Why an email newsletter? Emails can be sent to members of your community regardless of registration status. An email newsletter can link to external content or other campaigns in your community that have been previously published - pulling your user in with a variety of posts.

How to Create an Email Newsletter

This article will walk you through how to create and publish an email newsletter starting from a template. For an overview of all campaign creation options, please refer to Create a New Campaign.

1. Sign in to Studio as an Administrator or Community Manager.
2. Click Create.
   
   
   
   
3. Select the Weekly Newsletter template.
   
   
   
   
4. To edit your newsletter title, double-click on the title. From the pop-up menu, you can edit your text, as well as convert it to a link.
   
   
   
   
5. Hover over the block containing the logo and click on the pencil icon to upload your logo.
   
   
   
   
6. Click Change to select your preferred logo. You will have options to upload the logo, select an image from the image library, or link to a logo URL. Once you have selected your logo, click Apply.
   
   
   
   
7. To update the background and font colors for a rich text block, hover over the block and click on the paint icon.
   
   
   
   
8. From the Style menu, choose Selected and then Style this Block Uniquely. This will apply your changes to this block only. You can switch to the Global option if you want to apply your changes to all rich text blocks in your newsletter.
   
   
   
   
9. To update a block containing an image, hover over the block and select the pencil icon.
   
   
   
   
   
10. Similar to your logo, you will have options to upload an image, select one from the image library, or link to an image URL. For this example, we will select one from the image library.
    
    
    
    
11. Browse all images or select one from a category. Once you have selected an image, click Use Image.
    
    
    
    
12. Update your Alt text (this text allows screen readers to describe images to users with limited or no vision) and click Apply to apply the image to your newsletter.
    
    
    
    
13. To update the text to compliment your image, double-click on the text field.
    
    
    
    
14. To update a link block to include links to outside websites or other content published in your community, hover over the block and click the pencil icon.
    
    
    
    
15. You can remove the current links by clicking the trash can icon and then add your own links by selecting New link and URL or Content Library.
    
    
    
    
    
    
16. Click on the link to edit it.
    
    
17. Select the URL option to add an external link.
    
    
    
    
18. Enter your link, edit the description, and click Apply.
    
    
    
    
19. To apply a link to your newsletter, click Apply again.
    
    
    
    
20. To update an external rich text link, place your cursor next to the link in the text block and select the pencil icon from the menu that populates.
    
    
    
    
21. Update your link and click Update to apply the new link to your newsletter.
    
    
22. To delete a block you do not need, hover over the block and click the trash can icon.
    
    
    
    
23. To edit the footer with your company information, place your cursor in the text box and start typing.
    
    
    
    
24. Click the Cover tab to update your newsletter cover preference and preview how the cover will appear in multiple channels.
    
    
    
    
25. Click the Preview tab to send yourself an email preview of your newsletter. On this tab, you can also preview how your newsletter will appear in multiple channels.
    
    
    
    
26. Click Continue to move on to the Orchestration settings for your newsletter. The Orchestration settings will determine how to reach your target audience. For an email newsletter, you will need to assign an audience to target your newsletter to.
    

    
    
    

    Generally, we recommend trusting the orchestration engine to reach users where they are most likely to engage. However, for email newsletters, you can deselect the additional channels to ensure that your newsletter is delivered via only the email channel.
    
    

    Target Email Only
    
    

     

    Note: The Channels section will only display the Email channel for email-only customers.
    
    
    
    

27. Once you have made your Orchestration settings selections, click Continue to move on to the Review page and approve your newsletter for publishing.
28. Click Publish to publish your newsletter.
    
    
    
    

What Members See

Web Experience

Newsletters appear under a content card in one of the feed views in the web experience.



Clicking on the associated content card will immediately open a new view. In this view, you can access the newsletter, bookmark the newsletter, and add likes. You can also interact with the comments and share the newsletter(if these features are enabled in Orchestration).

Mobile App

Newsletters also appear under a content card in one of the feed views in the mobile app experience.



Tapping on the content card will open a new view. In this view, you can access the newsletter, bookmark the newsletter, and add likes. You can also interact with the comments and share the newsletter (if these features are enabled in Orchestration).

Email

Newsletters appear in email similar to how they appear in the web experience. Clicking on a link will take you to either the externally linked page or require a login to the web experience to view Studio-created content.