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Email Marketing Addon Guide

This guide helps you send professional email campaigns from Task Session — even if you are not technical. You will learn how to set up email sending, add contacts, design templates, and send your first campaign.

Before you begin: Activate the Email Marketing addon first. See Addons Guide.

Table of Contents

  1. Quick Start (5 steps)
  2. Marketing Menu – What Each Section Does
  3. Email Settings (SMTP)
  4. Contacts and Audiences
  5. Import Contacts
  6. Upload Images (Content Studio)
  7. Create Email Templates
  8. Visual Builder (Drag & Drop)
  9. Create and Send a Campaign
  10. View Results
  11. Give Access to Team Members
  12. Important: Scheduled Sending
  13. Troubleshooting
  14. Summary

1. Quick Start (5 steps)

Follow this path to send your first email:

  1. Activate addon — Admin > System settings > Addons > Email Marketing > Activate Now.
  2. Set up email — Marketing > Settings > enter your SMTP details > Save > Send test email.
  3. Add contacts — Marketing > Import/Export > upload a CSV, or Marketing > Audience > Import from system.
  4. Create a template — Marketing > Templates > create or open Visual Builder > design your email > Save.
  5. Send campaign — Marketing > Campaigns > Create > follow the wizard > Schedule Campaign.

Emails are sent in the background in small batches. Make sure your server cron job is running (see Scheduled Sending).

After activation, open Marketing in the left sidebar:

MenuWhat it is for
DashboardSee how your campaigns are performing (sent, opened, failed).
CampaignsCreate, edit, schedule, and view all your emails.
TemplatesSave reusable email designs you can use again and again.
Content StudioUpload your logo and images for emails.
AudienceView and manage your contact list.
AudiencesCreate groups/lists (e.g. “Newsletter”, “VIP Clients”).
Import/ExportUpload contacts from a spreadsheet or download your list.
SettingsConfigure how emails are sent (SMTP, sender name, tracking).

3. Email Settings (SMTP)

Go to Marketing > Settings.

What you need

You need email sending details from your email provider (Gmail, Outlook, your hosting company, SendGrid, etc.):

  • SMTP host (e.g. smtp.gmail.com)
  • Port (usually 587 or 465)
  • Username (often your full email address)
  • Password (or App Password for Gmail)
  • From email and From name (what recipients see)

Setup steps

  1. Open Marketing > Settings.
  2. Scroll to Marketing SMTP.
  3. Fill in host, port, username, password, and encryption (usually TLS).
  4. Enter your From email and From name.
  5. Click Save SMTP settings.
  6. Send a test email to yourself to confirm it works.

Good to know: Marketing email settings are separate from system email (Admin > SMTP Setup). System SMTP is for password resets and notifications. Marketing SMTP is only for your campaigns.

4. Contacts and Audiences

Contacts

Go to Marketing > Audience to see everyone on your mailing list.

Each person has a name, email, and status:

  • Subscribed — will receive campaigns
  • Unsubscribed — will not receive campaigns (they clicked unsubscribe)

Audiences (lists)

Go to Marketing > Audiences to create named groups.

Example: create “Monthly Newsletter” and “Product Updates” so you can send to the right people.

5. Import Contacts

Option A — Import from a spreadsheet (CSV)

  1. Go to Marketing > Import/Export.
  2. Click Import.
  3. Choose a target audience (required).
  4. Upload your CSV file.
  5. Wait for the progress bar to finish.

Your CSV should have at least an email column. Optional columns: name, first_name, last_name, company, phone.

Option B — Import from your CRM

  1. Go to Marketing > Audience.
  2. Click Import from system.
  3. Choose one or more audiences.
  4. Select Clients, Staff, or Admins.
  5. Pick the people you want and import.

Export contacts

Go to Marketing > Import/Export > Export to download your full list as a CSV backup.

6. Upload Images (Content Studio)

Go to Marketing > Content Studio.

  1. Click Upload and select your logo or images (JPG, PNG, GIF).
  2. Use these images inside the Visual Builder when designing templates.

Tip: Upload your company logo once here, then reuse it in every email.

7. Create Email Templates

Go to Marketing > Templates.

You can create a template in several ways:

  • Create from scratch — start with a blank email and type your content.
  • Visual Builder — drag-and-drop design (recommended for nice layouts).
  • Import HTML — if a designer gave you an HTML file.
  • Import ZIP — HTML file plus an images folder in one ZIP.

