While the WordPress.com Newsletter feature offers a quick way to launch your free and paid newsletters, a custom newsletter provides a more professional look and feel that is sure to wow your visitors. Logos, custom images, custom content, and social links can be added to improve the content and features of the newsletter email.
To create a custom newsletter you’ll need the Creator (Business) plan↗︎ which provides many more options to create beautiful and rich newsletters through the use of plugins like MailPoet↗︎. We’ll discuss this more in a moment.
A great example of how to handle premium content is Stratechery↗︎, a newsletter that focuses on technology and business strategy. It offers a monthly and yearly subscription, and if you check out the website (which also happens to be a WordPress site!), you’ll see how the creator mixes free content with Stratechery Plus↗︎, which offers even more in-depth material and is showcased at the top of the Homepage:
A custom newsletter is most beneficial when you need to automate custom email or newsletter messages. Perhaps you want to provide an email course that sends a new lesson every Monday. Or maybe you want to provide daily, weekly, or monthly newsletter options for your Arts & Entertainment news website. What if you’re releasing a brand new book and you want to build some excitement for the release date?
There are many reasons for wanting, or needing, a custom and automated newsletter option that you have full control over. What makes this a great choice is that once you have a campaign set up, you can leave it alone to automatically deliver your newsletters for you.
The other benefit is that it doesn’t have to just be emails with your latest published posts. You have full control over the content of your newsletters, which gives you a lot of flexibility to include custom information, announcements, or featured products. You can also offer several different types of newsletters.
One way to entice your visitors to subscribe to your custom newsletter is to offer a free lead magnet (a special piece of content that they can only access by subscribing to your newsletter). You then include this lead magnet in your initial welcome email. For example, you might offer a free ebook to anyone who subscribes to your newsletter.
From your perspective the goal is to collect their email address so that you can continue to send them emails with your updates and/or offers. From your subscriber’s perspective they’re receiving something of value in exchange for their email address. Using a plugin or service that provides for custom newsletters and automation allows you to set this on autopilot.
Most custom email plugins or services will provide a range of options and features to help you customize your email newsletters and automations for your unique needs and audience.
When choosing which plugin or service will work best for you it’s worth investigating any demos they offer, what their free and paid plans include, what support they offer, and their documentation. Do your due diligence when choosing an email newsletter plugin or service to save yourself headaches and time down the road.
WordPress.com is versatile in that there are many different newsletter platforms that you can integrate with your site, including MailChimp (which works on the free plan as well). The choice is yours.
For this lesson, we’re going to introduce you to MailPoet↗︎ and walk you through some of the basics of getting started with this plugin. You can get started with all its features for free and it will grow with you as your audience grows.
First, you need to get MailPoet installed on your WordPress.com site.
- Watch MailPoet’s overview video↗︎ to get an idea of some of the features it offers.
- Ensure your site has a plugin-enabled plan or upgrade to the Business plan under Upgrades > Plans↗︎.
- Go to the Plugins↗︎ section in your dashboard’s sidebar, search for MailPoet↗︎, and follow the prompts to install and activate it.
WordPress.com automatically meets all of the requirements for installing and using MailPoet, so you don’t need to worry about any of those technicalities (that you may need to consider on a self-hosted WordPress site).
Once installed, you’ll see a new “MailPoet” menu item in your dashboard. Click on it to access the welcome screen. The Get Started button will guide you through the initial setup wizard.
We recommend using the MailPoet delivery service for simplicity and for high email deliverability. Setting up this service requires creating an account through the MailPoet website, which the setup wizard will guide you through. After that’s done, you can manage everything directly within your WordPress.com site’s dashboard.
There are other email delivery options as well, which you can learn about in this MailPoet support document↗︎. They also have additional documents regarding Other Sending Methods↗︎. These options are available for advanced users, but not recommended for beginners.
After completing the setup wizard, explore its features and consult the MailPoet documentation↗︎ when needed.
Note that some aspects of the interface might differ from their videos or documentation screenshots due to differences between self-hosted WordPress sites and WordPress.com, or updates to the plugin. Don’t be afraid to explore!
Once you have the basics setup, what’s next? MailPoet’s guide: First Steps After Installing the Plugin↗︎ is a terrific starting point. There are infinite possibilities on how you might use MailPoet and we can’t possibly cover them all, but here’s one common set up:
- Create a mailing list↗︎
- Decide how many lists you want to work with, it could be one catch-all list, or you can create several dedicated lists. You can also segment lists to target subscribers based on specific criteria. MailPoet’s guide on List Segments↗︎
- Create your form(s)↗︎
- You can set up multiple types of forms and connect them to whichever list(s) you want. Watch MailPoet’s intro video for: How to Use the New MailPoet Form Editor↗︎ or read through their Ultimate Guide↗︎
- Setup and customize your Confirmation Email↗︎
- Create a warm and personalized Welcome Email↗︎
- (Pro tip: this is the email you’d include a link to your free lead magnet in as a thank you for subscribing.)
- Set up a newsletter. There are two ways to approach your newsletter:
- Create a Post Notification Email↗︎ to automatically send your latest published posts to your subscribers. (This is an automated email you can fully customize.)
- Create a Standard Newsletter↗︎ when you want to send a standalone newsletter with custom information, instead of your latest post content. You can even schedule it to be sent on a future date, which saves you time and effort.
Remember when we discussed creating a dedicated newsletter landing page earlier in the course? MailPoet makes this user-friendly and even provides a guide on how: Creating a Newsletter Page↗︎. Be sure to also check out: The Ultimate Guide to Newsletter Landing Pages↗︎
In addition to the monetization options mentioned earlier in the course, here are some additional approaches powered by MailPoet:
MailPoet also supports paid newsletters, and offers a detailed tutorial guide↗︎ for setting them up.
As your list of subscribers and content grows, you can add or modify lists and campaigns as needed. The flexibility and control provided by WordPress.com and MailPoet allow your website and newsletters to grow with you.
For additional ideas that can be repurposed for custom email campaigns refer to the Intro to Blogging course. And be sure to browse through MailPoet’s blog↗︎ for even more ideas.
What is a compelling way to entice visitors to subscribe to your custom newsletter?
Well done! You’re right. You want to be offering a “lead magnet” to encourage people to sign up.
Oops! Not quite. It’s easy to mix up with so many tech companies out there. You can click Reset below to try again.
Install MailPoet: If you’ve opted to go with the Creator (Business) plan to create a custom newsletter, install the MailPoet plugin on your site. Once you’ve gone through the initial set up steps, navigate around its features, familiarize yourself with its capabilities and interface.
If you’re on a roll, create your first newsletter too. MailPoet offers a preview link option that you can then share.
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