A newsletter keeps you in touch with people who want your updates. To begin, you need a clear promise, a working signup form and a useful first message. The journey to verify runs from voluntary signup to reading, useful action and straightforward unsubscribing.
This guide covers an initial Mailchimp newsletter from a WordPress website. Features and limits depend on the plan; check current terms rather than relying on old free-plan quotas in tutorials.
1. Define what subscribers will receive
Choose an audience and purpose: customer advice, association updates or news about a product range. Set a frequency you can sustain. Do not promise a weekly newsletter without time to prepare it.
Fictional example: “One practical tip and news from our workshop, once a month.” The form and first message should honour that promise. A newsletter is different from an order confirmation or an individual enquiry response.
2. Prepare a legitimate audience
An address left in a comment, customer account or quote request is not automatically a subscription to every newsletter. Do not import contacts gathered across other websites without checking the information and permissions relevant to this use.
For commercial emails aimed at individuals in France, prior consent is the general principle, with regulated exceptions. Professional communications and other territories can follow different rules. Identify the applicable framework, inform people and provide a straightforward objection route. CNIL email marketing guidance.
Keep useful evidence of signup source and choice. Honour unsubscribes rather than adding excluded contacts back through another import. Also review Mailchimp audience requirements.
Sign in to your organisation’s Mailchimp account and check the requested business details. An audience holds contacts and their statuses; identify the one for your project or prepare it if needed. For one organisation, avoid creating a separate audience for every newsletter: segments and tags can organise recipients.
3. Choose the sender and prepare the domain
Use a recognisable sender name and a business address you can access. Check replies reach you. Website hosting, email and Mailchimp are separate services.
In Mailchimp, verification and domain authentication are different steps. Follow the values provided for your own account. If DNS changes are necessary, identify the active zone and check existing records, particularly DMARC, before adding or replacing a policy. Mailchimp authentication procedure.
Do not copy sample records or change email MX records to install a signup form. If iMasterWeb handles the work, provide the request and account-specific values without putting passwords in a public document. Our DNS guide explains the separation of services.
4. Create a short, clear signup form
Start with necessary data: usually an email address and, optionally, something genuinely useful to the newsletter. Avoid requiring a phone number, full address and date of birth without a reason.
Explain content, frequency, sender identity and how to find privacy information. Any consent checkbox should not be preselected. Double opt-in adds email confirmation; it does not replace clear information. Understanding double opt-in.
Decide what people see after submitting: signup completed, or confirmation still required. Do not describe a pending signup as fully confirmed.
5. Add the form to WordPress
- In Mailchimp, open Forms → Other forms and create an embedded form.
- Select the intended audience and prepare fields and wording.
- Generate Mailchimp’s form code.
- Use an integration method suitable for your WordPress setup, such as a Custom HTML block where the code is permitted.
- Check phone rendering and submission behaviour.
Labels can change. Do not install a second integration if one already exists. WordPress permissions or security settings may restrict accepted code; arrange a proper integration instead of disabling protections at random. Embedded form guide · WordPress options.
6. Test the complete signup journey
Use an address you control. Submit the form, check the displayed message and, if configured, receive and follow the confirmation. In Mailchimp, verify the audience and resulting status.
Also test malformed addresses, an already subscribed address and error messages. Confirm the form targets the correct account and audience. A “thank you” message alone does not establish that every step has completed.
When embedded form fields change, code already pasted into the website may need replacing. Keep one reference version and test again after changes.
7. Write a simple first newsletter
- From the Mailchimp homepage, choose Create email to prepare a regular email.
- In To, select the intended audience and recipients rather than accepting all subscribers without checking.
- Prepare From, Subject and preview text, then the message in Content.
- Review tracking options and keep the campaign in preparation until testing is complete.
This follows the Mailchimp creation documentation. Align measurement options with recipient information and the applicable framework.
Do not assume agreement to receive a newsletter settles the conditions for tracking pixels. For relevant uses in France, review the CNIL email tracking pixel recommendations before enabling open tracking.
Prepare an accurate subject, useful preview text and content centred on one main idea. “Your monthly maintenance tip” is better suited than an impressive promise the message cannot fulfil.
A workable structure is a short introduction, the tip or news item, a clearly labelled link and a signature. Use real text rather than one large image. Describe informative images appropriately and check that the message remains understandable when images do not load.
Keep sender details and the provided unsubscribe link in the footer. If personalised data may be missing, prepare fallback wording and test it. Editor capabilities vary by plan; a simple template is enough to start.
8. Separate preview, testing and the actual send
| Stage | Purpose | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Preview | Review layout and wording | Does not prove delivery |
| Test email | Inspect in a controlled inbox | May not reproduce every personalised behaviour |
| Complete journey check | Verify recipients, links and unsubscribe | Requires a suitable controlled trial, not exposure of the whole list |
Check links, destination pages, spelling, phone display and test recipients. Automated link checking does not replace reviewing dynamic links. Preview and testing documentation.
Before the real send, review the audience, filters, recipient count, sender and final content. For scheduling, check plan availability, date and time zone. Treat send approval as a final decision rather than relying on a general ability to cancel afterwards. Sending documentation.
9. Read results beyond open rates
Review delivery failures, clicks, unsubscribes and useful actions after the message. A recorded open does not always mean a person read it: privacy protections can affect this measurement. Apple Mail Privacy Protection explanation.
Clicks also need context. Compare campaigns with similar scope rather than a small targeted newsletter with an unrelated mass mailing. Handle invalid addresses and delivery issues using the available tools without resubscribing people who opted out. Understanding email bounces.
10. Prepare the next newsletter
Record what was sent, to whom, when and with what result. Choose one improvement for the next edition: a clearer subject, more specific content or a better destination page. Do not build an automated sequence before checking the initial journey.
Use our writing brief template for content preparation and the heatmap guide to investigate destination-page interactions. Check Mailchimp for plan limits and documentation; for website integration, describe your requirements to iMasterWeb.