This guide walks you through how to send and manage email Campaigns using Colleague, including setting up Outlook rules to organise receipts and track campaign performance.
Step 1: Prepare Outlook to Handle Receipts
Before sending a campaign, configure Outlook to automatically sort read receipts and undeliverables into folders to avoid inbox clutter.
Create Rules in Outlook
Open Outlook and create folders for different types of receipts (e.g., "Campaigns > Read", "Campaigns > Undeliverables").
Go to Rules → Manage Rules & Alerts → New Rule.
Choose Move messages with specific words in the subject to a folder.
Click Next, then select with specific words in the subject, add keywords like read, undeliverable, etc., and choose the appropriate folder (e.g., "Campaigns > Read").
Click Next (no exceptions needed).
Repeat for each type of receipt you want to filter.
Your campaign will appear with a status (e.g., "Waiting to send").
Once processed, you'll see metrics such as: Emails Sent, Undeliverables, Opens, Replies.
View Results in Outlook
Check your designated folders (e.g., "Undeliverables") to see the delivery status responses.
Step 5: Associate Records with Existing Campaigns
If you want to add more records to an ongoing campaign:
Select the new records.
Click Email → Campaigns → Associate Current Campaign.
Choose the existing campaign from the dropdown.
Click OK to link the new emails to the campaign.
Step 6: View Colleagues' Campaigns
Colleague also allows you to view campaigns created by other team members for collaboration and visibility.
Please Note
Specific categorisation in the event of undeliverables can be a limitation when using Outlook Exchange in comparison to solutions such as Mailchimp or SendGrid.
When using a campaign it will include a delivery receipt and a read receipt per email, but SPAM filters can block these receipts.
In the event of a 'bounce' (i.e. an invalid email address), there is logic to track undeliverables in this scenario. However you could have a delivered email with the delivery receipt blocked and the 'read' receipt blocked.
Ultimately, the 'Sent' and 'Replied' stats are confirmed and can not be manipulated. However, Delivered/Undelivered and Read/Unread are subject to the SPAM filters.
For more information regarding Campaigns, please contact the Support Team.