How to create a newsletter from your WordPress site easily and simply

If you’re reading this, you know that for your business to work and grow, you need constant and effective communication with your website visitors and your customers.

And for that, a newsletter is one of the best strategies you can develop.

Wait, a newsletter? But that’s spam.

Hold on, hold on.

If you think sending newsletters is bothering your subscribers, you’re leaving money on the table.

And if you know how important it is but still don’t have one, same thing.

You’re in luck, because if you keep reading you’ll learn how to create and manage a newsletter in a simple, practical way.

You’ll discover how easy it is to turn your WordPress site into a lead-generation machine and keep your audience hooked with an effective newsletter strategy.

Let’s do this!

Why use a newsletter on your WordPress site

Newsletters are a great marketing tool for any business—especially those built on WordPress.

Some of the key benefits of creating a newsletter for your project are:

1. Increase traffic to your website

Greater visibility for your content and products. Sending newsletters regularly and including links to your latest articles, products, or services drives traffic directly to your site.

Subscribers who receive relevant, engaging content are more likely to click, visit your site, and end up buying.

2. Keep your users informed

Regular updates. Newsletters let you inform your subscribers about news, special offers, events, and any other important information.

This keeps your audience up to date on what’s happening in your business, and therefore you stay top of mind—which is key nowadays with so many competitors.

Exclusive content. Sending exclusive content through your newsletter can encourage users to subscribe and stay tuned to your emails.

This tactic is very interesting for turning social media followers into newsletter subscribers. Play the exclusivity card to get their email and thus avoid relying on algorithms.

3. Improve customer retention

Relationship building. A regular newsletter helps you build and maintain a relationship with your customers. By providing relevant content, you strengthen your subscribers’ trust.

4. Increase conversions

Direct promotions. Newsletters are an excellent format for promoting products, services, and special offers directly to your audience, which will increase your sales and conversions.

Calls to action. Including clear, effective calls to action in your emails can lead subscribers to take specific actions, such as buying a product, registering for an event, or downloading a resource.

5. Segment your audience

Personalization. Newsletters let you segment your audience and personalize content based on users’ interests and behaviors, which improves the relevance and effectiveness of your emails.

In short, newsletters not only keep your subscribers up to date on the latest news, but they’re also a great way to build loyalty and engagement with your customers and increase your sales.

5 steps to create a newsletter in WordPress

Now that we’ve seen the benefits of integrating a newsletter into your strategy, let’s look at the steps you should follow to create one.

1. Choose a good Email Service Provider (ESP)

The first step is crucial to creating an effective newsletter: choose a good tool for sending emails and managing your databases.

An ESP (Email Service Provider) is a platform that allows you to manage and send emails to your subscribers efficiently.

The most important aspects to consider when choosing a good ESP are:

Ease of integration with WordPress

Make sure the ESP offers easy integration with WordPress.

Many popular platforms have dedicated plugins or native WordPress support, making it easier to manage subscribers, create signup forms, and send campaigns directly from your website.

Features and tools

Evaluate the features each ESP offers and what you’ll need for your strategy.

Some of them are:

• Automations. Ability to create automated workflows, such as welcome emails, email series, reminders, etc.
• Personalization and segmentation. Ability to personalize emails and segment your subscriber list to send more relevant messages.
• Email templates. Availability of customizable email templates and a variety of designs.
• Analytics and reports. Tools to analyze your campaign performance, such as open rates, clicks, conversions, etc.

Deliverability

Deliverability is the ESP’s ability to ensure your emails reach your subscribers’ inboxes and aren’t marked as spam.

Research the tool’s reputation in terms of deliverability and review other users’ opinions.

Scalability and cost

Consider how the ESP adapts as your subscriber list grows.

Some providers offer free plans for small lists but charge as your list grows. Compare prices and check whether the plans fit your long-term budget.

Support

Technical support is essential. Make sure the ESP offers adequate support—whether via live chat, email, or phone—and that they have an accessible knowledge base or help resources.

Also, if support is in your native language, even better.

Compliance with regulations

Lastly, policies are often a headache.

Verify that the provider complies with data protection regulations such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe and other applicable privacy laws.

This is crucial to protect your subscribers’ information and avoid legal issues.

At Acumbamail we’ve been committed to all these points for over a decade.

✅ We have an official plugin to embed on your site and capture leads.

✅ We offer automation and segmentation tools.

✅ We have high deliverability rates.

✅ Plan prices are affordable.

✅ Support is human and in Spanish.

✅ And we’re GDPR-compliant.

What more could you ask for?

2. Create a signup form

The next step is to create a subscriber list to start collecting the leads we’ll capture from the website.

That list will be linked to a form where we’ll add the data we want to collect.

The best practice is to ask for the email (basic and essential) and, if you prefer, the name.

Avoid including too many fields because it creates friction and backfires when it comes to getting someone to subscribe.

In the image you can see the anatomy of a good signup form for your newsletter:

Embed it in your WordPress

Once you’ve created your form, it’s time to integrate it into your website.

