Create an Outreach campaign by pasting JSON

An Outreach campaign's emails can be written as one JSON document and pasted into Magpie. New campaign → Paste JSON will create a draft campaign from it, with its steps in order. An import never changes a campaign that already exists.

Use Copy the prompt in the import box to copy these instructions for an assistant you use. The assistant will ask you what you are offering, who the people are, and how many follow-ups to send over how many days, then write the document. Magpie writes no text itself.

Importing is all or nothing. Magpie will check the whole document before it saves anything, and will name a mistake by its place in the document, such as "steps[0].body" uses {{frist_name}}, which is not a merge field. A field that is not in the format is refused.

The document holds no people, mailbox or sending window. On the campaign's page, add people, then choose the mailbox and the rest in Edit details….

The document

{
  "schema": "magpie.outreach-campaign",
  "version": 1,
  "name": "Autumn studio visits",
  "senderName": "Robin Park",
  "goal": "booking",
  "replyWaitDays": 7,
  "steps": [
    {
      "subject": "A question for {{company|your studio}}",
      "body": "Hi {{first_name|there}},\n\n{{about}}\n\nWe help small studios book more client visits. Would a 15-minute call next week be useful?\n\n{{booking_link}}\n\n{{sender_first_name}}"
    },
    {
      "delayDays": 3,
      "body": "Hi {{first_name|there}},\n\nA short follow-up in case my last email got buried. Happy to send a two-line summary instead of a call.\n\n{{sender_first_name}}"
    },
    {
      "delayDays": 5,
      "body": "Hi {{first_name|there}},\n\nI will not email again about this. If the timing is better later, just reply.\n\n{{sender_first_name}}"
    }
  ]
}

Fields

The document is an object with "schema": "magpie.outreach-campaign" and "version": 1. name and steps are required.

• name: the campaign's name, up to 120 characters. People who get the emails never see it.
• senderName: the name the emails are from, up to 120 characters. The mailbox's name when left out.
• goal: what the campaign counts as its result: reply (the default), booking (a booked call) or signed_up.
• replyWaitDays: how many days after the last step a person who has not replied becomes No reply, from 1 to 30. 7 when left out.
• steps: the emails, in the order they are sent, 1 to 10.

The first step has a subject (one line, up to 255 characters) and a body. Every step after it is sent as a reply in the same thread, with the first step's subject after Re: , so it has no subject.

Each later step has delayDays, from 1 to 60: the days to wait after the step before it.

A step's body is plain text, up to 20,000 characters. Write a new line as \n and leave a blank line between paragraphs with \n\n. Mail programs show web addresses as links. Magpie will add the unsubscribe line, and your postal address when it is switched on, after the text; leave them out of the body.

Merge fields

A merge field in a subject or a body is filled in for each person when the step is sent. Write it in double braces. A fallback after | is used when the person has no value: {{first_name|there}}.

• {{first_name}}, {{last_name}} and {{name}}: the person's names, from their contact.
• {{company}}: the person's company.
• {{about}}: the line about the person you write when you add them, such as where you met.
• {{sender_first_name}} and {{sender_name}}: the name, in Magpie, of the member who started the campaign or last resumed it.
• {{booking_link}}: the address of your Appointments page. A campaign that uses it cannot start until the page is published.

Any other name in double braces is refused, so a misspelled field never reaches anyone. A campaign will not start while a field without a fallback is empty for someone in it; for someone added later, their step waits until the field is filled in on their contact.

If an import is refused for a reason this page does not explain, Contact support.