Getting started with Mailrelay: how to send your first newsletter step by step
From signup to statistics: import your contacts, design your newsletter and send it in under an hour.
If you’ve just created your Mailrelay account, this guide walks you through everything up to your first send. In about 30–60 minutes you’ll have your contacts imported and your newsletter designed and sent, and you’ll know where to see the results.
You can follow it with the free account, which lets you send up to 80,000 emails a month to 20,000 contacts. And if you get stuck on any step, the support team will help you by chat, ticket or phone.
Don’t have a Mailrelay account yet?
Follow this guide and see how easy it is to take your first steps with Mailrelay.
Step 1: get to know the main panel
When you log in, you’ll see the Dashboard, your account’s main screen. From here you can see at a glance:
- Quick actions to import contacts or create a campaign, an automation or a landing page.
- A summary of your sends: emails sent, delivered and bounced, opens, clicks and unsubscribes over the last few days.
- A weekly checklist of best practices to look after your deliverability.
- Your latest sent campaigns and your subscribers’ activity in real time.
- Heat maps showing the days and times when your contacts open and click the most.
The main menu is on the left. These are the sections you’ll use in this guide:
| Menu | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Subscribers | Contacts, groups, segments, imports, forms and custom fields |
| Campaigns | Create and send newsletters, RSS campaigns, A/B tests and senders |
| Reports | Statistics for your sent campaigns and your plan |
| Settings | Account settings, domain authentication and default options |
At the bottom of that same menu, you’ll see how many of your plan’s emails you’ve used this month.
Step 2: import your contacts
Create a group
All your contacts have to be in at least one group. Go to Subscribers > Groups, click + Add, type a name (for example, “Customers 2026”) and click Create group.
The description is optional and only you can see it. Don’t paste email addresses there.
Prepare the file
You can import a CSV or TXT file with one contact per line and the fields separated by commas:
| name | city | |
|---|---|---|
| Juan | [email protected] | Madrid |
| Eva | [email protected] | Valencia |
Save it in UTF-8 so that accented characters (such as é or ñ) import correctly. If you want to store data that doesn’t exist by default, such as the signup date or the customer type, create a custom field first.
Import the list
- Go to Subscribers > Imports and click + New import.
- Choose Upload Files (.csv, .txt) and drag your file in. You can also copy and paste your contacts or import them from Mailchimp or HubSpot.
- Match the columns. Indicate which Mailrelay field each column goes into (email, name, city…). The preview helps you check it.
- Choose the destination group, or tick “New group” to create one on the spot.
- Decide what to do with the contacts you already have. If you don’t tick “Update data of existing subscribers”, they’re skipped and only the new ones are imported.
- Tick the statement confirming that your contacts comply with the GDPR and have given their consent, then click Import.
When it finishes, you’ll see the result for each line. It’s normal for the first one to show as failed if it’s the file’s header row. To see your contacts, go to Subscribers > Subscribers, filter by the group and click Search.
Go to Campaigns > Campaigns, click + Add and, under New editor with AI, click Create campaign. Type the subject line and continue.
You’ll see the campaign panel with five sections. You can change each one with its Edit button:
- Subject. What your contacts will see in their inbox, with optional preview text. The Suggest button gives you AI-generated subject line ideas.
- Sender. The address you send from. It has to be confirmed in Mailrelay.
- Content. Your newsletter’s design.
- Recipients. The group or segment that will receive it. Choose the one you’ve just imported.
- Advanced settings. The reply-to address, the Google Analytics campaign, file attachments and open and click tracking.
Design the content
Under Content, click Edit and choose one of the predesigned templates, or let the AI template generator create one from your website’s URL and your instructions.
The editor works by dragging blocks: text, image, button, divider, social media, video, table, QR code, countdown… When you click any element, its options appear on the right: links, sizes, fonts and colors. To place two or three elements side by side, use the multi-column Sections.
You’ll find the full guide to the editor in our tutorial on the Mailrelay newsletter editor.
