Writing an issue

Write, review, send

Start a draft from the Campaigns page. A campaign goes through three steps, shown at the top: Write, where you type the subject, the preview text and the issue; Review, a checklist of what to fix before it can go out and of what may look broken; and Send, where you pick who gets it and when. Everything saves as you type, and a check shows each time it's saved. While you edit, the sidebar folds down to its icons to leave the issue more room.

The preview text is what inboxes show after the subject. Without one, they show your issue's first words.

The editor

• Formatting: select text to get bold, italic, strikethrough, a link, two heading sizes and a quote.
• Slash commands: type / on an empty line for text, three heading sizes, bulleted and numbered lists, a picture, a quote, a divider, a box, which sets a block apart on a gray background, a button or your own HTML. Contact fields, at the bottom of the menu, opens the first name and your own fields. From the keyboard, → opens it and ← comes back. Keep typing after the slash to find any of them, like /quote or a field's name.
• Links: select text, press ⌘ K (Ctrl K on Windows) and paste the address. An email address becomes a link that opens an email to it.
• Markdown: shortcuts work as you type, like # and a space for a heading, - for a list or > for a quote.

Pictures

Paste a picture, drop it in the editor, or type / and pick Image to upload one or use one you uploaded before. PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP work, under 4 MB. Wider pictures are resized to 1,200 pixels. A picture shows at once and uploads in the background, and its address never changes, so sent emails keep showing it.

Drag the handles on a picture's sides to resize it. Point at it to show its toolbar, inside its top edge (on a touch screen, tap the picture): place it on the left, in the center or on the right, add its alt text, or delete it. Emails and your website keep it where you put it.

Alt text describes the picture in a few words, for readers who can't see it, inboxes that block images and search engines reading your website. Click Alt and type it: it saves as you type, and Enter closes it. The Alt button stays highlighted once a picture has one.

Buttons

Type / and pick Button to add a link readers can't miss, like Read the full story or Join the waitlist. Type its text right on the button, press Enter and paste the link it opens: a web address, or an email address, which opens an email to it. Enter again goes on below it. While you write on a button, a bar above it shows where it goes, places it on the left, in the center or on the right, and deletes it, which you can undo. Click its link, or press ⌘ K, to change it. Names and fields work in its text and its link.

Buttons take your newsletter's theme: its accent color, with text that reads on it, and its corners, in your emails and on your website. Change them in Design, and every button follows. A button needs its text and its link before the issue can go out: the review step says when one is missing, and the button shows No link.

HTML blocks

Type / and pick HTML to add your own HTML to an issue, like a table, a sponsor's banner or a signature. Paste or type it, and its tags, attributes and styles show in color. Click Done or press Esc when you're finished: the block then shows what readers get, in your newsletter's email design. Click it to change it again, and Preview shows it in the whole email.

To delete a block, click it, then the bin next to Done. It goes at once, and Undo brings it back.

Your emails and your website get the same block, cleaned first. Scripts, forms, frames, <style> tags, classes and ids are removed, and so are styles that could move the block over the rest of the issue, like position or a negative margin. Style each element inline instead, with style="…". Tables, colors, fonts, borders, spacing and sizes stay. Links and pictures need their full address, starting with https://. Names and fields work in its text and its links.

The review step points out a block whose tags don't match up, like a <table> never closed, which can take in everything after it, and what the cleaning removes.

Embeds that need a script, like a video player or a signup form from another site, can't work in an email: link to them instead. Where the HTML sets no font or color, your website shows the block in its own.

Moving blocks

With a mouse, a grip appears to the left of the paragraph, heading, list, picture, box, button or HTML block under the pointer. Drag it to move the block, and a line shows where it lands. Click it to select the block. From the keyboard, ⌘ Shift ↑ and ⌘ Shift ↓ (Ctrl instead of ⌘ on Windows) move the block the cursor is in. Moves undo like any other change.

Deleting blocks

Pictures, buttons and HTML blocks go as soon as you delete them, from their bin or with the keyboard. A message at the top of the page says so for a few seconds: click Undo in it to bring the block back, or press ⌘ Z (Ctrl Z on Windows), as its button shows. The message goes once you change something else, since undo would take that back first.

Names and fields in your emails

{{first_name}} shows each reader's first name. Type /, pick Contact fields at the bottom of the menu, then First name, or click the person icon at the end of the subject. Both add {{first_name|there}}: the word after the bar is what readers without a first name see, so “Hi {{first_name|there}}” reads “Hi Jane” or “Hi there”. Change it, or remove it with the bar to show nothing.

Your own contact fields work the same way, by their key: {{birthday}}, {{plan|free}}. Contact fields lists them after the first name, and typing a field's name after the slash, like /birthday, finds it right away. The person icon in the subject lists them too, once you have some. Both lists end on How to add names and fields to contacts, which opens Adding fields, step by step. Text shows as it is, a number with its thousands separated (1,250), and a date written out (April 12, 1991). A reader without a value sees the fallback, or nothing. Tags never show in emails: they're for picking who gets an issue, with segments.

Names and fields work in the subject, the preview text and the content, and in your welcome and confirmation emails. Your website and its issue pages always show the fallback, so no reader's details are ever public. The preview shows the name Jane, with no field values, or the details of a contact you pick in it. Test emails show Jane too, or your own first name and fields if you're one of your contacts. The review step flags any other {{...}}, like a tag from another platform or a field you deleted, since it would go out as written.

Preview and test emails

Preview, in the write step and in the ⋯ menu at any step, shows the email in a mail app's window on a desktop, or in Gmail on a phone: the inbox first, with a fingertip tapping the issue's row until you open it, then the email. On your own phone, Mobile shows the email itself, edge to edge. Press Esc to close it.

Sample reader, at the top left, shows the email as a reader called Jane gets it. Click it to pick one of your active contacts instead, the newest first, each with their picture as on the Contacts page, or find one by typing any part of their email address or first name. The subject, the preview text and the email then read as that person gets them, with their first name and field values, or the fallbacks where they have none. They stay picked while the campaign is open. How to add names and fields to contacts, at the bottom of the list, opens Adding fields, step by step.

Send a test email, in the same menu, sends the email as saved to your account's address, with [Test] before the subject. Nobody else gets it. The review step reminds you when you haven't sent one. If it lands in spam: When a test lands in spam

Duplicate, discard and HTML

The ⋯ menu also duplicates a campaign into a new draft, or discards a draft. A sent campaign can't be changed, but it can come off your website. Removing an issue

A campaign made with the API or an AI assistant can be a whole HTML document. The dashboard then shows its HTML to edit, and it needs {{unsubscribe_url}} where the unsubscribe link goes. API and AI assistants

To add HTML to an issue you write in the editor, use an HTML block.

When you're done, send or schedule it.