Not legal advice: Legal content on this page appears only as verbatim quotations from statutes, court rulings or authority papers, with their source; quotations from German texts are our working translations. We do not assess them ourselves, and no lawyer has reviewed this page. It is no substitute for legal advice in your individual case.

Create a newsletter: step by step

This guide applies whichever program you work with. In eight steps it takes you from the first plan to sending, for each step it says what belongs to it technically, and quotes what the law and the supervisory authorities say about it. The legal quotations concern the situation in Germany. Quotations from German laws, court rulings and authority papers are our working translations; only the German wording is authoritative (see the German version of this page). How to find a suitable sending platform is explained under Choose a newsletter tool. The notes on design and workflow are practical experience, not study results.

1. Define the goal and the recipients

Write down in one sentence whom you are writing to and why: informing customers about new products, members about dates, specialists about a topic. Content and frequency follow from this.

On email advertising, the German Act against Unfair Competition (UWG) reads: “An unacceptable nuisance is always to be assumed […] in the case of advertising using […] electronic mail without the prior express consent of the addressee” (Section 7(2) no. 2 UWG, our translation). On the concept of advertising in data protection law, the German Data Protection Conference (Datenschutzkonferenz, DSK) writes: “On the other hand, advertising is also contact made by parties, associations and clubs or charitable and social organisations with data subjects in order to make their aims known or to promote them” (guidance on direct marketing, Section 1.1, p. 3, our translation). Whether a club’s newsletter is also advertising within the meaning of the UWG is not expressly answered by the law or by the authority papers quoted here. Further wording on consent and proof: Consent and double opt-in.

2. Choose a sender people recognise

The sender name and sender address should show who the email comes from – for example the name of your company or club and an address under your own domain. The Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG, the German act on digital services) provides: “Where commercial communications are sent by electronic mail, neither the sender nor the commercial nature of the message may be disguised or concealed in the header and in the subject line.” (Section 6(2) sentence 1 DDG, our translation)

A sender domain of your own also has a technical reason: you set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for a domain whose DNS you manage – with an address at a free email service, that is not possible. Since 1 February 2024, Gmail has required this of senders who send 5,000 or more messages a day to Gmail accounts. Background: Deliverability.

3. Write the subject line and preview text

The subject line says in a few words what this issue is about. On the subject line of commercial emails, the law says: “Disguising or concealing exists where the header or the subject line is deliberately designed in such a way that the recipient, before viewing the content of the communication, receives no information or misleading information about the actual identity of the sender or the commercial nature of the message.” (Section 6(2) sentence 2 DDG, our translation)

If your sending platform offers it, also set a preview text: a short line that complements the subject line instead of repeating it.

4. Build the content

• One main topic first. What matters most to most readers goes at the top.
• Short sections, each with a subheading and a clear next step, for example a link “See the programme”.
• Images complement the text but do not replace it. Important statements belong in the text, and every image needs alternative text for everyone who cannot see it or has images switched off.
• Advertising and partner links. Section 6(1) DDG reads: “When making commercial communications that are digital services or components of digital services, service providers must at least observe that […] commercial communications must be clearly recognisable as such” (Section 6(1) no. 1 DDG, our translation). Section 5a(4) sentence 1 UWG reads: “A person also acts unfairly who does not make the commercial purpose of a commercial practice recognisable, unless it is immediately apparent from the circumstances, and where not making it recognisable is likely to cause the consumer or other market participant to take a transactional decision that they would not otherwise have taken.” (Section 5a(4) UWG, our translation) Further wording: Sender, subject line, labelling, unsubscribing.

5. Include a text version

An email can contain the same content in several formats, for example as a designed HTML version and as plain text. The internet standard RFC 2046 describes the type “multipart/alternative” for this: each part is a different version of the same information, and the recipient’s program chooses the version it can display best. Check whether your sending platform generates a text version, and read it through once – an automatically generated version may contain long link addresses or leftovers of the layout.

6. Add unsubscribing and sender details

Section 7(2) UWG names as a case in which an unacceptable nuisance is always to be assumed: “in the case of advertising with a message […] in which there is no valid address to which the recipient can send a request to stop such messages without incurring any costs other than the transmission costs at the basic rates” (Section 7(2) no. 3(c) UWG, our translation). On consent, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides: “It shall be as easy to withdraw as to give consent.” (Art. 7(3) GDPR) Sending platforms usually insert an unsubscribe link into the text. If you send many emails, the large mailbox providers additionally require one-click unsubscribe in the email header (List-Unsubscribe according to RFC 8058). Many sending platforms also add a footer with the sender’s name, address and contact details; more on this under Sender, subject line, labelling, unsubscribing.

7. Test send

Send the finished issue to yourself first, ideally to addresses with different providers and on a computer and a smartphone. Check:

• Are the sender, subject line and preview text right?
• Do all links work, including the unsubscribe link?
• Can the email be understood without images?
• Is the text version readable?

Whether a test was “opened” says little: with the Protect Mail Activity setting, for example, Apple Mail loads remote content in the background as soon as an email arrives. Why this distorts the open rate is explained on the page Metrics.

8. Send and evaluate

Increase the volume gradually: Google points out that a sudden increase in sending volume – such as doubling it at once – can lead to rate limiting or a poorer sender reputation. After sending, it is worth looking at delivery, clicks and unsubscribes; how to read these figures is explained under Metrics.

Checklist before sending

• Purpose and recipients defined
• Sender name and own sender domain, SPF, DKIM, DMARC set up
• Subject line describes the content, preview text set
• Images with alternative text, text version read
• Unsubscribe link in the text and one-click unsubscribe in the header, sender details in the footer
• Test send to several mailboxes checked

Further reading

• Newsletter marketing: the basics
• Choose a newsletter tool
• Subject line and preview text
• The newsletter template
• Tools – metrics calculator, DMARC builder and checklists