How to Automate Newsletters with RSS for Your Latest Blog Posts?

The very reason every blog has an email subscription form and collecting emails is to market their blog post.

1. Every time you publish a new blog post
2. You will have to Login to your Email Marketing Software
3. Create a Newsletter for the latest Blog Post
4. And then schedule and send the Email Campaign to your Subscribers
5. To get all traffic flowing to your latest article.

Doesn’t it look like there are too many steps involved in this process. Isn’t it a pain to write an email newsletter for each and every blog post. Shouldn’t you consider automating newsletters?

So that,

1. Every time you publish a new blog post
2. You will get all traffic flowing to your latest article

That will be really time saving right?

If you are interested to automate newsletters, then this tutorial is all what you need.

I will also go through some different methods to automate newsletters, and help you choose the most productive and efficient method.

Method 1: Using Jetpack

Jetpack is a popular plugin developed by Automattic, the same company that developed WordPress.com.

This plugin has got more than 25 modules to perform various tasks. And one among them is Subscriptions.

The Subscriptions module will allow you to create an Email Subscription Widget on your website to collect subscribers. And then every time when you publish a blog post, emails will be send to your Subscribers from WordPress.com

That sounds easy, right?

But look at the downside of implementing this method,

• Jetpack is a complex plugin, therefore installing and activating this plugin can increase your page load. Considering your SEO and Page Experience, this is not so good.
• You can only use the subscription form provided by Jetpack to collect Email Leads. And the Subscription Form is not so attractive to collect Leads.
• You cannot add your existing Email List to Jetpack Subscriptions.
• And you cannot integrate Jetpack with any of your Email Capturing Tools to boost subscriptions. Thus Email List Management is very difficult with this plugin.
• Plus, you cannot decide for whom you want to send emails for a particular blog post.

Method 2: Using Newsletter Plugins

Apart from Jetpack, there are many other plugins available to send Newsletter with your WordPress website like,

• Newsletters Lite
• SendPress
• MailPoet, etc

You can find a complete list of Newsletter plugins here.

But what are the downsides,

• These plugins are by your Server through Cron-Job. If your list is huge, then it increases the load on your Server resulting in website being down for a while.
• Your Newsletters are send directly from your Website. Meaning if some of your subscribers push it to spam folder regularly, it will hurt your I.P. reputation and in future all emails from your domain will be marked as Spam.
• And Customization Options are also not so great.

Method 3: Automate Newsletters Using SendInBlue

This is the method I recommend for automating your newsletter.

P.S. I am aware of many other Feed Services. But, they don’t have the customization features just like SendInBlue has.

So, let us get started with the tutorial for automating newsletters for blog posts with SendInBlue.

Step 1: Create a SendInBlue Account

At first, you will have to create a SendInBlue account.

Join SendInBlue for Free!

$This is an affiliate link

On their homepage, choose “Signup for Free”.

You can either fill the registration form / get started instantly with your Google Account.

And then you would have received an email from SendInBlue for verification. Confirm your Email Address.

Now that your Email Address has been verified and you can complete your profile.

Step 2: Creating an Email List

The next step is to create an Email List.

In your SendinBlue dashboard, go the Contacts Tab at the top, and the Lists section in the left. Choose “Add a New List”.

Give a name for your Email List and then choose Create an Empty List.

Now you can Add a Contact or Import Contacts (For Multiple Email Addresses)

For this tutorial, I am just adding my own email.

Step 3: Integrating RSS Campaign

Next, we will have to integrate the RSS Campaign App.

In your SendinBlue Tabs at the top, click the Plus Button.

Now, in the Apps and Integrations Page, move to Integrations Tab and choose the RSS Campaign.

Give a name for your RSS Campaign and Click Create Integration.

Next, add your RSS Feed. If you are not sure of your Feed URL, then just add /feed/ at the end of your blog page URL. Click Load RSS Feed.

If the Feed URL is correct, then SendInBlue will give a success message and show the preview of the Feed.

And it will also display the different Keys available. Proceed to the next step.

Step 4: Email Design

Now, you will have to choose the Email Design.

You can either go with the Default RSS Template and Create one.

For this template I am choosing the default RSS Template.

If you want to create a New RSS Feed Template,

Navigate to SendInBlue Dashboard -> Campaigns -> Templates -> New Template

Enter the Template Details here.

For the Subject Line, I have entered the key {{ item.TITLE }} which we found in the previous step. Entering this key in the Subject Line will consider your Blog Post Title as the Subject Line for your Email.

Once you have done, proceed to the next step.

In the next step, you can choose the Tool you want to design your Template. I am going on with Drag and Drop Editor.

Next in the Template Editor, you can create the design you want. Take time and explore the different elements and options available.

Make sure you use these RSS Keys

<title> of a Channel – {{ feed.TITLE }}

<pubDate> from Channel – {{ feed.PUBDATE }}

<description> from Channel – {{ feed.DESCRIPTION }}

<title> of an Item – {{ item.TITLE }}

<link> of an item – {{ item.LINK }}

<pubdate> of an item – {{ item.PUBDATE }}

<description> of an item – {{ item.DESCRIPTION }}

<content> of an item – {{ item.CONTENT }}

You can also use similar Keys from your RSS Feed. Some useful resources,

• How to insert a Dynamic list in the Drag & Drop Editor in SendInBlue
• How to use SendInBlue’s New Template Language to create Email Templates and Campaigns

Once you are done with the template, get back to choosing the RSS Template, select the one you have created and click continue.

Step 5: Selecting Recipients

The Next step is to choose the Recipients for your RSS Campaign.

Select the List that we have created. And then Click Continue.

Step 6: Campaign Settings

Next you will have to enter the Campaign Settings.

Once done, proceed to the next step.

Step 7: Campaign Creation

A new campaign will be created if New items are added to your RSS Feed.

You can set the time and date when you want the campaign to be sent.

You can choose whether to send your Campaigns on a specifc day for a month or specific days every week.

SendInBlue recommends the blog posts to be published atleast 1 hour before the Campaign Time, so that blog post is pulled for the RSS Campaign.

And then choose if the campaigns can be sent automatically or to be created as a draft.

Once done proceed to confirmation.

Choose Save and Activate.

That’s it. You have successfully done with the Integration.

Wrapping Up:

Now that you have integrated your SendInBlue Account with RSS Campaign, it is time for testing. First test the campaign with your own Email Address.

So that, if you find any errors, you can fix it. Once you are satisfied with its working, you can add your Email Subscribers.

Unlike the other Newsletter Plugins, you will not find issues with hurting your IP Reputation. Plus, you have got all the customization options you need.

You can also integrate your SendInBlue account with other lead generation tools to increase your subscribers.

Since SendInBlue does not have the downside of all other methods, I am recommending it for Automating Newsletters with RSS.

If you haven’t get started with SendInBlue, signup now.

Related articles you might like:

• SendInBlue Review: Best Email Marketing Automation for Beginners
• 3 Best Email Marketing and Marketing Automation Strategies for your Blog in 2020
• 7+ Best Email Capture Tools that will get you more Leads
• OptinMonster Review: Best Lead Generation Software for Marketers
• 100+ Best Blogging Tools for Beginners and Experts to Manage Blog Effectively (2020)

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