How do I schedule my mail merge for a specific day?

Learn how to schedule your SecureMailMerge mail merge in Outlook to start sending emails on a specific future date for planned delivery.

Updated October 2026

Open advanced options

In the campaign manager select the link that shows or changes advanced options. The advanced options reference describes the whole screen, including what carries over to your next campaign.

“Start sending on” is the first setting in the “When to send” subgroup of the “Schedule” group, above “Send only on” and “Send between”.

Option: Start sending on X

SecureMailMerge generates one message per recipient in your Drafts folder, and the messages will be set to send on the day you specify. By default, sending will start immediately. See here if you are trying to send only during specific hours, on selected weekdays, or with a daily message limit. These options can all be set together. For all the ways to schedule a mail merge in Outlook, including Outlook’s own options, see the knowledge guide.

SecureMailMerge generates the messages in your Drafts folder while Outlook is open, then hands them to Microsoft 365 with a send time using Outlook’s own scheduled send. Microsoft 365 sends them on schedule whether or not Outlook or your computer is on.

Testing

The scheduled recipient messages stay in Drafts until their send time, in every Outlook client. Classic Outlook may not show their scheduled time, so open your mailbox in new Outlook or Outlook on the web to check it. They are not in the Outbox, which is where classic Outlook keeps messages from its own “Delay Delivery” feature. Where Outlook keeps scheduled messages explains the difference.

Note: This feature will NOT apply to test emails. Test emails will be sent immediately.

How to stop a scheduled campaign

Stopping a scheduled campaign takes two separate actions:

1. Stop generating the remaining messages, if any. If the add-in is still generating the campaign, select “Cancel campaign”. This stops SecureMailMerge from generating messages for the remaining recipients. A campaign that has finished generating has nothing left to cancel.
2. Delete the messages already generated. This is the step that stops scheduled emails. Cancelling does not remove the recipient messages SecureMailMerge has already scheduled with Microsoft 365. Open the same sending mailbox in Outlook on the web, delete the campaign’s scheduled recipient messages from Drafts before their send times, and confirm they no longer appear there.

Deleting your template draft, the email you composed the campaign in, does not stop any scheduled message. A message that has already been sent cannot be stopped. Follow the full steps in Stop messages that are already scheduled. To inspect generated messages before a short countdown ends instead, see Review generated emails with a timed draft delay.