The easiest way to explain how to create a newsletter is to build one. Let’s follow an imaginary dive shop on Bequia preparing its first email of the winter season. Swap in your own business, whether it is a bakery in Kingstown, a villa on Mustique or a cooperative in the Marriaqua valley, and the steps are the same.
Step 1: Decide who it is for and what it should achieve
The dive shop has three kinds of contact: past divers from Europe and North America, local residents who took a course, and people who emailed to ask about prices but never booked. The goal of this issue is simple: get past divers to book for the winter, and give enquirers a reason to try.
That means two versions of the same newsletter, sent to two segments. Mailpro’s email segmentation lets you build those groups from a contact field or from a tag added when they joined.
Step 2: Check your list
Before designing, confirm that everyone on the list agreed to receive news. Anyone added from a booking form without a marketing opt-in should get a short re-permission email first. See permission to send email campaigns for why this matters even though SVG has no dedicated anti-spam law.
Step 3: Choose a starting point
Open the editor and pick a template from the template library or start blank with the drag-and-drop builder. The dive shop chooses a one-column layout: it reads best on phones, and most readers will open it on one.
Step 4: Write the content
- Subject line: “Winter dives on Bequia: dates now open”. Clear, specific, under 50 characters.
- Preheader: the short line shown after the subject, such as “Book before 1 November for the early rate”.
- Top of the email: one photo from a real dive, one sentence, one button: “See dates”.
- Middle: what is new this season, a short note from the instructor, prices in US dollars with XCD for residents.
- Footer: business name, postal address, phone in +1 784 format and an unsubscribe link.
Step 5: Personalise
Insert the first name in the greeting and, for past divers, the year of their last visit. Mailpro’s personalisation fields fill these in automatically for each subscriber.
Step 6: Add buttons and images carefully
Use the button builder rather than a picture of a button, so it works even when images are blocked. Compress photos: a slow-loading email on a boat’s Wi-Fi is an email that gets closed.
Step 7: Test
Send a test to yourself and to someone with a different phone. Check every link, including the booking page and the unsubscribe link. Read the text aloud: it should sound like the person behind the counter, not a brochure.
Step 8: Schedule for the reader
SVG is on Atlantic Standard Time all year. The European segment goes out early in the morning Vincentian time, so it arrives around lunchtime in Europe; the North American segment goes out at 8 a.m. Use scheduled sending so you do not have to be awake for either.
Step 9: Learn from the results
After a few days, look at which links were clicked, how many people unsubscribed and, most importantly, how many bookings came in. The dive shop notices that enquirers clicked the price table far more than the photos, so next month’s issue leads with prices.
Adapting the steps to other businesses
A credit union would swap the dive photos for a clear notice about new services and holiday opening hours, and send one version to all members. A restaurant in Kingstown might send a short weekly email with the specials and events, especially around Carnival and the Nine Mornings season. An agro-exporter might send a plain, text-led update to buyers about harvest volumes and shipping dates. The steps do not change: audience, list, layout, content, personalisation, testing, timing and review.
A note on frequency
Once you have sent your first issue, pick a rhythm you can keep. A monthly newsletter that arrives reliably is worth more than a weekly one that stops in April. Add extra sends only for real news: a new season, a big event or an important change.
What next
Once the first issue is out, set up a welcome email for new subscribers with automated emails, so nobody waits a month to hear from you. Every Mailpro account starts with 500 free credits to try all of this.