day on days 5–8, 100,000 a day on days 9–15), resetting at 00:00 UTC. Even within the limit, grow volume gradually and send to your most engaged contacts first — sudden spikes look suspicious to mailbox providers.
Write clear, relevant subject lines
Avoid ALL CAPS, excessive exclamation marks, and phrases like 'FREE!!! ACT NOW!!!'. These trigger spam filters. Focus on what value the email delivers.
Include a plain-text version
utobo Email adds a plain-text version automatically for campaigns. For API sends, include the text field alongside html.
Frequently Asked Questions
Still need help?
Our support team typically responds within 24 hours on business days.