Usually, ESPs offer several options:

• Official plugin
• HTML code
• Shortcode

If the provider you chose has an official plugin, the easiest way is to use the plugin.

3. Write the newsletter content

We’ve covered the container, and now it’s time to talk about the content.

For your newsletter to be effective, the content must be interesting and valuable to your subscribers.

Here are 5 essential points to achieve that:

• Know your audience. Understand who your subscribers are and what type of content interests them. You can segment campaigns to send personalized content.
• Offer great content. Make sure each email offers something valuable. It can be useful information, exclusive offers, discounts, free resources, or educational content. In short, content that’s relevant to the people who shared their email with you.
• Tell stories. Stories capture attention and are more memorable. Use engaging narratives and storytelling to communicate your messages well.
• Be concise. Keep your emails short and to the point. Subscribers should be able to quickly scan the content and find what interests them.
• Include useful links. Provide links to relevant articles, blog posts, products, events, and any other content that may interest your subscribers.

Frequency and consistency

The frequency and consistency of your newsletters are key to maintaining your subscribers’ interest without being intrusive:

• Set a regular cadence. Decide how often you’ll send your newsletters (daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly…) and stick to it. Regularity helps set expectations with your subscribers.
• Avoid spam. Don’t overwhelm your subscribers with too many sales-focused emails. Find a balance between staying in touch and providing value.
• Editorial calendar. Plan your content in advance using an editorial calendar. This helps you maintain consistency and ensures you always have content ready.

Attractive design

Your newsletter’s design is crucial for capturing and maintaining your subscribers’ attention.

Here are some tips to achieve it:

• Use responsive templates. Make sure your newsletter uses a template that automatically adapts to different screen sizes—from desktop computers to mobile phones.

As a general rule, all predesigned templates offered by ESPs are responsive.

• Clean, organized layout. Use a clean, organized design with plenty of white space for easy reading. Avoid overloading your newsletter with too many graphics or text.
• Legible typography. Choose clear, readable fonts. Ensure the font size is suitable for comfortable reading on mobile devices.
• Optimized images. Include high-quality images, but make sure they’re optimized for fast loading. Images should be relevant and complementary to the content.

Clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons. Use buttons that are easy to see and access. Make sure the links work correctly.

4. Automate your campaigns

One of the big advantages of using an email provider to send your newsletters is that it lets you automate certain sends, saving you time and ensuring your content reaches your audience at the right moment.

Some basic automations you can set up are:

• Welcome email. Set up a welcome email that’s sent automatically when someone subscribes to your newsletter. This email should thank the subscriber and provide useful information about what to expect from your newsletter.

Don’t forget to set up this email since it has the highest open rates.

• Welcome sequence. You can create a series of welcome emails sent at specific intervals. For example, the first email could be an introduction, the second a roundup of your best content, and the third could offer an exclusive discount if you have an online store.
• Automatic new post notifications. Set up automatic emails every time you publish a new blog post. This keeps your subscribers informed and increases traffic to your site.

Within Acumbamail, we offer the option to send RSS campaigns automatically. You just need to add your blog’s feed, and it sends every time you publish a new article.

As your newsletter strategy evolves, consider implementing more advanced automations:

• Abandoned cart recovery. If you have an online store, send automatic emails to customers who abandoned their shopping cart without completing the purchase. It’s proven that conversion rates skyrocket when you send this email.
• Birthdays and anniversaries. Set up automatic emails to wish your subscribers a happy birthday or subscription anniversary, offering a special discount or exclusive content.
• Re-engage inactive subscribers. Identify subscribers who haven’t interacted with your emails for a while and send them a re-engagement campaign to try to regain their interest.

5. Measure effectiveness

The final step is analyzing and tracking your newsletters. Only by measuring can we know how effective the campaigns are and make improvements.

Some of the metrics and techniques we can use are:

• Open and click-through rates. Monitor open and click-through rates to see how your emails are performing. These metrics indicate how many subscribers are opening your emails and how many are interacting with them.
• Segmentation and personalization. Use your subscriber data to segment your list and personalize emails. Segmented, personalized campaigns tend to have better open and click-through rates.
• Subscriber feedback. Try to get your subscribers’ opinions to understand what they like and what they don’t. You can have them reply to the email or send periodic surveys. This can give you valuable ideas to improve your content.
• A/B testing. Run A/B tests to experiment with different subject lines, content, designs, and calls to action. This will help you identify which elements work best.
• Detailed reports. Use analytics tools like Google Analytics and your email marketing provider’s reports to get a detailed view of your campaign performance. Analyze this data to make informed adjustments and continuously improve your newsletters.

To wrap up

Now that you know all the benefits and steps to create an effective newsletter from your WordPress site, it’s the perfect time to put this knowledge into practice.

And most importantly, stop postponing it, because you’re likely losing money.

We invite you to try Acumbamail and start creating your newsletter today. With Acumbamail, you’ll have access to easy-to-use tools that let you design, customize, and automate your emails—helping you keep your subscribers informed and engaged with your brand.