Your autopilot has written the next newsletter issue, and it won't go out until someone approves it. Here's how to check it, send it or have it written again, what happens if nobody gets to it in time, and how to fix an issue that could not be written.
How you find out a draft is waiting
When an issue has been written and is waiting for approval, everyone with the Campaigns permission gets a notification in the bell in the sidebar and an e-mail. The owner always gets them. The link opens the draft in the campaign editor.
You can also see it on the autopilot's page, in the Waiting for your approval card, and in the Autopilot list, where the autopilot's card says Waiting for your approval followed by the issue's subject.
Approving needs two permissions: Newsletter Autopilot and Campaigns. Someone with only Campaigns gets the alerts but can't approve, so give the people who approve both.
The banner in the campaign editor
Open the draft and you'll see a banner at the top of the campaign editor: Written by Autopilot, the autopilot's name, and the date the issue is planned for. It has three buttons:
- Approve & send — sends the issue. When it goes out depends on the time you approve it (see below).
- Regenerate — cancels this draft and writes a new one for the same date.
- Open autopilot — takes you to the autopilot's page.
The banner only appears on a draft that is waiting for approval. Samples never get one, because they are never sent.
Approve before or after the planned time
- Before the planned time — the issue is scheduled and goes out at the planned time. You'll see Scheduled for and the date.
- After the planned time — the banner says the issue was planned for that date and that approving sends it right away. It starts sending as soon as you approve.
You can also approve from the autopilot's page: both the Waiting for your approval card and the issue's row in the Issue history have an Approve & send button.
Edit the draft first
The draft is an ordinary campaign, so you can change anything before you approve it: the subject line, the text, the images. Save your changes (in the email editor, Next: Review and schedule saves them), then click Approve & send. You can also schedule it yourself the usual way from the Review and schedule step, or cancel it. The autopilot's issue history follows whatever you do.
Regenerate: have it written again
Not happy with the draft? Click Regenerate and confirm. The current draft is cancelled and Autopilot writes a new issue for the same date. It shows up on the autopilot's page in a minute or two. Each new draft is billed like any other issue. If the planned time is already more than 6 hours in the past, the new issue is planned for right now instead, so approving it sends it straight away.
Regenerating needs the same two permissions as approving.
If nobody approves
- Once the planned time has passed, people with the Campaigns permission get one reminder, in the bell and by e-mail. The draft keeps waiting, and approving it later sends it straight away.
- If the next date on the schedule comes round while the draft is still waiting, that next issue is skipped, not queued behind it. The issue history shows Skipped — the previous draft was still waiting for approval.
- With the After the previous one schedule, nothing new is planned until the waiting issue has been sent or cancelled.
You may also see Skipped — the generation window was missed. That means the time for writing that issue passed before it could be written, so that date was dropped. The next date on the schedule is not affected.
When approval is off
If Require my approval is off, each issue is scheduled as soon as it is written and goes out at its send time; nobody has to approve anything. You get a bell notification when an issue is scheduled and again when it has been sent. Issues sent this way still pass the same content check as a campaign you send by hand. If an issue can't be launched on its own, it becomes a waiting draft with a note saying why, and you're alerted by bell and e-mail. Fix the problem and approve it from the editor as described above.
Cancel an issue, turn the autopilot off, or delete it
- Cancel, on an issue's row in the Issue history, drops one planned issue or one waiting draft. The autopilot carries on with the next date.
- Turning the autopilot off (the On / Off button at the top of its page) cancels every issue that is planned, being written or waiting for approval, together with its draft. Campaigns that are already scheduled still go out; cancel those from the Campaigns page if you don't want them sent.
- Delete autopilot, at the bottom of its page, removes the autopilot but keeps the campaigns it wrote. A draft still waiting for approval is cancelled. The kept campaigns lose their Autopilot badge in the campaign lists.
Why did an issue fail?
When an issue can't be written, the autopilot's page shows The last issue could not be written with the reason, and people with the Campaigns permission get a bell notification and an e-mail. Fix the cause, then click Write it again (or Regenerate on the issue's row in the Issue history).
| What went wrong | How to fix it |
|---|---|
| No content sources are ticked for the autopilot. | Tick at least one on the brand's Content sources page. |
| The ticked sources have no usable content left, or every idea from them has already been used. | Add fresh content to the brand, or tick more sources. |
| The planned issue was too similar to a recent one. | Same fix: add fresh content or tick more sources, so there are new topics to write about. |
| The sender address no longer exists, or its domain is not verified or is paused. | Pick another sender in the autopilot's Sending card, or fix the domain under Newsletter → Verification. |
| The template is missing or has no Content area. | Pick another template in the Sending card, or add a Content area to the template. |
| AI generation needs credits. | Top up your balance under Settings → Organization settings → Billing. |
| Writing took too long (more than 20 minutes) and timed out. | Click Regenerate. |
With the After the previous one schedule, a failed issue holds up the ones after it: nothing new is planned until someone writes it again.
What's next
To change the schedule, the audience or what the autopilot writes about, see Set up Newsletter Autopilot.