This guide takes you from an empty account to a newsletter in your subscribers’ inboxes. The example is a small guesthouse on Nevis, but the steps are the same for a shop in Basseterre, a dive operator on the south-east peninsula or a consultancy serving Citizenship by Investment clients.
Step 1: Decide who the newsletter is for
Before you open the editor, decide on the audience and the purpose. Our guesthouse has three groups: past guests abroad, guests booked for the coming months, and local residents who come for Sunday lunch. Each wants something different, so the guesthouse will send one main newsletter with slightly different versions for each group.
Step 2: Import your contacts, with care
Upload your list as a spreadsheet. Include only people who agreed to receive marketing, because consent is the general basis for using personal data under the Federation’s Data Protection Act, 2018, and overseas guests may be covered by CASL, CAN-SPAM or the GDPR. Add columns for first name, country and island, so you can personalise and segment later. If you are unsure about a group of contacts, leave them out and invite them to sign up instead.
Step 3: Pick a template
Choose from 600+ responsive templates. For our guesthouse, a layout with a large header photo, two short stories and one button works well. Replace the logo, colours and fonts with your own so the newsletter looks like your business, not like a template.
Step 4: Write the content
Keep it short and specific. Our guesthouse’s issue might include:
- a headline story: new rooms opening before the December high season;
- a second story: what’s on during Culturama, with the festival dates for the coming summer;
- a practical tip: how to get from the airport on St Kitts to the ferry for Nevis;
- one call to action: Check availability.
Mailpro’s WYSIWYG editor lets you format text and insert images without code, and the button builder makes the call to action stand out.
Step 5: Personalise
Insert the first-name field in the greeting. For past guests, mention the island they stayed on. For locals, swap the travel tip for a note about lunch service. Small touches like these are explained in personalised newsletters.
Step 6: Test
Send a test to yourself and a colleague. Open it on a phone and on a computer. Click every link. Check that prices say EC$ or US$ clearly, and that dates are correct for the current year.
Step 7: Schedule for the right time
St Kitts and Nevis runs on Atlantic Standard Time all year. For past guests in North America, a mid-morning send in their time zone works well; for Europeans, schedule an earlier batch. Local readers can receive theirs at a convenient hour in AST.
Before you send: avoid the common first-issue mistakes
- Too many stories. Three is plenty. If you have more news, save it for next month.
- Images without text. Some readers will see your email before images load. Make sure the headline and the button work on their own.
- A no-reply sender. Use an address someone reads. Guests often reply with questions about dates and prices, and those replies are bookings in waiting.
- Missing footer details. Include your business name, address on St Kitts or Nevis and an unsubscribe link. US recipients expect this under CAN-SPAM, and it is simply good practice everywhere.
Step 8: Review the results
After a day or two, open the campaign report. Which story got the clicks? Did the Nevis locals open more than the overseas guests? Use the answers to plan the next issue.
Where your data sits
Your contacts are stored in Mailpro’s Swiss data centre, outside US jurisdiction. That supports the Data Protection Act’s requirement to consider where data is stored and to use processors with sound security.
If you want more design control, see HTML newsletters. For an overview of all the tools, go back to creating newsletters in St Kitts and Nevis.