Newsletters: subscribers and opt-in

A newsletter in Steeren is a named mailing list with its own subscribe page, sender identity, and opt-in policy. People subscribe to it, you write issues for it, and each issue goes out to everyone on the list. This guide covers what a newsletter is, how to create one, and how subscribers join and confirm. Writing and sending issues is covered separately.

What a newsletter is

Think of a newsletter as one audience you publish to. It has:

• A subscribe page - a public page where people sign up, at its own short, memorable URL.
• A sender identity - the "from" address and name your emails go out under.
• An opt-in policy - whether new subscribers have to confirm their email before they're on the list (double opt-in).

You can run as many newsletters as you like - for example a weekly digest, a product-updates list, and a founder's note - each with its own subscribe page and its own subscribers.

Your subscribers live alongside the rest of your audience. When someone signs up, Steeren also adds them to your contacts, so the people on your list and the people in your CRM are the same people, not two disconnected lists.

[!NOTE] This guide is about the newsletter and its subscribers. Composing an issue and sending it to the list is the next step, covered in its own article.

Creating a newsletter

A new newsletter needs just two things to start: a name (what people see) and a slug (the short word that becomes part of the subscribe page URL, like weekly). Everything else is optional and has a sensible default.

When you create one, you can also set:

A few notes on the basics:

• The slug is yours to reuse. Slugs only need to be unique within your own workspace, so you can't have two newsletters both called weekly - but that doesn't clash with any other Steeren customer using the same word.
• Your sender domain needs to be verified. To send from your own address (like hello@yourbrand.com), the domain has to be verified for your workspace first. If you save a "from" address on an unverified domain, you may be able to save it but won't be able to send until the domain is verified. If you'd rather not set this up yet, leave the "from" address blank and Steeren sends from its default - you can switch to your own address later.

[!TIP] If a send is blocked because of the sender address, it's almost always an unverified domain. Verify the domain you want to send from, or clear the "from" address to fall back to the default sender, then try again.

Branding

Your newsletter emails use your brand - logo, colors, name - automatically. That branding comes from your workspace theme and is shared everywhere Steeren sends on your behalf, so your emails look consistent with the rest of your presence.

[!NOTE] Branding is set once for your whole workspace, not per newsletter. To change the logo or colors, update your theme and it applies across all your newsletters. What you can set per newsletter is the sender address and the confirmation/welcome subject lines.

Custom sign-up fields

By default your subscribe form asks for an email address and a consent checkbox. If you want to know more about who's joining, add custom fields - a company name, a role, a dropdown of interests, a checkbox. For each field you choose a label, a type (short text, email, phone, a longer message, a dropdown, a checkbox, or a number), and whether it's required.

Whatever people enter is saved with their subscription, and you can reference those values later when you write an issue - handy for a friendly "Welcome aboard" that uses their name, or for segmenting who hears about what.

Growing your list: how people subscribe

Every newsletter has a public subscribe page at its own URL. Share that link in your email signature, on social, at the end of your posts, or anywhere your audience already is - that's the main way the list grows. You can also point people to a thank-you page of your own after they sign up.

When someone subscribes, here's what happens:

1. They enter their email, tick the consent box, and fill in any custom fields you've added.
2. Steeren adds them to your contacts so they're part of your wider audience, not a separate silo.
3. If double opt-in is on, they get a confirmation email and aren't on the list until they click the link in it. If it's off, they're on the list right away and get a welcome email instead.

A couple of safeguards run quietly in the background to protect you:

• Suppression. If an address has previously hard-bounced or marked your email as spam, it can't re-subscribe to any of your newsletters. This is workspace-wide and protects your sender reputation - a bad address staying off your list is a good thing.
• Abuse protection. Sign-ups, confirmations, and unsubscribes are rate-limited so nobody can spam your form or hammer your links. Real subscribers won't notice this.

Double opt-in: what it is and why you'd use it

Double opt-in means a new subscriber isn't added to your list until they click a confirmation link in an email. It's on by default, and for most newsletters you should keep it on.

