Newsletter issues: write, generate, schedule & send
An issue is one email you send to your newsletter's subscribers. This guide walks the whole path: writing the body yourself, having Steeren generate a draft from your recent posts, embedding posts as cards, sending a test copy to yourself, and finally scheduling it or sending it now.
[!IMPORTANT] Nothing reaches your subscribers until you choose to send. You can write, regenerate, preview, and test-send as many times as you like - a draft stays a draft until you schedule it or send it.
[!NOTE] Your brand - logo, colours, and font - is set once for your whole workspace, so every issue automatically looks like you. You write the content; Steeren wraps it in your brand and a clean email template. You never have to touch HTML.
1. Writing an issue
Every issue starts as a draft. Give it a title and a subject line, then write the body in plain Markdown - headings, lists, links, and so on. You can save and come back to it whenever you like.
A few fields are worth knowing:
| Field | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Title | An internal label so you can find the issue later. If you leave the subject blank, Steeren uses the title as the subject line. |
| Subject | The subject line your subscribers see. |
| Body | The content of the email, written in Markdown. |
You can personalise the subject and body with a few tokens that Steeren fills in for each recipient when the issue goes out:
{{newsletter_name}},{{newsletter_description}},{{year}},{{date}}- newsletter-wide values, the same for everyone.{{recipient_email}},{{recipient_name}},{{unsubscribe_url}}- filled in per person.{{recipient_name}}falls back to the part of the subscriber's email before the@if you don't have a name on file.
[!NOTE] Every issue includes a working unsubscribe link by law. If you don't place an
{{unsubscribe_url}}token yourself, Steeren adds a compliant unsubscribe footer automatically. If you do place the token, Steeren trusts your placement and leaves the rest of the body alone - so drop it wherever reads best for you.
2. Generating a draft from your recent posts
If you'd rather not start from a blank page, Steeren can draft an issue for you from your recently published blog posts - a fast way to turn "what we shipped this week" into a newsletter.
Create a draft, then ask Steeren to generate into it. You can steer the result with a short briefing and a target length:
- Briefing - a sentence or two on the angle, the audience, or which post to lead with. For example: "Lead with the migration guide; audience is existing customers."
- Length - short, medium, or long.
- Recent posts - on by default, so Steeren has your latest published posts to draw from. You can set how far back it looks (for example, the last 90 days).
Steeren picks the most relevant recent posts, writes a title, subject, and body for you, and embeds the posts it references as cards (see §3). The draft appears a few moments after you ask - you don't have to wait around or refresh.
[!NOTE] A generated draft is a starting point, not a finished issue. Read it through, edit anything you'd say differently, and save it before you send. Steeren only drafts from posts you've already published.
[!TIP] You can regenerate a draft as many times as you want. Generating won't touch an issue that's already been sent or is in the middle of sending.
3. Embedding posts as cards: {{post:UUID}}
A post marker is a placeholder you drop into the body that turns into a rich card - cover image, title, excerpt, and a "read more" button - when the issue is sent.
Here's the piece I mentioned:
{{post:3f2504e0-4f89-41d3-9a0c-0305e82c3301}}
{{post:3f2504e0-4f89-41d3-9a0c-0305e82c3301|compact}}
There are two styles:
{{post:UUID}}- the full card (the default).{{post:UUID|compact}}- a smaller, row-style card.
The card is built when the issue is sent, not while you're editing. That's on purpose: if you tweak a post's title, excerpt, or cover image after drafting your issue, your subscribers get the latest version, not whatever was current when you pasted the marker in.
Cards only appear for posts that are published in your workspace. A marker pointing at a draft, a deleted post, or someone else's post is quietly removed so subscribers never see a stray {{post:...}} in their inbox. The card links to that post on your public blog, so make sure your blog domain is set up if you want those links to work.
[!TIP] The easiest way to get a marker exactly right is to let Steeren give it to you when you browse your recent posts - copy and paste it straight in. Stick to the
cardorcompactstyles (or no style at all); a misspelled style is the one thing that can leave a literal marker in the body.