Always include an unsubscribe link in your template footer. Use the merge tag {{unsubscribe_link}} or add a link manually.

Personalization tags (merge tags)

These are replaced with each person’s details when the email sends:

  • {{first_name}} — first name
  • {{last_name}} — last name
  • {{name}} — full name
  • {{email}} — email address
  • {{company}} — company name
  • {{unsubscribe_link}} — unsubscribe link (use in footer)

Example in your email: Hi {{first_name}}, here is our latest update…

8. Visual Builder (Drag & Drop)

Open a template and click Visual Builder.

How to use it

  1. Left side — drag blocks (text, image, button, divider) onto the email.
  2. Center — click any part of the email to select it.
  3. Right side — change colors, text, links, padding, and alignment.
  4. Add your logo from Content Studio.
  5. Add a button for your call-to-action (e.g. “Visit our website”).
  6. Add {{unsubscribe_link}} in the footer.
  7. Click Save and exit.
  8. Click Send test to see how it looks in your inbox.

9. Create and Send a Campaign

Go to Marketing > Campaigns > Create (or Create Campaign button).

Step 1 — Name your email

Enter an internal name (only you see this, not your recipients). Click Begin.

Step 2 — Choose template

  • Regular email — write content in the editor.
  • Saved template — pick a design you already created.

Step 3 — Choose recipients

  • By audience — send to everyone in selected lists (most common).
  • Individual contacts — pick specific people.

Step 4 — Email details

  • Subject line — what people see in their inbox.
  • Preview text — short line under the subject (optional).
  • Sender name and reply-to email.

Step 5 — Review and send

  • Click Send test to email yourself first.
  • Click Save as Draft if you want to finish later.
  • Click Schedule Campaign to send now or pick a date and time.

After you schedule, emails go into a queue and are sent automatically in small batches.

10. View Results

Dashboard

Marketing > Dashboard — see overall performance: how many emails sent, opened, and failed.

Campaign report

From Marketing > Campaigns, open a sent campaign and click Report to see:

  • Who received the email
  • Who opened it
  • Who had delivery errors

11. Give Access to Team Members

By default, the main administrator can use all marketing features. To let staff use marketing:

  1. Go to Admin > Roles.
  2. Edit the staff member’s role.
  3. Enable the marketing permissions they need, for example:
    • Marketing access — see the Marketing menu
    • View campaigns — see campaigns and reports
    • Edit campaigns — create and edit emails
    • Send campaigns — schedule and send
    • Manage templates — design templates and upload images
    • Manage recipients — contacts, audiences, import/export
    • Manage settings — SMTP and tracking options
  4. Save the role.

12. Important: Scheduled Sending

Task Session does not send thousands of emails in one click. Emails are sent in the background by a scheduled task (cron) on your server.

Ask your hosting provider or IT person to run this every 5 minutes:

https://yourdomain.com/cron.php

Without this, campaigns may stay stuck on “queued” and never send.

If you use cPanel, add a cron job like:

*/5 * * * * wget -q -O /dev/null https://yourdomain.com/cron.php

13. Troubleshooting

Marketing menu not showing

  • Activate the addon: Admin > System settings > Addons.
  • Refresh the page (Ctrl + F5).
  • Check role permissions in Admin > Roles.

Test email fails

  • Double-check SMTP host, port, username, and password.
  • For Gmail, create an App Password (normal password may not work).
  • Try port 587 with TLS, or 465 with SSL.

Campaign stuck on “queued”

  • Make sure cron.php runs every 5 minutes on your server.
  • Ask your host to confirm the cron job is set up.

Images not showing in Gmail

  • Upload images through Content Studio, do not use random external links.
  • Make sure your website uses HTTPS.

Emails go to spam

  • Use a real email address on your own domain (e.g. [email protected]).
  • Always include an unsubscribe link.
  • Only email people who subscribed.
  • Ask your host to set up SPF and DKIM for your domain.

CSV import fails

  • CSV must have an email column.
  • You must select a target audience before importing.

14. Summary

  • Activate Email Marketing from Admin > System settings > Addons.
  • Set up Marketing > Settings (SMTP) and send a test email.
  • Import contacts via CSV or from your CRM clients.
  • Design templates in the Visual Builder; upload images in Content Studio.
  • Create a campaign, choose audience, write subject, and Schedule Campaign.
  • Ensure cron.php runs every 5 minutes so emails actually send.
  • Check Dashboard and campaign Reports for results.