How to launch an email newsletter

An email newsletter is one of the main tools of modern marketers. It is not surprising because this communication channel has a lot of advantages:

• High conversion rate. Email communication is the best way to convert a website visitor into a customer. Firstly, emails are focused on actions on the part of the recipient: reading an article, giving some feedback, completing a purchase. The Call-to-Action buttons make people complete such actions. Secondly, emails are actively used in automation scenarios, whether it is a welcome chain of emails or a notification about an abandoned cart.

• High ROI. This metric shows that the email newsletter is second to none. For every dollar spent on attracting a customer through an email channel, you get about $ 42 profit.

• Detailed statistics. The results of the email newsletter are easy to track. Such metrics as Open Rate, CTR, CTOR, returns, and so on are always available. The click map visualizes obtained results. This will allow you to analyze the effectiveness of your campaign and optimize it.

• Convenient feedback. Send your email to the customer who has recently made a purchase on your website and ask them to give feedback on the product. You can also send them a link to your survey to find out if they are satisfied with your service.

• A large volume of emails. The Altcraft Marketing platform uses its transport module — AKMTA (Altcraft Mail Transfer Agent), which helps to optimize delivery. It allows you to send tens of millions of emails at once.

Let's test these 5 facts and launch your first email newsletter.

How to create an email newsletter

Step 1. Set up the sending and tracking domains

The sending domain is the corporate domain from which you will send emails to your customers.

For example, you purchase a domain example.com and create a corporate email — @example.com. Now it is possible to create a mailbox for each department of the company — support@example.com or info@example.com.

When creating a newsletter you can specify one of the corporate email addresses as the sender's address. It will be visible for your customer:

To increase the reputation of your domain, you need to pass email authentication. So that attackers will not be able to fake your newsletters. It includes setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC on the DNS server of your domain. Without these settings, your emails can go to spam.

You also need to set up a tracking domain to track subscriber activity. It will help you to see which emails are opened and which links are followed.

Step 2. Create a new customer database

All necessary information about customers, including their email addresses. is stored in profile databases. To create a new database, select Data in the main menu → Profiles databases, and then click “Create”. This guide will help you to set up a database.

Step 3. Create a resource

Sending out emails to all subscribers from your database is not the best option. People tend to filter the information they receive. That's what the resource is for. It allows you to send out only the content your customers are interested in.

A resource can represent a website, a mobile application, a separate marketing branch, or a certain type of content. For example, if your customer wants to receive newsletters about online store promotions, subscribe them to the “Online promotions” resource. If the customer will show their interest in blog articles, add a subscription to the “Blog” resource.

Your customer can be subscribed to one or more resources. It is always possible to unsubscribe from the newsletters of a certain resource.

To create a resource, go to Resources from the main menu, and then click “Create”. Select an email channel to subscribe to:

To set up a resource, you must specify:

• The database you created in the previous step;

• The URL of your website or application;

• Tracking domain to track subscriber activity in your emails;

• From name and from email (sender's name and email address).

Step 4. Upload customer data and subscribe them to the resource

You can upload customer data manually, via clipboard, or as a file. You can also set up automatic import of customer profiles:

• scheduled from your SQL database

• through integration with the API platform

To add customer data to the base, click the import icon:

A single digital profile is generated for each customer whose data is in the database. It consolidates personal data activity, history, and subscriptions to resources:

When importing data, subscribe your customers to a resource prepared in advance by clicking “Add subscription”. Select email as the communication channel. Leave the subscription status as it is — “Subscribed”. Specify a column in the file sheet that contains the email addresses of subscribers:

Step 5. Create a template

Message templates are the content that you send to your subscribers in your newsletter. You need to create a new template for the Email channel. You can do this using HTML code or in a visual editor. See How to create a message template.

Step 6. Set up a campaign

It determines the method of sending out your newsletter. The type of campaign depends on the goals of your newsletter:

• If you need to send out unique content to subscribers just once, choose a broadcast campaign.

• If you need to send out content regularly, choose a regular campaign.

• If you want to send content to a subscriber as soon as some event has occurred, choose a trigger campaign.

To set up a campaign, specify:

1. Email channel to communicate with subscribers.

2. Newsletter recipients: customers whose data you uploaded to your database and then subscribed to the resource.

3. Newsletter schedule.

You can learn more about different campaigns and how to set each of them in our article Which campaign type to choose.

Step 7. Test your newsletter

It is better to test it before you start sending it out to your subscribers. A test subscriber will receive this email. This way you will make sure that:

• your email looks properly in different email systems;

• dynamic content and variables work correctly;

• email and SMS providers do not block your email because of its content.

To start a test newsletter, find your campaign in the general list and click the corresponding icon in the campaign menu:

Step 8. Start sending out the newsletter

Click the launch icon:

The campaign will be activated and start sending out your newsletter according to the schedule.

Step 9. Evaluate the results

Do not forget to analyze the results. Go to the “Analytics” section. You can find the detailed statistics on the newsletter in the “Channel report” section. Here you can see such metrics as delivery rate, open rate, click rate, content CTR, etc. You can select performance metrics specifically for the email channel to group information easily.

To analyze email deliverability to mailboxes of different providers, you can group the report by days, campaigns, and the domain groups of recipients:

You will see the information on providers in the table below:

To analyze problems with email deliverability use bounce reports and undeliveries.

The conversion funnel allows you to calculate the number of people who have performed a targeted action after receiving your email. Use an email campaign or template as steps in the funnel.

If you want to determine the quality of the content and the right layout in your email, use the click map. Please note that when you edit your template and send an email with it again, a new version of the click map is created. This mechanism allows you to evaluate the dynamics of subscriber behavior.

Check list