12 productivity-boosting newsletter automations to save you time

Running a newsletter is fun and rewarding, but the demand to constantly create can be a slippery slope to creative burnout.

Thankfully, you can work smarter instead of harder by using email newsletter automation.

Newsletter automations give you the breathing room you need in your paid and free newsletters to grow your business. We’ll show you our best tips for putting the most time-consuming parts of your newsletter on autopilot.

Can you automate a newsletter?

Absolutely! Automating your newsletter doesn’t mean you’ll never write a single word again. Instead, when you automate your newsletter, it means you set up some portions of the newsletter creation, publication, and growth processes to run with little to no daily effort on your part.

Newsletter automation has several benefits. Automations are:

• Low effort: They work without input from you, freeing up your time for other things.
• Timely: They make sure readers are getting promotions and content when it’s relevant for them and not just when you remember to mention it.
• Scalable: They help you manage more subscribers while maintaining personalization since everyone gets the same personal experience automatically.

Tips to automate your newsletter creation

Your audience relies on you to provide them with engaging, relatable newsletter content—no matter the topic or format.

Most newsletters benefit from a core set of automations. Below, we’ve listed 12 automations in the order that a subscriber is likely to interact with them, beginning with the moment they subscribe.

The automations at the top of the list are the easiest to implement, so you’ll have no trouble getting started. Let’s take a look.

1. Set the collection of curated newsletter content on autopilot

Depending on the kind of newsletter content you create, you may need a streamlined way to maintain an inspiration feed.

For example, if your newsletter content revolves around curating content, interviews, industry news, or job posting, it can be a pain to go hunting for this information before you start writing each week’s newsletter. That’s where automation comes in.

Gather content ideas from other websites, YouTube, or social media sites into a single RSS feed using an RSS reader like Feedly. If you’d rather keep track of specific URLs, use Zapier to build a personal RSS feed with links bookmarked on apps like Pocket.

Then, set up a Zapier automation to move those ideas into a Google Sheet or project management tool like Trello. So when it’s time to write, it’s as easy as copying and pasting the links or ideas you’d like to share.

2. Send round-up newsletters of your latest posts

A popular email newsletter style is simply sending a round-up of your latest posts. Many professional bloggers prefer to do this weekly to keep subscribers up to date on their content without overwhelming their inboxes.

Automation makes compiling these round-ups ridiculously easy—and you can set it up right from within your Kit account.

On your dashboard, head to Automate > RSS > Add Feed.

Add your site’s feed address (which is typically [your site’s URL]/feed) and choose the Digest option. It will automatically populate the email with your most recent posts.

You can then select which day and time you’d like the weekly round-up to go out. Click on Preview to see what the email will look like before you schedule.

Don’t forget to add any additional text at the beginning and end of the email and enable it to complete the setup.

3. Consider an evergreen newsletter

Another way to automate your newsletter is to create an evergreen newsletter. This means having a series of timeless emails set up to deliver to your audience at specific intervals.

Evergreen newsletters work especially well if you run a paid newsletter. You can keep sharing fresh content with new subscribers—even though they’re technically emails you wrote months before.

Kit makes it easy to set up evergreen newsletters with this automation template. All you have to do is add new emails as you write.

Ideas to streamline your newsletter list growth

Constantly publicizing your newsletter on social media and your blog can be effective but time-consuming. Use these tips to grow your mailing list with less stress.

4. Grow your email list across all lead sources

Kit’s landing pages and signup forms are highly effective ways to collect subscribers, but there are even more options for building your email list using Kit integrations.

For example, if your blog is hosted on Squarespace, you can collect signups using the native Squarespace forms and then create a zap to send subscriber details to your Kit account.

Some of the lead sources you can send to Kit include:

• Facebook Lead Ads
• Paperform
• Squarespace
• Calendly
• Typeform
• Google Forms
• Webflow forms
• Unbounce
• Jotform

Tip: Be sure to check the privacy laws in your country to ensure you don’t add people to your list without their consent.

5. Roll out a referral program

A referral program automation includes a subscriber’s unique referral link to each email, along with a personalized prompt encouraging them to share and get access to exclusive rewards.

Adding automation that encourages subscribers to use the referral program can help you grow your list faster without constant, hands-on effort. You can set up a referral using this Kit automation.

Corey Haines uses Kit and SparkLoop to grow his newsletter, Swipe Files. There’s no shortage of creative reward ideas to use in your referral program, but Corey opts to use access to his membership community as an incentive. Subscribers who refer their network can get 50% off membership or even free lifetime access, depending on how many successful referrals they get.

