Newsletter: Create Newsletter

Newsletters > Create Newsletter

Subject & Content

Newsletters: Create Newsletter

This is the visual editor, where you can see the content and insert images and text.

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This is the text area of the editor. Here you can view, edit and add html code.

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Each newsletter you create now has it’s own, dedicated media files and a pretty “Insert into Newsletter” button so that you can easily find and reuse the files when editing the newsletter.

1. Email Subject

This is the subject of the newsletter which will appear in the Subject field when subscribers receive your email.

Choose it carefully to prevent the emails from landing in the Spam/Junk and keep the subject below 150 characters.

2. Content

This is the content of your email/newsletter.

You can type as much content as you need in this editor. There is no limit to the length. You can insert images, tables, colors and any other HTML formatting you need.

You can insert single/multiple WordPress posts into your newsletters. See Insert posts with TinyMCE in the documentation for instructions.

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3. Additional Content Area

Now you can create unlimited content areas and use them inside the newsletter content block itself, inside one another and even inside the actual theme design you’re using. You can also use both WordPress, newsletter plugin and 3rd party shortcodes inside them. Each one comes with a full-blown WordPress TinyMCE editor so you can add media, links, formatting, etc.

  • Click the Add Content Area button to add an extra content area to your newsletter.
  • Add content to this area using the TinyMCE editor.
  • Use the [newsletters_content id=”x”] shortcode in your newsletter theme to display this content area, where “x” is the content area id.

TEXT Version

By default, the TEXT version of multipart emails is automatically generated.You may override that and specify your own TEXT version below. Only TEXT and no HTML is allowed.

Tick the “Make this the default TEXT template for future use” checkbox to reuse and prefill this TEXT version on future newsletters automatically.

Live Preview

The “Live Preview” pane gives a dynamically updating preview of what the newsletter will look like when sent, complete with theme and parsed shortcodes.

It includes an “Open in a New Window” button to open the preview in another tab/window and an “Update Preview” button to manually update the live preview.

1. Open in New Window

Open your newsletter in a new window/tab to see what it will look like.

2. Update Preview

Click the “Update Preview” button to manually update the live preview.

3. Preview in Desktop/Tablet/Mobile

The container of the live preview is resized to simulate the preview in Desktop, Tablet and Mobile respectively.

4. Normal/HTML Version

This is the normal, HTML version of the newsletter.

TEXT Version

The Live Preview also shows a TEXT version of the newsletter so that you can see how TEXT readers/subscribers will see it.

Mailing Lists & Field Conditions

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1. Check all the mailing lists and roles that you want to send the current newsletter to. You have to select one or more mailing lists.

If you have Newsletter Groups (multiple mailing lists in one group, then you can select a group here as well to obtain the subscriber count from.

2. Select the status of the subscribers who should receive the newsletter. Active, Inactive , All/both

3. You can select that checkbox at Field Conditions and Specify Date Range in order to filter the subscribers within a specific Mailing List(s) that you want to send the Newsletter to. These filters are the Custom Fields you have created in the plugin, it only works with Select Drop Down or Radion Button Custom Fields.

If the Checkbox for #3 is checked, then your Custom Fields that you have created become visible. You can now pick and choose certain options within each to filter the subscribers to send to.

4. This shows the amount of subscribers that have been selected for the current newsletter. The number updates as your selection between mailing lists and field conditions changes.

Give it a try, select a few mailing lists and then use the field conditions (if applicable) to filter the subscriber count, thus allowing you to send emails to people depending on their choice of custom fields when subscribing.

Insert Fields, Posts and Snippets

The “Insert Into Newsletter” sidebar widget allows you to insert Custom Fields (created under Newsletters > Custom Fields), WordPress Posts or Snippets (created under Newsletters > Email Snippets) into the body of the newsletter while you’re editing/creating it.