[!TIP] If a card you expected is missing from a test send, the usual cause is that the post isn't published yet, or it lives in a different workspace. Publish it, then test-send again.
4. Send a test copy to yourself
Before any real send, send yourself a preview:
- It renders exactly the way a real send will - same template, same tokens, same brand - so what you see is what your subscribers will get.
- It goes to one address only (yours by default), and the subject is prefixed with
[TEST]so you can spot it. - It doesn't count as a real send and leaves no mark on your sending history.
- The unsubscribe link in a test is inert - it won't unsubscribe you from anything.
You can test-send an issue at any stage - draft, scheduled, or even one that's already gone out, if you want to re-inspect what was delivered.
[!TIP] Test-send is the best safety check you have. Make a habit of sending yourself a copy before you schedule or send for real - it's the surest way to catch a typo, a broken link, or a card that didn't resolve.
5. Scheduling vs. sending now
When the issue is ready, you have two choices: schedule it for later, or send it now.
Schedule for later
Pick a date and time, and Steeren holds the issue until then and sends it automatically. You can cancel a scheduled issue any time before it goes out - cancelling returns it to a normal draft so you can keep editing.
[!WARNING] Scheduling doesn't re-check your content for you, so confirm the issue is complete before you schedule it - subject filled in, body written, links working. The simplest way to be sure is to test-send it to yourself first. A scheduled issue sends whatever is in the draft at its appointed time.
[!NOTE] A scheduled send may go out up to about half a minute after the exact time you picked - close enough for a newsletter, but worth knowing if timing matters to you.
Send now
Send now dispatches the issue right away. Steeren checks that you have a subject and a body first. Once a send is under way it can't be paused or unscheduled, so give it a final look (or a test send) beforehand.
| Schedule | Send now | |
|---|---|---|
| When it goes out | At the date and time you pick | Immediately |
| Checks subject + body? | No - confirm it yourself (test-send first) | Yes, before sending |
| Can you cancel? | Yes, any time before it sends | No - it's already on its way |
6. After you send
Once an issue is on its way, Steeren handles the delivery and keeps the results for you to watch.
- Sending progress - see how many recipients an issue went to and how many delivered or failed.
- Per-recipient status - track each subscriber's delivery, and as the day goes on, opens, clicks, and bounces as they come in.
Opens, clicks, and bounces arrive a little after the send itself, so the numbers keep filling in for a while - no need to refresh to stay current. If someone hard-bounces or marks an issue as spam, Steeren stops emailing that address automatically, so you don't have to clean your list by hand.
[!NOTE] A sent issue is kept as a permanent record and can't be deleted - it's the receipt for what went to whom. Drafts, scheduled issues, and ones that failed to send can be deleted freely.
Who an issue goes to
An issue goes to every active subscriber on its newsletter. People who've unsubscribed, bounced, or marked you as spam are skipped automatically. Sending to a specific segment or tag isn't available yet.
FAQ
Why didn't my embedded post show up?
Cards only appear for posts that are published in your workspace. A marker pointing at a draft, a deleted post, or a post in another workspace is removed. Double-check the style is card or compact (or left off entirely), then publish the post and run another test send.
Why did my scheduled issue go out a little late? Scheduled sends fire on a short cycle, so an issue can leave up to roughly 30 seconds after the time you picked. That's expected.
Can I cancel a send once it's started? You can cancel a scheduled issue any time before it goes out - it returns to a draft. Once an issue is actually sending, it can't be stopped, so anything already on its way will be delivered.
Why did my send fail straight away with no deliveries? The most common reason is your sender domain isn't verified. To send from your own address, add the domain under Newsletters -> Settings -> Sender domains, publish the DNS records it shows you, then choose "Check now." Until it's verified, send from the default Steeren sender or finish verifying the domain. Once it's verified, send again.
Can I send to a segment or tag? Not yet. Today an issue goes to all active subscribers of the newsletter. Segment and tag targeting is on the roadmap.