Newsletter

The newsletter is an optional part of your workspace. Once an owner or admin turns it on under Newsletter settings, Newsletter appears in the sidebar for your whole team, with Campaigns, Subscribers, Lists and Block list.

Newsletters always go out through your own mail account, never through ours. Before the first one can be sent, an owner or admin sets up the account and your sender details in the settings.

Who can do what

An AI team member's draft waits under Campaigns until a person checks and sends it.

Lists

A list is a topic people subscribe to, like "Product updates". Owners and admins open Newsletter → Lists and click New list:

• Name — only your team sees it.
• Name for subscribers (optional) — the name people see; without it, the name above is used.
• Description for subscribers (optional).
• What people agree to — the consent text, e.g. "Yes, I would like to receive product updates from Acme by email. I can unsubscribe at any time." It is stored with every consent as proof. Changing it later only affects new consents.
• Language of confirmation mails — German or English.

Click Save list. Each list shows how many people are subscribed. Archive takes a list out of use without losing anyone on it; Restore brings it back.

Subscribers can choose it themselves decides whether the list appears on the page where subscribers manage their newsletters (see Their own newsletter page).

Sign-up page

Every list has its own public sign-up page. On Newsletter → Lists, click Sign-up form next to a list:

• Sign-up page — the link to share. Copy link copies it, Open shows the page.
• What the form asks — the email address and the box with your consent text are always there; the box is never ticked in advance. Switch on Ask for the name for an optional first and last name, and Ask for consent to count opens and clicks for a separate, optional box (its text is set under Sign-up forms). Owners and admins click Save form.
• Show the form on your website — two snippets to paste into your own website. Form snippet fits into your page and keeps its own look; Frame snippet shows the sign-up page in a frame that grows with its content. Sign-ups from your website are only accepted once it's listed under Your websites in the settings.

The page speaks the list's language (German or English). If your workspace has its own events domain, the sign-up pages use it too.

What happens when someone signs up

1. They enter their address, tick the consent box and click Subscribe. They always see "Almost done" — whether the address is new, already subscribed or blocked stays private.
2. They get an email asking them to confirm. It goes out through your newsletter mail account, counts toward the 2,000 mails a day, and contains no advertising. At most 300 of the day's 2,000 mails can be these confirmation mails, so a flood of sign-ups never uses up what your campaigns need. Beyond 300 a day, the sign-up is still saved and its confirmation mail goes out the next day; the person sees the same "Almost done". When this happens, Newsletter → Subscribers shows a note — if you didn't expect that many sign-ups, someone may be signing up addresses automatically.
3. Only when they click Confirm subscription are they subscribed. Until then the subscriber shows the list as waiting. The link works for 7 days; an unconfirmed sign-up is deleted afterwards.

Every step is in the subscriber's consent record with date, time, address of the device and browser. Addresses that bounced, complained or were erased can't sign up again by themselves; someone who unsubscribed earlier can.

Sign-ups only work while sending is possible — with the newsletter turned on, your sender details filled in and a sending account in place.

Their own newsletter page

Every newsletter's footer has a Preferences link, and the unsubscribe page and the page after confirming lead there too. On it, subscribers can:

• untick lists they no longer want — this takes effect at once,
• tick further lists you let them choose — they get an email to confirm first, because the page link may have been forwarded to someone else; the list starts only after the click (the same goes for a list they left earlier),
• withdraw their consent to counting opens and clicks, at once (it can only be given through a sign-up form),
• Unsubscribe from everything — every list, and the consent to counting opens and clicks.

Each change is in their consent record.

Subscribers

Newsletter → Subscribers lists everyone on your lists. Subscribers are not users and never sign in. Search by email address, or filter by list, status and how they were added.

Add a subscriber

1. Click Add subscriber (you need at least one list first).
2. Enter the Email address and, if you like, First name and Last name.
3. Choose the Lists.
4. Under Where does the consent come from?, pick the Source (e.g. A paper form or At an event), describe it under Details (e.g. "sign-up sheet at the trade fair, 12 March"), and tick that this person explicitly agreed.
5. Click Add subscriber.

