Email Marketing - Setup Guide

How to set up Omnisend

Otto's honest, no-fluff walkthrough. Every step here is what we'd actually do if we were sitting at your keyboard. Real gotchas first, real steps second, and a link to the personalized version at the bottom.

Read these before you start

• The gap between claimed (97%) and independently measured (~75%) deliverability is significant, test with the client's real list and content before promising inbox placement numbers, and monitor spam-folder placement specifically for Outlook and Yahoo given documented user reports (Source: independent deliverability test and user reports via WebSearch summary, 2026)
• SMS back-in-stock alerts are functionally weaker than email versions, the SMS message can't link directly to the specific product a customer requested (generic message only), while email can, factor this into which channel to prioritize for that specific use case (Source: product limitation via WebSearch summary, 2026)
• Compare actual SMS costs directly against Klaviyo and dedicated SMS tools (SlickText) at the client's real monthly volume before recommending, Omnisend's May 2026 price cut narrowed the gap but it isn't automatically the cheapest option at every volume tier

The 7-step setup

1. 1

   Create your Omnisend account

   Sign up at the link below. Free tier available - no card required. Use your business email so you can invite teammates later.

   Open Omnisend signup
2. 2

   Complete the initial onboarding

   Skip the marketing questionnaires when you can. Fill only the fields that actually configure the product - name, timezone, your first workspace or project. If Omnisend pushes you into a setup wizard, take it - it usually accelerates the first productive session.

3. 3

   Connect your existing tools

   Wire Omnisend into the rest of your stack. The integrations that most people set up first: Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Zapier.. Do these before importing data - clean integration first, data second.

4. 4

   Import your existing data (only what you'll actually use)

   Do NOT bulk-import everything. Import the last 30 days of the ONE workflow you're moving over first. Prove it works. Then import more. Big-bang migrations are how Omnisend deployments die in month 3.

5. 5

   Set up your first real workflow

   Pick the single most-frequent task you'll do in Omnisend - the daily-driver workflow. Configure it end-to-end. Use it live for a week. Do not touch any other feature yet. Adoption failure comes from teams trying to use everything on day one instead of the one thing that actually pays.

6. 6

   Add your team (if applicable) and set access

   Once your solo workflow works, invite one teammate at a time. Watch them use it. The friction points you missed are the ones they hit. Fix those before scaling to more users. Never invite 20 people at once - you'll get 20 confused people and 0 useful feedback.

7. 7

   Compound with the right pairings

   Recommend Omnisend for Shopify/WooCommerce merchants wanting unified email+SMS+push without Klaviyo's price tag, it's a solid mid-market pick. Test actual deliverability with the client's list rather than quoting the marketed 97% figure, and run a direct SMS cost comparison against Klaviyo/SlickText at the client's real monthly volume before recommending Omnisend for SMS specifically. For back-in-stock alerts, favor email over SMS given the linking limitation.