Amazing WordPress Newsletters Documentation

Welcome

Amazing WordPress Newsletters is an easy-to-use but also advanced Newsletter plugin for WordPress, with dozens of customization options.

Requirements

Component	Requirement
WordPress	5.8 or newer
PHP	7.2 or newer (7.4+ recommended)
WooCommerce	Optional — required only for store opt-ins, product targeting and revenue attribution
Easy Digital Downloads	Optional — required only for EDD opt-ins and download targeting
Sending	WP-Cron or a real server cron must be able to run the background sending queue
Encryption	PHP OpenSSL (used to store SMTP/API secrets encrypted with AES-256-GCM)

The plugin works as a standalone newsletter tool without a store. WooCommerce and EDD unlock the commerce features (checkout & registration opt-ins, purchase-based targeting, post-purchase automations, and revenue reporting).

Installation and upgrade

1. Upload the plugin ZIP through Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin, then activate it. Activation creates the database tables and schedules the sending cron.
2. Open Newsletters → Settings and set your sender name and address, sending rate, and delivery method.
3. Open Newsletters → License and activate your license key to receive automatic updates.
4. Create your first list under Newsletters → Lists & Tags, then build a campaign under Newsletters → Campaigns.

Upgrades are backward-compatible: existing lists, campaigns, templates, forms, and settings are preserved. Always back up before upgrading a production site.

License and updates

Go to Newsletters → License, enter the license key supplied by Amazing WP Plugins, and select Activate License. The page shows the activation state, expiry/renewal details, and update controls. A valid license enables one-click automatic updates from the Plugins screen.

License and update requests include only the license key, site URL, product title, and update metadata. No subscriber, campaign, or order data is transmitted.

Quick start

1. Create a list (e.g. “Newsletter”) under Lists & Tags, and add or import a few subscribers.
2. Under Settings → Delivery, choose how mail is sent (WordPress, SMTP, Amazon SES, or a provider pool) and set your from-name/from-email.
3. Create a campaign, write a subject, and design the body in the drag-and-drop builder — or start from the Template Gallery.
4. Pick the audience: everyone, a specific list/segment, or (with a store) buyers of chosen products.
5. Run the pre-send checklist and Spam score check, send yourself a test email, then Send or Schedule.
6. Watch progress update live on the Campaigns list, then review opens, clicks and revenue in Reports.

Dashboard

The dashboard summarizes your account at a glance: active subscribers, unsubscribed and bounced counts, total campaigns, campaigns currently sending, and — with a store connected — attributed revenue. An In progress table shows any sending campaigns with a live progress bar.

The drag-and-drop email builder

Design email-safe, mobile-ready messages visually — no HTML required. The builder produces bulletproof table markup that renders across major email clients.

Reusable saved layouts

Save any design — or a single row — as a reusable layout with Save as layout, then insert it into other campaigns or templates from the Saved layouts panel. Inserted layouts are a decoupled copy: they are not bound to the campaign’s template. You can append or replace, and rename or delete saved layouts.

Social & contact icons

The Social / Icons block includes SVG icons for popular networks (Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, WhatsApp, Telegram) plus phone, email and website. Lay them out horizontally or as a vertical list, in brand colors, a solid chip, or a single color, with adjustable size and optional text labels.

Template gallery

The Template Gallery provides ready-made, professionally styled email designs and wrappers (Logo, Minimal, Ocean, Sunset, Midnight, and more). Pick a starting point, then customize it in the builder. Applying a gallery design gives you a complete, editable layout in one click.

Email templates, headers & footers

Reusable Email Templates define the wrapper (colors, fonts, container width, accent) shared by many campaigns. Headers & Footers are reusable partials — a logo header, an address/social footer — that can be inserted into templates and campaigns. The default template, header and footer are flagged in their list screens.

The Email Templates and Headers & Footers lists are native WordPress screens, so they include search, pagination, and a per-page Screen Options control.

