Email marketing remains one of the most effective channels — but only if you do it right. This navigator article will walk you through the whole path from zero to a working email campaign: understanding the technical side, building a list, writing copy, setting up delivery, and learning to work with analytics. Each section gives a brief overview of the topic and links to in-depth materials.
Step 1. Learn the basics
Before coding your first email, it helps to understand how email development differs from regular web coding. HTML behaves differently in emails — most email clients don't support flexbox or grid, ignore external stylesheets, and interpret CSS in their own way. Emails are built with tables, styles are written inline, and every change needs to be tested across multiple clients.
To get the basics down, our Letteros team put together a free online course with nine lessons and homework assignments — How to code an email for a newsletter yourself. It walks through everything step by step: from HTML structure and code service elements to mobile adaptation and testing. The course works for both developers and marketers with no technical background — by the end you'll be able to code your first email on your own.
It's also worth learning how to work with images separately: which formats to use, how to set sizes correctly with CSS, and how to optimize graphics so the email doesn't get too heavy. This is covered in Lesson 4. Working with graphics in emails and the article How to properly resize an image in HTML using CSS.
If you haven't decided yet whether to hand-code emails or use a builder, read this comparison of approaches — it covers scenarios where manual coding makes sense and where a builder saves time and money: Manual HTML coding or a builder: which to choose.
Step 2. Choose a tool and create your first email
Once you have the basics down, it's time to move on to practice. Our Letteros team has put together a knowledge base explaining how to sign up, set up a project, get familiar with the interface, and find your way around in the first few days. Start with these three materials: Getting started with Letteros, Interface overview and Personal account and project settings.
We've put together a step-by-step guide to creating your first email right in the editor: How to create your first email in Letteros.
Step 3. Build the email correctly
Sizes and structure
Emails have established standards for width, banner height, and spacing. You can deviate from them, but you need to understand the consequences. The article What size should an email newsletter be covers all the key parameters.
Master template
If you plan to send newsletters regularly, a master template will save you dozens of hours. It's a base layout with your brand blocks, colors, and fonts — for each new email you only need to change the content instead of building everything from scratch. We covered how to create such a template and what it should include in the article How to create a high-converting master template for email newsletters. And we talked about how our Letteros team creates branded templates for clients here: Branded master template: how we create it.
Design and typography
An unreadable font, weak contrast, a cluttered layout — all of this makes people close the email early. The basic principles of good newsletter design are covered in the article How to create quality email design. We wrote separately about working with color and contrast in the piece How to work with color and contrast in emails correctly. About choosing a font — in the article Typography in email newsletters: how to choose a font that won't break.
Buttons and call to action
The button is the whole reason the email exists. It needs to be noticeable, clickable, and coded correctly so it doesn't fall apart across different email clients. Full technical guide to buttons: Guide to creating reliable buttons in email newsletters. How to phrase your CTA copy and where to place it is covered in the article Call to Action: what it is and how to create an effective call to action.
Mobile adaptation
More than half of emails today are opened on a phone. If your email isn't adapted for mobile devices, you're losing a significant part of your audience. The basic principles of responsive coding are covered in Lesson 8. Mobile adaptation of emails, and a full technical guide with code examples is in the article Responsive email coding: a complete setup guide.
Dark mode
More and more users are turning on dark mode on their phone or in their email client. If you don't account for this when coding, you're guaranteed white text on a white background. How to prepare your email and images for dark mode — in the article Dark mode in email: how to prepare your newsletter for Dark Mode and in the piece How to optimize images for emails in dark mode.
Outlook
Outlook is the most problematic email client among the popular ones. It uses the Word engine to render HTML, which leads to typical breakages: shifted spacing, missing background images, incorrectly rendered fonts. We've collected a list of problems and their solutions in the article Email display issues in Outlook and how to fix them. A more recent breakdown of seven common scenarios — in the piece Emails breaking in Outlook: 7 rendering problems and their solutions.
Step 4. Build a subscriber list
There's no newsletter without a list. And it's important to understand the main rule right away: never buy lists. It's not just ineffective — it's a direct route to landing in spam and getting your domain blocked. A list should be built organically — through signup forms, lead magnets, promotions, and other tools where people opt in themselves to receive emails. Tools and methods for list building are covered in the article How to build a list for your newsletter. We wrote about a long-term organic growth strategy in the piece How to organically grow your subscriber list for email newsletters.
If you already have a list, it needs to be cleaned before your first send. Outdated addresses, typos, abandoned mailboxes — all of this lowers deliverability and sender reputation. How to do this correctly is in the article Email list validation: how to clean up your list and avoid the spam folder.
Step 5. Set up technical delivery
A beautiful email that never reaches the recipient is useless. Technical deliverability depends on correctly configured DNS records and domain reputation.
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are three protocols that confirm an email was actually sent from your domain and not on behalf of a scammer. Without them, emails will land in spam or fail to be delivered at all. A simple explanation for marketers with no technical background: What are SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Our Letteros team has put together a step-by-step setup guide here: Domain verification for sending emails.