6. Ask other creators to recommend your newsletter

Asking other creators in your industry to recommend your newsletter to their network is one of the best ways to skyrocket your newsletter growth, and Kit’s Creator Network is perfectly designed to help you do this.

All you have to do is recommend at least one creator, and you’ll be added to the directory where other Kit creators can find and recommend you.

Soon, you’ll be watching new subscribers roll in, like Kit creator Lawrence Yeo, who gained 1200 new subscribers in one month from the Creator Network.

Best practices to automate newsletter subscriber engagement

With a growing list, it’s vital to keep nurturing subscribers. The ideas in this section will help you stay in touch with subscribers without all the manual, repetitive tasks involved.

7. Newsletter welcome sequence

First impressions are important, but you can’t spend your days staring at your subscriber count, waiting to welcome the newest members. That’s where a simple welcome series automation comes in.

Use this first message in your email sequence to introduce yourself, share top content, or let subscribers know what they can do next.

For example, in my welcome email for my blog newsletter, I introduce myself and share what subscribers need to know about the newsletter, including its content and frequency. Finally, I share some social media links where subscribers can find and connect with me before the next email.

You can then add a series of other emails (just like you would with an evergreen email series) sharing your most popular content, addressing frequently asked questions, or nurturing new subscribers toward your bestselling products and services. Set up your welcome series automation with this Kit template.

8. Newsletter email segmentation with link triggers

As your business grows, you might end up with content or resources for slightly different interests. Instead of guessing what people need, just ask them!

Segmenting users in Kit using Trigger Links is easy. Readers can click on an option that relates to them, or you can tag user interest based on what email content they interact with organically.

What happens after a subscriber gains a new tag is up to you. You could save the new segmentation to send relevant content in the future without triggering any immediate sequences. Or you can also use self-segmentation to kick off automated content.

This Kit segmentation automation template makes the process less tedious.

9. Use your broadcasts to introduce paid products

Free newsletters are the ideal place to build trust and authority with your audience since you’re consistently sending them valuable content. Once you’ve established the relationship, you can share snippets of your paid newsletter to promote the exclusive content.

You can also use a sales email sequence or product launch sequence to upsell paid newsletter subscribers to your high-price courses or coaching. Another nifty trick is to include a link trigger to your products or extra content at the bottom of every email. Readers who are curious about your offer can then be added to an email sequence that pitches the product or service to them.

Automating your paid product pitches ensures you’re only selling to new subscribers when they’re ready, rather than relying on you remembering to talk about your products every now and then. Use this Kit automation template to spread the word about your paid products.

10. Encourage cold subscribers to reengage

When a subscriber stops opening your emails, you have two options: reinvigorate their interest or remove them from your list. Luckily, you can make these tasks easier with a simple re-engagement automation.

With this automation, you can email cold subscribers only, asking them to click on a link if they’d like to stay connected or ignore the email if they want to be removed from your mailing list.

With unresponsive subscribers off your list, your average open and click-through rates will increase, which can improve your email deliverability—and you won’t have to pay for a higher plan based on an inflated subscriber count.

This customizable Kit automation template will help you clean your list of cold subscribers.

More ways to set your newsletter-related tasks on autopilot

If you have more newsletter tasks you wish you could automate, our final two tips might just be what the doctor ordered.

11. Update your CRM with subscriber information

Knowing your audience involves knowing more than just their names. As you gather more information, such as their preferences (using link triggers) and geographical locations, you may want to keep track of these in a more detailed customer relationship manager system like Hubspot, for example.

Kit integrates with Hubspot using Zapier. Add this automation to keep your CRM up to date.

12. Keep track of all newsletter-related activity

If you want to go the extra mile with newsletter metrics, track more than opens, subscriber counts, and click-through rates. You can measure how much traffic your newsletter drives to your website, for example, by integrating Kit with Google Analytics via Zapier.

Save precious time and bandwidth with handy newsletter automations

Just because your new newsletter automations will be mostly hands-off doesn’t mean they should be devoid of personality. You can still write in your unique style and customize templates to match your branding—and with triggers, they’ll be personalized to each subscriber.

Scaling your newsletter doesn’t mean setting yourself up for creator burnout. Email automations can give you the breathing room you need to keep your newsletter valuable and your subscribers engaged. Sign up for a free Kit account to get started streamlining your newsletter with automations.