How I publish daily emails with CivCRM

Written By Allen Shaw

This daily mailing list is sent through CiviCRM, with archives available on a completely separate website. Here's how I do it:

Two sites:

I use Squarespace for my main website at joineryhq.com.

I also use CiviCRM to handle coaching subscriptions, invoice payments, and more — and to manage this daily mailing list and email courses like my Mastering CiviCRM Crash Course.

Mailing list archives:

I call this an archive, but technically it's not. It’s just a Squarespace blog. Emails like this one get published first as a post in that blog, and then each article is sent as a daily mailing.

The tech stack (how it really works):

  1. I write today's email as a post in my Squarespace blog.

  2. Squarespace automatically publishes an RSS feed of those blog posts.

  3. My CiviCRM site uses the NewsStore extension to pull items from that RSS feed and queue them up as a CiviCRM mass mailing to everyone in my Daily Mailings group.

  4. Within a few minutes after I post to Squarespace, list members receive the daily email.

One extra custom piece:

I do have a small CiviCRM custom extension that adds formatting, ensures I don't accidentally send multiple emails per day, and appends the email footer.

Why I went this way:

At first, I planned to compose mailings in CiviCRM, and have some third-party service monitor the list and maintain an archive of sent emails.

But I couldn't find an easy way to make that work with Squarespace.

So I turned it around backwards. I post to Squarespace first; then the NewsStore extension takes it from there.

What this gets me:

This approach is perfect for my workflow:

  • I only have to publish the email once. Then it's automatically delivered and available in the archive.

  • I have all the usual tools in CiviCRM for open and click tracking, user unsubscribes, and the rest.

  • Subscriber information is right there in my CRM, so I still have a centralized view of every person’s interraction with my work.

In short, I get the ability to help my people efficiently at scale, and to assess where each person is in their journey with me, so I can effectively help them to make the next step in that journey.

And isn't that what we all want from our CRM?

All the best,
A.

Allen Shaw
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