Adobe Campaign sits at that tricky spot where marketing dreams meet production reality. Everyone wants email at scale with real personalization, fast launches, and clean reporting. Then the calendar hits you with five promos, a site release, and a list import that showed up ten minutes before send. With GDPR around the corner, the stakes just went up. This is a field note from the trenches on how to make Adobe Campaign work without burning out your team.
Problem framing
At scale, the problem is not sending one big email. The problem is sending hundreds of emails every week while keeping data clean, send times sane, and messages relevant. Adobe Campaign Classic gives you a deep data model with workflows, delivery templates, and typology rules. Adobe Campaign Standard trims the edges and leans on the Experience Cloud. Both can move millions of emails. The catch is process. If you skip process, volume will break you.
Three case walkthrough
Case 1. Welcome that actually welcomes
Start with the welcome series. It is the easiest win. Build a workflow that listens for a new subscriber, checks consent, checks if the person already purchased, then branches. Use delivery templates with shared headers, footers, and a global unsubscribe. Add a pressure rule so a promo blast does not drown the welcome. Send in near real time for message one, then space the rest with a wait that reads audience time zone. Keep content blocks modular so copy can change without touching the workflow. This alone reduces support tickets and sets the tone for the program.
Case 2. Big promo without a site crash
For a major sale, do not hit the full file in one go. Use waves. Split by engagement or region, then send in chunks every few minutes. Add a pre check activity that kills the run if inventory drops or the site health flag fails. Seed every wave with test inboxes. Use proofs to the business owner and log approvals in the workflow via a simple note activity. Set a cap per minute that matches what your site can handle. This keeps revenue flowing while keeping ops happy.
Case 3. Triggered messages that fire on time
Cart reminders, password resets, order shipped. These live best in Message Center. Keep templates tight, use brand safe headers, and pass only the fields you need. Store a copy of the payload for QA. Monitor quarantine and event processing logs daily. If volume spikes, scale with more instances or queue politely. The rule is simple. The closer the message is to a customer action, the simpler the content should be. Speed beats fancy layouts here.
Objections and replies
It is too complex. Start small. Use the out of the box data tables first. Add custom fields only when a use case breaks without them. Name everything with a pattern that humans can read. Folders are your friend.
We need developers for everything. You need dev help for data feeds and custom links to your site. Day to day, marketers can own workflows, audiences, and deliveries. Pair a marketer and a tech lead for the first month, then document the playbook.
Deliverability will tank at volume. Warm your IPs, set SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and send to your engaged users first. Use a clear from name and a real reply address. Watch bounces and complaints daily. If a mailbox provider gets cranky, slow sends and trim the list. Adobe gives you logs. Read them.
GDPR will kill our list. Make consent a field with a date and source. Store proof. Add a clean preference center. Make export and delete easy. You can still grow a list. You just need to be clear and keep receipts.
Action steps for this week
- Pick one journey to fix. Start with the welcome series.
- Create shared delivery templates with approved headers, footers, and tracking.
- Define pressure rules and fatigue limits. Put them in typology so they apply every time.
- Set IP warm up and auth. Verify SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and subdomain setup.
- Build a simple QA ladder. Proofs, seeds, mirror page check, live link check, and a final sign off.
- Log every send in a shared calendar linked to the workflow folder.
- Pick three metrics to watch daily. Throughput, bounces, and complaints. Share a quick update with the team.
Email at scale is a process game. Adobe Campaign can carry the load if you keep the data tidy, the templates shared, and the rules in one place. Start with one journey and one big promo, ship clean, and write down what worked. Do that a few weeks in a row and the system starts to feel calm, even when the calendar is not.
Created on 2018 04 15