Why it's worth the extra click:

• It proves the address is real and the person wants in. That keeps your list clean and your open rates honest.
• It protects your sender reputation. Confirmed lists bounce and complain far less, which keeps your future emails landing in inboxes rather than spam folders.
• It helps you stay on the right side of anti-spam rules like CAN-SPAM and CASL, which expect clear, provable consent.

Here's the difference in practice:

• Double opt-in on (recommended): someone subscribes -> they receive a confirmation email -> they click the link -> they're on the list and get your welcome email.
• Double opt-in off: someone subscribes -> they're on the list immediately -> they get the welcome email.

Confirmation links are good for a generous window (about a month) and clicking one twice is harmless - a second click just shows a friendly "you're confirmed" rather than erroring.

[!TIP] Turning double opt-in off later doesn't auto-confirm people who are already waiting. Anyone still pending stays pending until they click their confirmation link. The setting only changes what new subscribers experience.

Unsubscribing

Every issue includes a one-click unsubscribe link, and it keeps working indefinitely - even an unsubscribe link in an email from years ago will still take someone off the list. That's deliberate: a reliable unsubscribe is both good manners and a legal requirement. Unsubscribing is also safe to do more than once; clicking again just confirms they're off.

If someone unsubscribes and later decides to come back, they can simply subscribe again on your page. Steeren reuses their existing record rather than creating a duplicate - so your list never fills up with the same person twice.

Managing subscribers

From your newsletter's subscriber view you can:

• Browse your subscribers, optionally filtered by status (confirmed, pending, unsubscribed, and so on).
• See your active count - the number of people who'll actually receive the next issue - along with a breakdown by language where available.
• Unsubscribe someone manually, for example if they ask you directly. This removes them quietly, without sending them an email.
• Mark someone as complained, if you need to record that a recipient flagged your email.

Hard bounces and spam complaints are handled for you automatically based on what your email provider reports back, and those addresses are added to your suppression list so you don't keep mailing a dead or hostile address. You don't need to track that by hand.

For developers

If you're embedding sign-up in your own site or app rather than linking to the hosted subscribe page, Steeren exposes a public subscribe-and-confirm path you can call directly:

• A subscribe endpoint that takes an email, a consent flag, and any custom fields you've configured, and creates (or re-activates) the subscription. Under double opt-in it returns a "confirmation required" result; otherwise the subscriber is active immediately.
• A confirm endpoint that the confirmation link points to, which activates a pending subscriber.

You don't manage confirmation tokens, suppression, or bounce handling yourself - Steeren takes care of all of that behind those two calls. For exact request shapes and field names, see the public API and SDK reference.

FAQ

Can two of my newsletters share a slug? No - a slug is unique within your workspace, so the second one will be rejected. (Other Steeren customers using the same word doesn't affect you.)

If I turn off double opt-in, do my pending subscribers go active? No. The setting only changes what new subscribers go through. Anyone already pending stays pending until they click their confirmation link.

Someone unsubscribed, then signed up again - do I now have a duplicate? No. Steeren reuses their existing record and flips it back to active (or pending, under double opt-in). One person, one record.

Why is an unsubscribe link from an old email not working? If that person resubscribed after the email was sent, the old link is superseded by their newer one. The link in their most recent email is the one that works.

My "from" address saved fine, but the send is blocked. Why? Saving an address and sending from it are checked separately. Sending requires the domain to be verified for your workspace. Verify the sender domain, then send again - or clear the "from" address to use Steeren's default sender.

Can I give one newsletter its own logo or colors? No. Branding is shared across your whole workspace and comes from your theme. Change the theme to change it everywhere. You can still set the sender address and the confirmation/welcome subject lines per newsletter.

Why does an address get turned away when it tries to subscribe? It's on your suppression list from a previous hard bounce or spam complaint on one of your newsletters. Suppression is workspace-wide and blocks re-subscription everywhere, to protect your sender reputation.