The person is subscribed straight away and gets no mail asking them to confirm — that's why the statement is required.

A subscriber's page

Click a subscriber to see:

• Lists — what they receive. Take off list ends one subscription. To add more lists, choose them and give the consent statement again.
• Consent record — every consent and unsubscription with date and time, the text they agreed to, and where it came from. Entries are never changed.
• Data about this person — owners and admins click Download all data when someone asks what you store about them. The file holds their details, subscriptions, every consent and withdrawal (with the device address and browser), a block on the address, the newsletters they got in the last 13 months (opens and clicks only if they agreed to be counted) and the newsletter entries on their CRM contact. Send it to the person.
• Delivery problems and erasure — see Late bounces and complaints. Owners and admins find Erase subscriber… here: the address and name are removed, the consent record is anonymised, and the address stays blocked so they never get a newsletter again. This can't be undone.

Export

Owners and admins click Export for a spreadsheet of the subscribers in the current view. Very large exports hold the first part only; narrow the filter, e.g. by list, to get the rest.

How long data is kept

SolutionDesk clears old data on its own, also while the newsletter is turned off:

• Unconfirmed sign-ups are deleted when their confirmation link expires (after 7 days).
• People on no list anymore (they unsubscribed, bounced or complained) lose their address, name and form answers 12 months after the last change. Their consent record stays; if they sign up again, they start fresh.
• Consent records are kept while someone is subscribed and for 3 years after that, so you can prove consent if anyone asks. Then the record and the person are deleted.
• Sent newsletters per person are kept for 13 months.
• The block list is kept for good, so a blocked address never gets a newsletter again.

Import subscribers

Owners and admins can move subscribers over from a spreadsheet or another newsletter tool:

1. On Subscribers, click Import.
2. Choose a CSV file with a column email. Columns first name, last name and language are used when present.
3. Choose the lists under Add to lists.
4. Fill in Where does the consent come from? (e.g. Our previous newsletter tool) and tick that these people explicitly agreed.
5. Click Import.

Nobody gets a mail. The Result shows how many were Added, Already subscribed, left out because they're on the block list, or left out as invalid or duplicate — with the row number and reason for each one left out.

Block list

Newsletter → Block list holds the addresses that never get a newsletter again, whatever list they're on. Addresses land here on their own when someone unsubscribes from their last list, when their mail server refuses the address for good, or when a subscriber is erased. For privacy, only a fingerprint of each address is kept, not the address itself — so you can't read the list, but you can Check an address to see whether and why it's blocked.

Nobody on the block list can be added or imported.

Late bounces and complaints

Some refusals and spam complaints arrive later, as mails in your own mailbox. Add them so these addresses get nothing more:

• Under Block addresses, paste the addresses (one per line, or separated by commas), choose the reason — Undeliverable (bounced), Complained about spam or Other reason — and click Block.
• Or, on a subscriber's page, click Mark as undeliverable or Mark as complained.

Owners and admins can Lift block on an entry, for example after a mistake. Unsubscriptions and erasures can't be lifted: only the person can decide to receive your newsletter again.

Write a campaign

1. Open Newsletter → Campaigns and click New campaign.
2. Fill in:
   • Name (only your team sees it).
   • Send to — one or more lists. Someone on several of them gets the newsletter once.
   • Only contacts who… (only while the CRM is on) — narrow the lists to subscribers whose CRM contact are in stage, work with an account or are owned by someone. Several choices in one box mean "any of them"; filled boxes must all match. The campaign shows how many of the list's subscribers match. This only ever narrows: someone who isn't subscribed never gets the newsletter, even when their contact matches. Leave the boxes empty to send to everyone on the lists.
   • Subject and Preview line (optional) — the line shown next to the subject in the inbox.
   • Sender name — your organization name, or one of the sender names set up in the settings.
   • Language of the footer — German or English.
   • Click counting — whether and how clicks are counted; see Clicks and opens. New campaigns start with the choice from the settings.
   • Content — text, headings, lists, links and images.
3. Click Save draft.