Merge tags & personalization

Insert merge tags anywhere in a subject or body — including inside a link URL — and they are replaced at send time with each subscriber’s data. A Merge tags panel in the campaign editor lists every available tag; click one to copy it. The builder’s live preview renders tags with sample values so you can see the result while editing.

Subscriber & site

{first_name}{name}{email}{site_name}{site_url}{site_logo}{site_logo_url}

Links

{unsubscribe_url}{preferences_url}{view_in_browser_url}

Commerce (WooCommerce / EDD)

{last_order_number}{last_order_date}{last_order_total}{last_products}{last_products_list}{cart_items}{cart_total}{cart_url}

Campaigns

Create a campaign, choose its template, write the subject and preheader, and design the body. Target everyone, one or more lists, a segment, or — with a store — customers who purchased specific products. Send now, or schedule for a future date and time.

The campaign list

The Campaigns list has search and pagination (default 20 per page, adjustable via Screen Options), color-coded action buttons, and a Trash view. While a campaign is sending, its progress bar, status, recipient counts, opens/clicks, estimated completion and row actions update live via AJAX — no page refresh — and polling stops automatically once the send finishes.

The campaign editor

The editor combines content, audience targeting, scheduling, the pre-send checklist, a Merge tags panel, a Spam score panel, and A/B controls in one screen. Send a test email (optionally through a specific delivery provider) and preview in the browser before sending. Duplicate any campaign in one click.

A/B testing

Test what actually converts. You can A/B the subject line, the from-name, or the entire email body (Version A / Version B tabs in the content editor). Choose the winning metric (opens or clicks) and a test window; the plugin sends the test slice, then automatically sends the winning variant to the remaining recipients.

Inline (embedded) images

Embed images so they display without the recipient clicking “load images”. Enable it globally in Settings, or override per campaign (Default / On / Off). Only local Media Library images are embedded, and only on the WordPress / SMTP delivery path; the open-tracking pixel and remote images stay linked. Supported types include PNG, JPG, GIF, WebP and AVIF.

Automations & workflows

Automations trigger emails automatically — most commonly N minutes/hours/days after purchase, optionally only for buyers of chosen products (welcome series, cross-sells, win-backs). Workflows chain multiple steps, including a condition step (“continue only if…”) that lets subscribers who don’t match exit the automation.

Automatic post notifications can also email a chosen list whenever you publish a post — configured under Settings → Growth.

Signup forms

Grow your list with built-in forms — inline, popup, slide-in, or a floating bar — created in a visual editor with a live preview. Forms submit via AJAX (no page reload) and show your custom thank-you message in place. A headline, paragraph and thank-you message support basic HTML, and lists/tags are chosen with searchable pickers.

Place a form anywhere

Use the shortcode, the Gutenberg block, or the native page-builder elements for Elementor, WPBakery, Divi, Beaver Builder and Bricks. Popup and slide-in forms are automatically suppressed for visitors who already subscribed this session or who are logged in as an existing subscriber.

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Conditional and Locked content let you show a block only to a segment, or hide it until a visitor subscribes — via native controls in Elementor and Beaver Builder, or CSS-class markers (e.g. anl-lock, anl-if-has_tag-3) in any builder.

Third-party form integrations

Already using a form plugin? Bridge its submissions into a list. Map a form to a list under Newsletters → Integrations and new submissions add subscribers automatically.

Supported form plugin	How it connects
Gravity Forms	Maps a form’s email/name fields to a list on submission
Contact Form 7	Captures the email/name from the submitted mail tags
WPForms	Reads the email/name fields on entry
Ninja Forms	Extracts email/name after submission
Forminator	Captures submissions into the mapped list
Elementor Pro Forms	Adds subscribers from Elementor form submissions

Spam protection (CAPTCHA)

Protect every front-end signup form from bots. Enable a provider under Settings → Growth and enter your keys; protection then applies to the shortcode, block, managed forms and every page-builder element automatically.

