Streamline Your Email Newsletters with Jetpack

Lately, I wanted to get all my subscribers from Tally into one place so I could send them newsletters easily. I started with Mailchimp, but ran into a bit of a snag — Mailchimp only allows importing up to 500 contacts on the free plan. Since I had more subscribers, I needed another solution.

That’s when I decided to create a newsletter directly on WordPress, using the Jetpack newsletter feature. It lets me send emails right from my website to all my subscribers — no limits on numbers and easy to manage.

What I did

1. Bulk Imported my subscribers to WordPress
   I simply downloaded the subscriber list from Tally as a CSV file, then uploaded it directly to Jetpack’s subscriber list via WordPress Dashboard > Jetpack > Subscribers > Add Subscribers. The import worked smoothly, saving me a lot of time. I’m happy to have everyone in one place now.
2. Created my newsletter in WordPress
   Creating my first newsletter in WordPress was a little confusing at first because sending an email this way isn’t the usual method. Instead of a separate email editor, you write the newsletter as a regular post. I clicked “New Post” and wrote it like an email, complete with greetings and the title Monthly Newsletter: Summing Up July 2025. I could preview it and even send a test email to myself by clicking the black arrow next to the Jetpack icon, which was reassuring to see how it would look in subscribers’ inboxes. I assigned the category newsletter to the post and added content, images, and useful links — like recipe photos linking to full posts, a link to my Tally feedback form, and a subscription link so readers can easily sign up their friends.
3. Set the newsletter to send only to subscribers
   Before sending, I checked in the draft sidebar under Publish and set the option to send the newsletter to “Anyone subscribed”. I then cancelled the send to keep working on the post until it was ready to publish.
4. Publish
   When you hit Publish on a newsletter post in WordPress with Jetpack, it automatically sends an email to all your subscribers. This means your newsletter goes straight to their inbox as soon as you publish it. If you’re not ready to send yet, you can save the post as a draft or schedule it for later — the email only goes out when you publish
5. Tweaked some settings
   I changed the email setting from sending just an excerpt to trying to send the full post. I’m not 100% sure if the full text went through because the test seemed like an excerpt. I plan to check with Nisha when I see her to confirm how it looked on her end.
6. Social media icons
   I added social media icons at the bottom of the newsletter, which now display properly in the email. It was a bit tricky at first, wasn’t working to begin with, but seeing them work now makes the newsletter feel complete.

What’s next?

• I have now added a newsletter landing page on my site listing all past newsletters. This will help subscribers catch up on anything they missed.
• I used a query loop block to display newsletters by date.
• This way, the newsletters will be neatly organised and easy to find for anyone visiting the site.
• I next want to learn how to create a form on WordPress that lets people access my free resources, like Google Sheets templates, and subscribe directly to WordPress at the same time — so I won’t have to use Tally anymore. I wonder if that’s possible!?

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If you’re thinking of doing the same, I hope this helps! Importing subscribers and sending newsletters from WordPress might take a little patience, but it’s a handy way to keep in touch without limits.

Thanks for reading!

♡ Janet