Images

Click the image button in the content toolbar (Add image (images are public)) and choose a PNG, JPEG, GIF or WebP file of up to 2 MB. The image is placed where the cursor is and shown at most as wide as the mail.

Only images you add this way appear in the mail. Images copied in from other websites are left out.

At the top you see roughly how many subscribers the campaign reaches and how long sending will take. Every mail automatically gets a footer with your sender details, a line saying why the person receives it, and an unsubscribe link.

Click Show preview to see the finished mail, as Desktop or Mobile. Delete draft removes a campaign that hasn't been sent.

Test and send

Under Test and send:

1. Test mail to is your own address — change it if you like and click Send test mail. Unsaved changes are saved first.
2. To send right away, click Send now. To send later, pick a time under Send later (optional) (your computer's time) and click Schedule.
3. Confirm with Yes, send now or Yes, schedule.

Send now stays unavailable while something is missing, e.g. a subject, content or a list. Those gaps are listed under the campaign, along with anything in the settings that still stops sending.

The campaign goes to every subscriber of the chosen lists who isn't blocked. Each person is checked again right before their mail goes out, so someone who unsubscribes in the meantime is left out.

Follow, pause and stop a campaign

Once a campaign is scheduled or sending, its content can't be changed anymore. The Delivery card shows:

Depending on its status:

• Unschedule — puts a scheduled campaign back to Draft, so you can change it.
• Pause — stops sending for now. Resume carries on with the people who haven't had it yet; nobody gets it twice.
• Stop for good — the rest never get it. The status becomes Stopped.

A campaign also pauses on its own, with the reason shown, if your mail server can't be reached or refuses the login, if more than 5 % of the addresses are refused for good, or if something in the settings stops sending (for example, the newsletter was turned off). Fix the cause, then click Resume.

Campaign statuses: Draft, Scheduled, Preparing, Sending, Paused, Sent, Stopped and Failed.

Clicks and opens

Choose under Click counting in the campaign:

People can take back their agreement at any time on their preferences page. From then on they are only counted per link, and they no longer appear in the list of people.

Once a campaign has gone out, the Clicks and opens card shows the total clicks, the clicks per link and — with per-person counting — how many of the people who agreed opened and clicked, with a list of them. Only owners, admins and members see that list; AI team members see the totals.

Links in a counted campaign first lead to SolutionDesk and then on to the page you linked. They only ever lead to the links in your campaign.

Unsubscribing

Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link. It opens a page with a button; one click ends the subscription to the lists that newsletter was sent to. Mail apps that show their own unsubscribe button work too, in one click. The page also links to the subscriber's own newsletter page for choosing single lists instead. Once someone has left their last list, their address goes on the block list. You see each unsubscription on the subscriber's page and in their consent record.

In the CRM

When both the newsletter and the CRM are on, the two work together. A subscriber belongs to the CRM contact with the same email address.

• Newsletter section on the contact's page — every list the contact's addresses are on, with the status, how they got there and since when, and whether opens and clicks may be counted for this person. Add to list puts one of the contact's addresses on lists. Like adding a subscriber, you say where the consent comes from and confirm the person explicitly agreed. Blocked addresses, and people who left a list themselves, can't be added. The AI staff role can't add people.
• Timeline — the contact's timeline shows when they received a newsletter, unsubscribed or complained. Opens and clicks appear only for people who agreed to be counted; if they withdraw that later, those entries disappear.
• Merging contacts — the subscriber then belongs to the contact you keep.
• Deleting a contact — if the contact is on the newsletter, you choose: keep the subscription (they keep getting what they signed up for), or erase it too (owners and admins only; the address then never gets a newsletter again).

Newsletter box in event registrations

When the newsletter is on, an event's registration form can offer a box to subscribe to a list — see Registration. Whoever ticks it gets a separate email from the newsletter to confirm, in addition to the event's own email, and is only subscribed after clicking it.