Provider	Notes
Google reCAPTCHA v2	Visible “I’m not a robot” checkbox
Google reCAPTCHA v3	Invisible score-based check with an adjustable threshold (0.0–1.0)
Cloudflare Turnstile	Privacy-friendly, low-friction challenge

WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads

Add a subscribe checkbox to the checkout and the registration forms of WooCommerce and EDD (and the WordPress registration form), each with a custom label, default state and target list. Configure them under Settings → Growth. Combined with purchase-based targeting and revenue attribution, this ties your list directly to your store.

Subscribers

Browse, search and manage your audience. The list supports pagination, a Filter by list dropdown, and a Lists column showing (and linking to) the lists each subscriber is on. Status tabs cover Active, Unsubscribed, Bounced, All and Trash, and each row shows engagement level, bounce counts, source and date added. Add a subscriber inline, or bulk unsubscribe/trash.

Open a subscriber’s Activity view for a per-person timeline (sends, opens, clicks, subscription changes) built from the activity log.

Lists & tags

Lists are the audiences people subscribe to; tags are flexible labels for finer targeting. Create and manage both from one screen, and use them as campaign audiences or as building blocks for segments.

Segments

Segments are dynamic audiences defined by conditions — list membership, tags, purchase history, custom fields, and engagement level (engaged, at-risk, inactive, new). Use them to target re-engagement campaigns or to keep your list clean. Segment conditions are combined to describe exactly who should receive a campaign.

Import & export

Import subscribers from a CSV (columns: email, name, status; header row optional) and assign them to a list on import. Large files are processed in batches with a progress bar so they don’t time out. Export the current subscriber view (respecting the status and list filters) to CSV at any time.

Engagement scoring

Every subscriber is scored by recent open activity into Engaged, At risk, Inactive or New. The level appears in the subscribers list and is available as a segment condition, so you can run re-engagement campaigns to at-risk contacts or sunset the inactive ones for better deliverability. The thresholds are filterable by developers (amazing_nl_engaged_days, amazing_nl_at_risk_days).

Delivery methods

Choose how mail leaves your site under Settings → Delivery. Use a single method or a provider pool that balances volume across several providers.

Method	Best for
WordPress (wp_mail)	Getting started; also the path that supports inline (embedded) images
SMTP	Any transactional SMTP provider; credentials stored encrypted
Amazon SES	High-volume sending via the native SES API (region + keys)
API / provider pool	Balance sending across multiple providers for scale

You can send a test email through a specific provider (the single method, or any provider in the pool) to verify configuration before a real send.

Sending & throttling

Real background delivery runs through the sending queue, so mail keeps going with no browser open. Control the pace under Settings → Sending:

Setting	Effect
Throttle (rate)	Cap emails per hour or per minute to respect provider limits
Emails per batch	How many are processed per queue run (default 20)
Delay between emails	Optional pause between each message
Max execution time	Time budget per queue run (0 = no limit)
Concurrent campaigns	How many campaigns send at once (1 = finish one before the next; 0 = no limit)
Pause on error	Automatically pause a campaign if an email fails

Deliverability & spam score

Land in the inbox, not the spam folder. The plugin checks your sending domain’s SPF, DKIM and DMARC records and warns on the Settings page when authentication is missing. Every campaign can be run through an internal spam-score check (no external service) that grades authentication, the unsubscribe link, subject wording, text/image balance, alt text, link count, message size, from-domain alignment and a physical address — out of 10 with a pass/warn/fail checklist.

Reports & revenue

Track opens, clicks, growth and revenue with clear charts and a date-range picker (with 7 / 30 / 90-day presets). Per-campaign reports show open and click rates from signed, tamper-proof tracking links. With WooCommerce or EDD connected, revenue attribution ties orders back to the campaign that earned them (last-click within a configurable window), so you can see real money next to each send.