Newsletters: Insert Fields, Posts & Snippets

Theme

You can select a theme to style your newsletter when it is sent. The themes can be previewed by clicking on the link marked ‘Preview’. If you do not want to use a theme then select ‘None’.

To manage themes, you can go to Newsletters > Themes in your WordPress dashboard where you will see the Themes management section to add/edit/delete email themes. These are simple HTML templates that apply styling to the email that subscribers will receive.

 Author/ User

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Set/change the author of the newsletter when creating it.

Variables & Custom Fields

Newsletters:Create Newsletter - Custom Fields

1) Shortcodes & Insert into Editor

These are a list of variable shortcodes and links to insert into the editor that you can use in the body of your Newsletter. For example to personalize your newsletter to each user so that when Jane receives her Newsletter starting with ‘Dear Jane’ you would insert the following shortcode ‘Dear [wpmlfield name="first_name"]'. Just click the link for the shortcode, it will inset it into the editor where the cursor is and your screen will automatically scroll back up to the TinyMCE editor.

2) Description of Shortcode

The descriptions of what each variable is and does. It is self-explanatory what each description means.

Email Attachment


1. Send Attachment

This is set to ‘No‘ by default. Setting this to ‘Yes‘ will display a ‘Browse’ button which you can use to select an attachment from you computer to send with the newsletter.

2. Attachments

This shows little blocks with the attachment title in it. This is only seen when viewing a draft or history email, else it is just the regular looking blank field with a browse button.

3. Add an Attachment

Click this link to make a new browse field appear. In essence, you can add an infinite number of attachments, just keep in mind the size of the attachments for sending your side and downloading on the subscriber’s side.

Publish as Post

Newsletters: CreateNewsletter - Publish as Post

1. Publish as Post

The newsletter will be published as a post when you set this to ‘Yes‘.

2  Post categories

A list of checkboxes will appear with all your current WordPress categories available.

Select which categories the post will appear in.

3.  Post Author

Select which author will be credited/responsible for the post from the dropdown list.

4.  Post Status

Select the status for the post from the dropdown list. The options available are: Published, Pending, Draft and Private

5. Post Slug

The post slug is used for the URL. It only applies to certain permalink structures on the WordPress site. If you are using the default permalink structure with the ‘post’ or ‘page_id’ parameter, the slug is not being shown.

This is optional, leave it blank to create from subject/title.

Send/Schedule Newsletter

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1. Save Draft

Click this button to save the newsletter as a draft so that you can come back and work on it later. Drafts are also available in the Newsletters > History/Draft Emails section.

To save a draft it is required that you fill in the Subject, Content (editor) and select at least one mailing list. Selecting mailing list(s) won’t send to them, it just saves the selection so that they can be pre-selected when the draft is later loaded.

2. Send Preview

Click this button to preview the Newsletter before sending/scheduling it. It is always a good idea to save your work as a draft first.

“Send Preview” sends the email/newsletter to your Administrator Email under Newsletters > Configuration. Please note that not all variable shortcodes will load as expected when sending a preview.

3. Send or Schedule

By default this is set to “Send immediately,” but clicking on “Edit” the newsletter can be scheduled to send at a future date/time.

4. Send Newsletter

Clicking this button will publish the newsletter and send it out to the selected mailing list(s).

With email scheduling turned On under Newsletters > Configuration > Email Scheduling, or if scheduled as in 3 above, the button will be captioned “Queue Newsletter” and when clicked it will save all the emails to the email queue for further action from there.

5. Use Progress bar to queue/send

Check this checkbox if you want to use Ajax queuing while sending a newsletter.

Spam Score Tester

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Prevent your emails from ending up in spam/junk folder unnecessarily. The spam score utility will show on each newsletter you create to give the newsletter a score, taking all it’s aspects and factors in consideration. 

Read more: Newsletters Spam Score Testing

Useful Links/Resources

Beautiful Newsletter Templates

Professional newsletter templates that are fully responsive for desktop, tablet, and mobile. They are 100% cross-client compatible.

See Them

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