Use campaigns to identify relevant contacts, research their needs, and prepare personalized outreach.
1. Create your campaign
Open CRM → Campaigns → Create campaign. Describe what you want to achieve, then choose how many people Buzz should select.
Build automatically is enabled by default. It accepts Buzz's audience picks, and you still review the first email before Hive prepares everyone else. Turn it off to review and edit each build step before continuing. Select Create campaign to start.
Buzz works through six steps: Goal, Sources, Filter, Rank, AI Filter, and AI Rank to identify and prioritize contacts. Buzz can also search the web for publicly listed work contacts when your audience isn't already in your CRM.
Choose your sources. In the Sources step, Buzz picks where people come from (Find people in) and what it uses to learn about them (Learn about them from). You can change these picks before you continue. Pick one source of people.
Target an exact list of people
To email specific people, choose Paste a list under Find people in.
In People to include, enter up to 1,000 people, one per line. Use an email address or a name and email, like
Pat Lee <pat@company.com>. A name alone works if the person is in your CRM. Commas and semicolons also separate entries.Select Review people. Hive matches each entry against your CRM and removes duplicates.
Resolve every entry before you continue:
CRM contact: the entry matches a CRM person.
External email: the address is not in CRM. Hive uses it as entered.
Choose the right person: more than one contact matches. Pick the correct one.
Entries with no match, no email, or an invalid email: add an email or remove the entry.
The confirmed list is your exact audience. Buzz does not add, remove, or substitute people. Opt-outs and the spam safety check still apply.
If your campaign description already names people or email addresses, Hive chooses Paste a list and fills in the list for you. The build always stops so you can review the people, even when Build automatically is on. Check each line before you select Review people: a name and email on one line need the email in angle brackets (Pat Lee <pat@company.com>), or the entry shows as an invalid email.
Use a connected MCP as a source
MCP connections you can use with Buzz also appear in the Sources step, under the connection name. A connection can supply people (up to 500 per build) or facts that Buzz uses to filter, rank, and research people. Using one costs AI credits plus any usage on the connected service.
People found through a connection stay in the campaign. They are not added to your CRM automatically. To add them, select their rows and click the person-with-a-plus icon in the selection toolbar (its tooltip reads Import [number] people to the CRM). You can import up to 100 people at a time. People already in CRM are skipped. The same icon works for External email entries from a pasted list.
If a connection can't be used, the Sources step lists it under Can't be checked with the reason, for example:
Allow unattended reads for this connection in Buzz settings.
This connection exposes no permitted read-only tools.
This MCP connection is unavailable. Check its connection settings.
2. Review your audience and research
Review the people selected for your campaign. Use Add column → Build steps to display filtering and ranking results. Click a result to inspect its details.
For additional research, choose Add column → Research column. Enter a column name, describe what Buzz should investigate, and choose whether to research people already in the campaign. Open research cells to review findings and supporting sources.
Filter by research. Click Filter in the table toolbar, then Add filter. In the field list, research columns show a purple sparkle. Choose Matches criteria and describe what the saved research should show. You can mix research and regular fields, and group conditions with AND/OR (up to two levels). Select Apply filters to check everyone in the campaign, including hidden people, against their saved findings. Applying filters doesn't run new research. Clear filters removes them.
Refresh research. Click Refresh in the table toolbar, next to Filter, to update saved findings for everyone in the campaign. To refresh only some people, select them and click the refresh icon in the selection toolbar. Pick the research columns to update, and turn on Only missing or older than 30 days to skip recent findings. Refreshing uses AI credits, and any AI filters that depend on the research update automatically.
Before drafting, Hive checks the selected people's research. If some research is older than 30 days, still running, or missing, or some people don't meet your filters, Review research before drafting opens. Choose Refresh research, Draft qualifying people, or Draft all selected. Research never blocks drafting.
3. Prepare email drafts
Start with your first recipient
Before Hive prepares everyone, you shape one email with Buzz.
On the campaign, select Build with first recipient.
Buzz opens beside the First recipient preview. The preview shows the email (From and Subject), the research Buzz found, and any presentation.
Tell Buzz what to research or change, or pick a suggestion: Research person & organization, Recent news, Organization priorities, Articles & interviews, or Create presentation. Research you ask for is saved in a reusable research column, so it is used for everyone in the campaign.
Select Regenerate email to redraft the email.
When the email looks right, select Build Campaign. Hive prepares drafts for the remaining people the same way and opens the campaign table.
The table shows how many drafts are ready, preparing, or need attention. Drafts wait for your review, and nothing is sent until you send it. To change the setup later, select Edit setup, or select Open campaign conversation to keep working with Buzz.
Presentations: if you ask Buzz to create a presentation, each person gets their own PDF, attached to their draft when it is ready. Attaching it doesn't change the email's subject or body.
Draft emails for selected people
You can also draft emails for selected people in the campaign table. Select people and choose Draft email or Draft [number] emails, then pick an approach:
Template: write one Subject and Body, and Buzz personalizes it for each person.
Brief: describe the email in Brief, Voice, and Call to action, and Buzz writes each email. Under Guardrails you can set Minimum words, Maximum words, Subject characters, Required exact phrases, Forbidden words or phrases, and Required links. Hive checks every draft against these rules and repairs drafts that break them before saving.
Click Generate sample to preview one email (nothing is sent), then Draft with AI.
4. Review and send
Open the Emails tab to review each draft. You can edit the body with formatting (lists, links, bold), add Cc and Bcc recipients (up to 10 each), and see attachments as cards.
Approve & send sends the email now.
Schedule send lets you pick a time up to 90 days ahead. Scheduled emails show a Scheduled badge. To change or stop one, click Cancel send. The email goes back to a draft you can edit, send now, or schedule again.
In the Emails tab, an approved email shows Sending until it is delivered, then Sent. If an email couldn't be sent, it shows Didn't send with a warning icon. Open it to review the approved email, then click Send again. You can also edit, schedule, or reject it. Use the status filter to find Didn't send or Sending emails.
Drafting emails does not send them. Approving and launching an email starts sending. If you select several drafts and use Send, they go out as drafted.
Emails assigned to another sender must be sent by that sender.
Spam safety check: before an email goes out, Hive checks it for spam and abuse risk. High-risk emails are blocked and not sent. Edit the content and try again.
5. Track progress and replies
The audience table’s Email status column shows Drafting, Draft, or Sent. Click a status to open the corresponding email.
Open Replies to review responses. Choose Open thread when available to view the conversation.
6. See campaign stats
Open the Stats tab to see emails sent and how many people opened, clicked a link, and replied, with charts for the last 7, 30, or 90 days or a custom range. Click any number to see the people behind it. For replies, choose Open thread to read the conversation.
7. Find your campaigns
On the Campaigns list, use All campaigns / My campaigns or filter by Created by.
For an overview of CRM features and access, see How to use Hive’s CRM.