Get the most out of Mailrelay
Keep learning how to create professional newsletters step by step with our platform.
Three details you shouldn’t leave out
The contact’s name. In a text block, click Variables and, in the Subscriber section, choose Name. When the email is sent, the variable is replaced with each person’s name.
The unsubscribe link. It’s mandatory in every email you send. Drag the Unsubscribe block to the footer of the newsletter. If you only want the contact to stop receiving that group’s emails, swap the variable for the group unsubscribe one.
The link to the web version. Select some text such as “View in browser”, click Link, then {…} Variables and choose {{ web_version }}. That way, anyone who can’t view the email properly can open it in their browser.
Step 4: add an attachment (or, better, a link)
To attach a file, go to Advanced settings in the campaign panel, tick Attach files and drag it in.
Keep two things in mind:
- It counts towards your plan. Every 100 KB of attachment counts as one extra email. A 350 KB file makes each send count as 4: if you send it to 1,000 contacts, 4,000 emails are deducted.
- It can affect deliverability. Heavy attachments increase the risk of your email being blocked or ending up in spam.
That’s why, for PDFs, catalogs or presentations, it’s better to upload the file to a service such as Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive and put a download link in the newsletter:
- Upload the file to your account on that service.
- Click Share and create or copy the link. Make sure anyone with the link can open it.
- In the Mailrelay editor, select some text or a button (for example, “Download the catalog”), click Link and paste the address.
The newsletter stays light and, on top of that, you’ll know how many people clicked the download.
Step 5: choose the reply-to address
By default, your subscribers’ replies go to the sender address. If you want them to go to a different one, such as your customer service address, enter it in Reply-To email, in the campaign’s advanced settings.
If you’re always going to use the same one, set it as the default reply-to address in Settings and you won’t have to add it to every campaign.
Step 6: send a test and launch your campaign
Before sending, click Send test email and check the email in your inbox, on your phone and on your computer:
- Does the subject line read well?
- Do all the links work, including the unsubscribe link?
- Do the images load?
- Does the contact’s name show correctly?
When everything looks right, click Send campaign. You can send it right away or schedule it for the day and time you choose.
To make sure your emails reach the inbox and not spam, also set up your domain authentication. We explain how in the guide to setting up SPF, DKIM, DMARC and a custom domain.
Step 7: check the statistics
Go to Reports > Sent campaigns. You’ll see the list of your campaigns with the emails sent, opens, clicks, bounces and unsubscribes for each one.
Click a campaign’s subject line to see the details: delivered, bounced, opens and clicks with their percentages, who opened it, which links they clicked and the clicks map. We explain each report in the guide to newsletter sending statistics.
Start sending your campaigns today
Put everything you’ve learned into practice and launch your first campaign with Mailrelay.
Next steps
With your first campaign sent, these guides will help you get more out of Mailrelay:
- How to create a signup form so your list grows on its own.
- Custom fields and segmentation to send each contact what interests them.
- Automations and autoresponders, such as a welcome email.
- A/B testing to find out which subject line works best.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to get started with Mailrelay?
Nothing. The free account lets you send up to 80,000 emails a month to 20,000 contacts, with no daily sending limit and no credit card.
What formats can I import?
CSV or TXT files with the fields separated by commas. You can also copy and paste your contacts or import them from Mailchimp or HubSpot.
No. The editor works by dragging blocks and has templates and an AI generator. If you already have an HTML design, you can paste it in too.
Can I schedule the send?
Yes. When you click “Send campaign”, you can choose the day and time.
Where can I see whether my emails are being delivered?
In Reports > Sent campaigns you can see the deliveries and bounces for each campaign. The Dashboard also shows your bounce and spam complaint rates for the last few days.
You’ll find more help in the Getting started section of the Mailrelay knowledge base.
Jose Argudo
CMO at Mailrelay. Writes about email marketing, copywriting, and conversion for small businesses and entrepreneurs.