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How to create and send your first newsletter in MailerLite

Send one MailerLite newsletter to a small, consented test group, check the actual message, and verify its unsubscribe link before using a real audience.

Beginner6 min read
In this guide

Your first newsletter only needs one useful message and one person who has agreed to receive it. Start with your own inbox. You will send a real campaign, find the delivered message, and check that its unsubscribe link works before considering a larger audience.

A campaign is a newsletter you send once. You do not need an automation, a paid template, or a welcome sequence for this task.

Check that you are ready to send

Use the current MailerLite dashboard, not MailerLite Classic. Start with a completed account profile, permission to send, an eligible sender address, and your own address already listed as Active under Subscribers. If account approval or sender verification is still pending, finish the requested steps first; composing a draft does not remove those requirements.

Check Plan and billing and any trial banner. On September 25, 2026, Free lists 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails, but new accounts can also have a 14-day trial. Initial sending without an authenticated domain during that trial is not a promise that the same setup will work afterward. Follow the account’s sender authentication instructions if it asks for them. Do not buy an upgrade simply to dismiss a sender warning.

Your footer needs the real sender or business details requested by MailerLite, including a valid postal address. Keep its unsubscribe link. Do not use invented details or add people who have not agreed to receive the message.

Put your test address in its own group

A group is a named collection of subscribers. Keeping your test address separate makes the final recipient check much easier.

  1. Open Subscribers → Groups and create a group named Newsletter test. If you already have an empty test group, reuse it.
  2. Return to All subscribers, find your own active address, and open its profile.
  3. Click Edit, select Newsletter test in the groups field, and save the change.
  4. Check that the profile now shows that group. Make sure no other addresses are in it.

If your address is Unconfirmed, confirm the signup email first. Do not manually activate someone else’s address to make the recipient count increase. For this first send, stop here if you do not have an active, consented test address.

Write one short message

Open Campaigns → Create campaign, choose Regular campaign, then Start from scratch → Simple editor.

Click the editable text and replace it with your own short newsletter, or use this practice message:

A small website check

Here is today’s three-step checklist:

  1. Open your main page on a phone.
  2. Follow its most important link.
  3. Write down one thing you could make clearer.

This is a test newsletter. You can use the unsubscribe link below to finish the test.

Keep the message small enough to inspect in the receiving inbox. You can add images and more sections after the sending path works.

Open Edit Footer to check the sender details and the explanation of why the reader is receiving the email. For a test, use an accurate sentence such as “You agreed to receive this test newsletter.” Leave the built-in unsubscribe link intact. Click Next in the Simple editor to save the content and open Campaign details.

Set the details and select only the test group

Fill in these fields:

  • Campaign name: First newsletter test. This is your internal label.
  • Subject: Your three-step website check. This is what the recipient sees.
  • Sender: the name readers should recognize and the address your account is allowed to use.
  • Preheader: A short test before sending to a wider audience. This is the inbox preview text.

Under Recipients, open Edit recipients, tick only Newsletter test, and select it. Leave All active subscribers unchecked. The total should be 1 if the group contains only your active address. A group label alone is not enough: check the calculated recipient count.

Click Continue. If MailerLite flags a missing subject or recipient selection, correct that field and continue again. An address can belong to a group without being eligible to receive campaigns, so check its status if the total is zero.

Review, then send once

On Send or schedule, review the subject, sender, content, and the one-recipient group. Use Edit content to fix anything wrong. A preview or the separate Send a test feature is useful for layout, but it does not replace this actual campaign and unsubscribe check.

Choose Send now, then use the final Send now button. If the first send presents terms for acceptance, read them and proceed only if you agree.

The campaign may appear in Outbox before moving to Sent. Do not click send again or create another copy because the report has not updated yet. Open the existing campaign’s report and check its status. If you need to stop a queued campaign before sending begins, use Outbox → More → Cancel sending. A delivered email cannot be recalled from the recipient’s mailbox.

Check the message and its way out

Search your receiving inbox for the exact subject. Check Spam as well as the main inbox; a successful provider report does not guarantee inbox placement. Open the message and check the text, sender, footer, and any links you added.

A Gmail or similar public sender address can be rewritten to a MailerLite sending address. If the sender is unexpected or the message lands in Spam, investigate the sender setup before using a larger list. One test cannot establish your general delivery rate.

Click Unsubscribe in the actual received newsletter. On the default confirmation page, choose Yes. Then refresh that address’s MailerLite profile: it should show Unsubscribed. If the page asks for a reason afterward, that feedback is separate from checking the status change.

Finish by checking Outbox is empty. A regular campaign has no recurring schedule to switch off. Leave any extra practice copies in Drafts, and do not use an auto-resend feature for this check.

You now have a useful result: one real newsletter received and a working unsubscribe path. Before sending to more people, replace the practice content, select the intended consented group, and repeat the final recipient-count check.

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