Learn how newsletters, campaigns, and automated emails fit together, and what to set up before sending your first marketing email.
Email marketing is sending useful, relevant messages to people who agreed to hear from your business. A newsletter is one example. A product launch, a welcome sequence, and a reminder to finish onboarding are others.
The hard part is deciding what deserves a place in someone's inbox. Start there, before choosing a template or writing a subject line.
A newsletter gives subscribers a recurring reason to stay subscribed. It might contain analysis, a tutorial, or a short collection of useful links. Promise a subject and a cadence that you can sustain.
A campaign has a specific purpose and audience. Announce a release to customers who can use it, invite nearby subscribers to an event, or explain a new service to prospects who asked for updates. One campaign does not need to reach the whole list.
An automated sequence responds to a signup or another event. A welcome sequence introduces the product and helps someone take the next step. The timing matters, but so does whether that person still needs the message when it is due.
Transactional emails, such as receipts and password resets, serve a different purpose. Keep essential account messages separate from promotional campaigns.
Guides and platforms often name emails by their job. These are the types you will see most often.
Use a clear signup form. Say who will send the email and what subscribers will receive. Store the signup source and subscription status so you can honor that choice later. A purchased spreadsheet is not a shortcut to an audience.
Verify your sending domain, configure its authentication records, and check that replies reach a monitored inbox. Your platform should handle unsubscribes and suppressions consistently. Our deliverability guide explains the checks that matter before a first send.
Then choose a small, well-defined audience for the first campaign. Existing, engaged subscribers give you a better starting point than an old list whose origins nobody remembers.
More than one law can apply to the same send, depending on where you and your recipients are. What follows is a short orientation for common cases. It is not legal advice, so read the official guidance and check your own program with a lawyer.
In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act covers commercial email, including email sent to businesses, and it does not require permission before the first message. Every message needs accurate header information, a subject line that does not mislead, a valid physical postal address, and a clear way to opt out that you honor within 10 business days. The FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide lists all the requirements.
Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) generally requires consent before you send a commercial electronic message. Consent can be express, or implied in defined situations such as an existing business relationship, and the CRTC's CASL FAQ explains the difference. Each message must also identify the sender and include an unsubscribe mechanism.
In the UK, PECR generally requires consent before you send marketing email to individuals. The main exception is the soft opt-in for existing customers, and the ICO's guidance on electronic mail marketing sets out its conditions. In short, you collected their details during a sale or negotiation, the email is about your own similar products or services, and you offered a simple way to opt out at that point and in every message since.
In the EU, each country sets its rules for marketing email under the ePrivacy Directive, and those rules also generally require consent for individuals, with a similar exception for existing customers. In both the UK and the EU, GDPR covers the personal data on your list. Where you rely on consent, it has to be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous, and given through a clear affirmative act such as ticking an unticked box.
Whichever rules apply, keep a record of how each person signed up and make sure every unsubscribe works.
Pick the action you want the reader to take. Explain why it matters to them, include the information they need to decide, and make the next step easy to find.
For example, a new reporting feature announcement could show one report, explain which accounts can use it, and link directly to the feature. It does not also need a founder letter, a discount, and five unrelated product updates.
Send yourself a preview. Follow every link. Check the mobile layout, sender name, subject, fallback text, and unsubscribe. If you use personalized fields, test a contact with missing values too.
For a tutorial, look at visits to the relevant help page or completion of the product task. For a sale, look at orders and returns alongside campaign cost. Watch complaints and unsubscribes even when revenue looks good.
Opens are a rough signal because mail clients can load tracking images without a person reading the message. These email metrics give a more useful view.
Brew can generate a draft from your brand, help edit it, and send from a verified domain. It can also export HTML for another sending platform. You still own the audience, the offer, and the decision to send. Start with a message you can explain in one sentence.