Tracking & bounces

Under Settings → Tracking & Bounces, control open and click tracking and optional UTM tagging, and configure bounce handling. Hard bounces are removed immediately; soft bounces are removed after a configurable threshold. Feed bounces via an IMAP mailbox poll or a REST webhook. One-click unsubscribe includes List-Unsubscribe headers.

Suppression & logs

The Suppression list holds addresses that must never be emailed (banned or globally unsubscribed). Suppressed addresses are skipped at send time regardless of list membership. The Logs screen records plugin activity — sends, bounces, subscription changes and errors — for auditing and troubleshooting.

Settings

All configuration lives under Newsletters → Settings, grouped into tabs. The page returns to the tab you were on after saving.

Tab	Contains
General	Sender name/address, defaults
Delivery	Delivery method or provider pool, deliverability notice, per-provider test
Sending	Throttle, batch size, delays, max execution time, concurrency, pause-on-error
Growth	Signup forms, CAPTCHA, checkout & registration opt-ins, post notifications
Tracking & Bounces	Open/click tracking, UTM tagging, bounce handling (IMAP / webhook)
Template settings	Default template, header and footer, base styles
Developers	REST API key (and regenerate) and outgoing webhooks

REST API & webhooks

Integrate the plugin with your app, CRM or automation stack. The REST namespace is amazing-nl/v1. Requests authenticate with an API key sent in the X-ANL-API-Key header (generate it under Settings → Developers) or as a logged-in administrator.

Subscriber endpoints

Method	Route	Purpose
POST	/amazing-nl/v1/subscribers	Create or update a subscriber
GET	/amazing-nl/v1/subscribers/{email}	Read a subscriber
DELETE	/amazing-nl/v1/subscribers/{email}	Delete a subscriber
POST	/amazing-nl/v1/subscribers/{email}/unsubscribe	Unsubscribe a subscriber

Outgoing webhooks

Add webhook URLs under Settings → Developers to receive a POST when these events fire:

subscriber_addedcampaign_completedrevenue_attributed

curl -X POST https://your-site.com/wp-json/amazing-nl/v1/subscribers \
  -H "X-ANL-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"jane@example.com","name":"Jane","list_ids":[2]}'

Developer hooks

Extend the plugin without editing core. All extension points use the amazing_nl_ prefix. A selection of the most useful:

Filters

Hook	Purpose
amazing_nl_email_html	Modify the assembled email HTML before send
amazing_nl_email_subject	Modify the subject line before send
amazing_nl_campaign_recipients	Adjust the resolved recipient set for a campaign
amazing_nl_is_suppressed	Programmatically suppress an address
amazing_nl_attribution_hit	Adjust revenue-attribution matching
amazing_nl_engaged_days / amazing_nl_at_risk_days	Tune engagement-scoring thresholds
amazing_nl_visitor_is_subscribed	Override the “is this visitor a subscriber?” check

Actions

amazing_nl_email_sentamazing_nl_subscriber_addedamazing_nl_subscriber_activatedamazing_nl_campaign_completedamazing_nl_revenue_attributedamazing_nl_send_post_notification

Add data to an email

add_filter( 'amazing_nl_email_html', function ( $html, $campaign, $subscriber ) {
	// Append a personalised footer note, for example.
	return $html;
}, 10, 3 );

React when a campaign finishes

add_action( 'amazing_nl_campaign_completed', function ( $campaign_id ) {
	error_log( 'Newsletter campaign ' . $campaign_id . ' finished sending.' );
} );

Privacy & GDPR

The plugin integrates with WordPress’s personal-data export and erase tools: a subscriber’s data (including recorded consent) can be exported, and erasing removes the subscriber and their related records. Consent (source, date, IP) is recorded when someone subscribes. A preference center (via the {preferences_url} tag) lets subscribers update their name, choose lists, or unsubscribe with an optional reason — no login required, authenticated by a signed token.

Troubleshooting

Emails are queued but not sending

Sending runs on cron. Confirm WP-Cron is firing (or configure a real server cron), and check Settings → Sending for a throttle or concurrency limit that is pacing the queue. The Campaigns list shows live progress while a send is active.