In 2024, Gmail and Yahoo tightened their requirements for senders. If you don't meet them, your emails will automatically land in spam for a huge portion of your audience. What exactly they require — in the piece Email delivery rules: how to ensure delivery to Gmail and Yahoo subscribers.
If your emails still end up in spam, we break down the eight most common reasons and specific solutions in the article Why emails land in spam in 2026.
Step 6. Write the copy
A good email relies on copy just as much as it does on coding. A weak subject line, and the email goes unread. Boring copy, and the reader leaves halfway through. A vague call to action, and there's no click.
The subject line is the most important part. It's what determines whether the email gets opened at all. How to write subject lines that work is covered in the articles A strategy for creating subject lines for email newsletters and How to increase email open rates using the psychology of the subject line.
On the structure of a sales email — formulas, templates, and tips for marketers are collected in the piece Newsletter copy: how to write a sales email.
Personalization boosts conversion, but it's not just about inserting a name. How to use subscriber data to make emails genuinely relevant is explained in the article What is email personalization and how to use it.
AI tools help speed up copywriting — generating subject line ideas, writing drafts, adapting tone for the audience. How to do this thoughtfully, rather than just "asking ChatGPT to write the email," is covered in the piece How to use AI in writing newsletters.
Step 7. Test before sending
Sending an email without testing is a common mistake. An email can look perfect in one client and fall apart in another, links can lead to the wrong place, images might not load. It's better to catch this before you hit send.
Our Letteros team has put together a complete 100-point checklist that covers everything — content, coding, links, technical parameters, personalization. Go through it before every send: A complete checklist for reviewing your newsletter before sending.
How an email looks in Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, and mobile apps needs to be checked separately. Tools and approaches for testing rendering are covered in Lesson 9. Testing emails and the article Where to test emails quickly and correctly.
In Letteros, you can generate a render of your email without actually sending it — how to do this is described in the guide How to generate an email render.
After final approval, you need to export the email correctly. How to export it to HTML, PDF, or PNG — in the article How to export an email correctly.
Step 8. Analyze the results
The first send isn't the finish line — it's the start of working with data. Email marketing improves through iteration: send, look at the numbers, understand what works, make the next email better.
Get familiar with the basic metrics: what Open Rate, CTR, conversions, and unsubscribes are, and how to interpret them correctly. Not all numbers matter equally in every situation — we wrote about this in the articles 4 core email marketing metrics and Key email marketing metrics for analyzing campaigns.
A/B testing is the main tool for growth. Test subject lines, send times, CTA copy, and email structure. How to do this methodically instead of at random — in the pieces Split testing email newsletters: how to do it correctly and How to increase Open Rate by testing subject lines.
A click map shows exactly what subscribers click on inside an email. This helps you understand which blocks work and which get ignored. More details in the article What a click map shows and how to interpret it.
If you want to set up end-to-end analytics and track conversions after a click on your email, our Letteros team has prepared a detailed guide — How to set up reports in Yandex Metrica for email campaigns.
The next level
Once the basic processes are in place and the first newsletters have gone out, you can move on to more advanced tools.
Automation
Automation lets you set up emails once, and after that they go out on their own based on triggers, a schedule, or user actions. This saves time and makes communication with subscribers systematic. What exactly can be automated in email marketing is covered in detail in the article What can be automated in email marketing: a complete guide. Which scenarios to start with — in the piece Where to start with email newsletter automation.
Welcome series
The first emails after signup are the most-read ones. The Open Rate of welcome emails is on average two to three times higher than regular emails. This is where the first impression of the brand is formed and the tone for all further communication is set. We've put together a complete guide to building a welcome sequence in the piece A complete guide to welcome sequences: scenarios, structure, analysis. Ready-made template examples — in the article Examples of effective welcome email templates.
Segmentation and personalization
Sending one email to your entire list isn't the best approach once the list grows. Different subscribers are at different stages: some just signed up, some have been buying for a while, some have stopped opening emails. Segmentation lets you send each group what's relevant to them. How to split your list into groups and work with each one — in the article Customer segmentation: methods and how to segment your audience. How to use subscriber data to grow conversion — in the piece How to personalize emails to grow conversion.
Trigger campaigns
Trigger emails go out automatically in response to a user action: signed up, placed an order, abandoned a cart, hasn't opened emails in three months. They perform better than regular newsletters because they arrive at the right moment. We've collected a breakdown of 50 working scenarios in the article 50+ successful trigger email campaigns.
Reactivation and retention
Some subscribers eventually stop opening emails. That's normal, but you need to address it — either win back their interest with special campaigns or remove non-responders from your list. We wrote about how to build a strategy for winning back inactive subscribers in the piece A strategy for winning back inactive subscribers. Why people unsubscribe and how to reduce churn — in the article Reasons for newsletter unsubscribes and methods to reduce churn.
Return on investment
Email marketing is one of the few channels where you can calculate an exact ROI. How to calculate newsletter profitability and which formulas to use — in the article How to calculate email marketing ROI: ROI, ROMI, ROAS.
This navigator will keep growing. If you didn't find the topic you were looking for, or want us to cover something specific, message us in chat — our Letteros team will add it to the article.