# Quick start

This is the shortest path from an empty CRM to email going out. Each step links to the page
that covers it in full. The same steps appear in the **Finish setting up** checklist in the
CRM's sidebar, which ticks itself off as you go.

## 1. Set your business details and sending defaults

Every marketing email needs a real sender and a postal address in its footer.

1. Go to **Settings → Business profile** and fill in your business name and address.
2. Go to **Settings → Email defaults** and set the **From name** and **From address**.
   Use an address on your own domain — Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook reject or junk bulk mail
   sent as a free mailbox address from another server.
3. Under **Mailer**, check that a mailer plugin is connected. If none is, install the
   recommended one, then use **Send a test email** to see how your messages arrive.

More: [Email defaults](/settings/email/).

## 2. Add your contacts

Choose one:

- **Import a CSV.** Go to **Contacts → Import**, drop in your file, match its columns to
  contact fields and start the import. It runs in the background. See
  [Import contacts](/contacts/import/).
- **Add people by hand.** Go to **Contacts** and choose **New contact**. See
  [Contacts](/contacts/).

:::caution[Consent]
Only import people as **Subscribed** if they agreed to receive your email. Everyone else
should come in as **Transactional** or **Pending**.
:::

## 3. Create a list

Lists are what people subscribe to, and what an unsubscribe removes them from.

1. Go to **Contacts → Lists** and choose **New list**.
2. Give it a name, such as *Newsletter*. Turn on **Show on the preference page** if
   subscribers should be able to join or leave it themselves.
3. Add contacts to it — during an import with **Add to lists**, or from the contacts table
   with the bulk action **Add to lists**.

More: [Lists](/contacts/lists/).

![The Lists screen with one list, Newsletter, showing its contact count](/images/placeholder.svg)

## 4. Send your first campaign

1. Go to **Emails → Campaigns** and choose **New campaign**.
2. In **To**, choose the list you made. Only contacts whose status is **Subscribed** receive
   a campaign; the composer shows how many can be emailed.
3. Write a subject line and the email.
4. Open **Review**, fix anything marked in red, then **Slide to send**. To send later, choose
   **Schedule** first and pick a date and time.

More: [Campaigns](/emails/campaigns/).

## 5. Start an automation from a recipe

Automations look after one contact at a time, unattended.

1. Go to **Automations** and choose **New automation**.
2. Under **Or start from a recipe**, pick one — **Welcome series**, for example, sends three
   emails over a week to everyone who joins a list.
3. On the canvas, open the trigger and choose which list starts it. Read each email step and
   make the words yours.
4. **Slide to activate**. An automation with a required setting left empty will not turn on
   until you fill it in.

More: [Automations](/automations/).

:::tip[Nothing sending?]
Campaigns and automations run on WordPress cron. On a quiet site that can run late — the
**Dashboard** warns you when it does, and **Settings → Tools** has the server cron lines that
fix it.
:::