Emails land in spam

Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for your sending domain (the Settings page warns when they’re missing), run the per-campaign spam score, and prefer a proper SMTP/SES provider over raw wp_mail.

Some images don’t show

When embedding images, only local Media Library images on the WordPress/SMTP path are embedded. Remote images stay linked. For API/SES delivery, images are linked rather than embedded.

Social icons are missing in Gmail/Outlook

Inline SVG icons render in Apple/iOS Mail but are stripped by Gmail and Outlook. Use image blocks for social icons if those clients matter for your audience.

A form’s submissions aren’t creating subscribers

For third-party forms, confirm the form is mapped to a list under Integrations and that the form actually collects an email field. For the plugin’s own forms, check the selected list and that CAPTCHA keys are valid.

Scheduled campaign didn’t send on time

Scheduling depends on WordPress cron dispatch. On low-traffic sites, configure the server to call wp-cron.php regularly.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need WooCommerce or EDD to use the plugin?

No. It works as a standalone newsletter tool. WooCommerce and EDD add store opt-ins, purchase-based targeting, post-purchase automations, and revenue attribution.

Are there monthly or per-subscriber fees?

No. Everything runs inside your own WordPress. You own your list and your data, and you provide your own sending (WordPress, SMTP, Amazon SES, or an API pool).

Will mail keep sending if I close the browser?

Yes. Delivery runs in the background through the sending queue on WordPress cron, so campaigns continue with no browser open.

Can each campaign send at a controlled pace?

Yes. Set an hourly/per-minute rate, a batch size, a delay between emails, a max execution time per run, and how many campaigns may send concurrently.

Can I A/B test the whole email, not just the subject?

Yes. You can test the subject, the from-name, or the entire body (Version A / Version B), and auto-send the winner to the rest of the audience.

How do I see which campaign made a sale?

With a store connected, revenue attribution links orders back to the campaign that earned them (last-click within a configurable window) and shows the revenue in Reports.

Can I move a configuration between sites?

Templates and saved layouts are reusable within a site, and the REST API and webhooks let you sync subscribers with external systems.

Is it GDPR-friendly?

Yes. It records consent, integrates with WordPress export/erase tools, offers a subscriber preference center, and adds one-click unsubscribe with List-Unsubscribe headers.

Changelog

Current version: 1.9.0. See readme.txt in the plugin package for the complete, itemized history.

1.9.0 Builder, deliverability, automation & growth

• Drag-and-drop email builder with reusable saved layouts, per-block styling, and a Social / Icons block (SVG social, phone & email icons, horizontal or vertical).
• A/B testing for subject, from-name and full content, with automatic send-to-winner.
• Inline (embedded) images so emails display without “load images”.
• Deliverability tools: SPF/DKIM/DMARC checks and an internal per-campaign spam score.
• Sending controls: batch size, delays, max execution time, concurrent-campaign limit, and pause-on-error.
• Amazon SES delivery and a multi-provider delivery pool with per-provider test sends.
• Signup forms (inline/popup/slide-in/bar) with AJAX submit, plus native Elementor, WPBakery, Divi, Beaver Builder and Bricks elements.
• Third-party form bridges: Gravity Forms, Contact Form 7, WPForms, Ninja Forms, Forminator and Elementor Pro Forms.
• CAPTCHA on front-end forms: reCAPTCHA v2, reCAPTCHA v3 (score threshold) and Cloudflare Turnstile.
• WooCommerce, EDD and WordPress checkout & registration opt-ins; purchase-based targeting; revenue attribution.
• Segments, engagement scoring, post-purchase automations and multi-step workflows with a condition step.
• REST API for subscribers, outgoing webhooks, and a library of amazing_nl_ hooks.
• Reports with date ranges and revenue; live AJAX campaign progress; search, pagination and list filtering on the admin lists.

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Amazing WordPress Newsletters documentation · Version 1.9.0 · Amazing WP Plugins