Postalion

Documentation

Getting started

From install to the first newsletter. Nothing here needs an account anywhere, and nothing leaves your site.

1. Install and activate

In your WordPress admin go to Plugins → Add New, search for Postalion and install it, or download the zip and upload it. On activation Postalion creates its tables, a page with the unsubscribe form, and opens its dashboard.

2. Send yourself a test

The first step on the dashboard sends a test email to your address. If it arrives, you are set. If it does not, or if it lands in spam, open Settings → Sending method, choose SMTP server and enter the details of your mail service or your host; a test button tries them before you save. The Sending and SMTP page explains the choices.

A sender address on your own domain matters more than anything else. Mail "from" a free mailbox such as Gmail is refused or filed as spam by most providers.

3. Check the sender

Settings → Sender holds the name and the address your readers see. Use an address on your domain, ideally one that exists, so replies reach you.

4. Put a sign-up form on a page

In the block editor add the Postalion sign-up form block, or paste the shortcode:

[postalion_form]

New subscribers get a confirmation email and join the list when they click the link in it (double opt-in, on by default). The Sign-up forms page covers the popup and the checkboxes for registration, comments, WooCommerce and Contact Form 7.

5. Bring the people you already have

Users of your site are recipients from the start. Anyone else comes in by hand, from a CSV file (Subscribers → Import CSV) or, if MailPoet is on the same site, straight from it (Settings → Import from MailPoet). See Import and export.

6. Write and send

Under Newsletters → New pick a template, write, drop in blocks, preview on desktop and phone, send yourself a test, then send now or schedule it. The first batch leaves at once; the rest follow in the background. The composer page has the details, and the Logs screen shows every email that went out.

Where things are

  • Dashboard: figures, recent activity, what is scheduled, the system checks.
  • Newsletters: drafts, scheduled and sent, with reports when statistics are on.
  • Subscribers and Lists: who is on the list and in which groups.
  • Templates: the five designs, with previews.
  • Sending: the newsletter going out right now, with stop and resume.
  • Logs: emails, activity and system messages.
  • Settings: sender, sending method, subscribing, speed, automatic emails, popup, checkboxes, statistics, maintenance.

Next: Sending and SMTP