Newsletters

Newsletters are your club's long-form updates, published on your public Newsletters page and — for designed newsletters — emailed straight to your members. There are two kinds: a designed newsletter, built in the drag-and-drop builder with your club's colours applied automatically, and an uploaded PDF (a season wrap-up, a printable flyer). You'll find both under Newsletters in the admin sidebar (in the Publish updates group, alongside News).

Who can use this

Designing, editing and publishing newsletters is available to admins and to moderators who have been granted the News publishing permission (news.publish) — the same permission that controls News. Sending a newsletter by email additionally needs the Broadcasts permission (broadcasts.send; admins hold both automatically), and email sends count towards the same monthly email allowance as Broadcasts. The section also depends on the Newsletters feature being switched on for your site; if you can't see it in the sidebar, check Features.

What's on the page

The main page lists your newsletters in a table with Title, Status, Published date, and Actions. Designed newsletters are labelled "Designed email newsletter"; uploaded ones show their file name. Two buttons sit at the top right: Design a newsletter opens the visual builder, and Upload a PDF opens the guided upload form.

The builder itself has three areas: the canvas in the middle (your email, block by block, exactly as it will render), a panel on the right (block settings, starter templates and the block palette), and the floating save pill top right. Your work autosaves every couple of minutes while you edit — the pill shows the countdown — and you can press Save draft at any time.

Step by step

Design a newsletter

1. Click Design a newsletter.
2. Give it a title — this doubles as the email subject line (you can change the subject at send time).
3. Pick one of the three starter templates (they inherit your club's theme colours automatically) or add your first block.
4. Build the content from blocks: Heading, Paragraph (rich text — bold, links, lists), Image, Button, Divider, Spacer, and Two columns. Click a block to edit it in the panel; drag the grip (or use the arrow buttons) to reorder.
5. Use Preview in the save pill to see the email in light or dark mode, and at desktop or mobile width.
6. Personalise with {{member_name}} and {{tenant_name}} anywhere in your text — each recipient sees their own name.

Send it to members

1. In Share it, click Send to members… (your draft is saved automatically first).
2. Check the subject, then choose who receives it: All members, By role or position, or a Custom list (search and pick individual members).
3. Leave Only members who opted in to club emails ticked unless you have a good reason not to — it keeps you on the right side of spam rules. You can also restrict to paid-up members.
4. Choose Send now or Schedule for a future time, and whether to also publish it to your website archive (ticked by default).
5. Send test to me delivers a real copy to your own inbox first — always worth doing.
6. Click Send…, confirm the audience, and you're done. Delivery happens in the background over the following minutes.

Publish without emailing

Click Publish to site only in Share it — the newsletter appears on your public /newsletters page as a web article, with no email sent. Unpublish from site takes it down again.

Track opens and clicks

After a send, the builder's Email sends table shows recipients, delivered, Opened ≥ and Clicked ≥ counts. Tracking is first-party (it runs on ClubHelix's own domain — no third-party trackers ever see your members) and the numbers are minimums: many email apps block tracking images or pre-fetch links, so treat them as a floor, not a census.

Upload a PDF newsletter

1. Click Upload a PDF and answer the short questions: title, optional summary, web address (fills itself in from the title), and the file.
2. Leave Put it on our Newsletters page ticked to publish now.
3. To email a PDF newsletter, use Email to members in its row — it starts a Broadcast with the file attached.

Edit or delete

Click Edit on a row (designed newsletters open in the builder; PDFs open the upload form) or Delete to remove it from your public page.

Field reference

Tips & FAQ

• Where do published newsletters appear? On your public /newsletters page, newest first. Designed newsletters open as web articles; PDFs offer a Download link. Drafts stay hidden from members until published (admins see a draft preview).
• Why can't I press send? Sending needs the Broadcasts permission, an email-capable plan, and remaining monthly email allowance — the send dialogue explains which one is in the way. Free plans can design and publish to the site but not email.
• Who exactly gets it? Recipients are locked in when you press send; members who join afterwards aren't included. Members who unsubscribed are always excluded, whatever audience you pick.
• Do the colours match our site? Yes — headings, buttons and links use your active theme's colours, in the email and on the web page. Change your theme and the next send picks it up.
• What about dark mode? The preview's dark toggle approximates how email apps invert colours. Send yourself a test to check the real thing in your own mail app.
• See also Broadcasts for one-off announcement emails and News for shorter articles.