Sending newsletters: PDF copies, unsubscribes and who gets them

Every newsletter from the Newsletter Builder ends with Unsubscribe from these newsletters, a link personal to the member it went to. They do not need to sign in. Opening the link shows a short page with an Unsubscribe button; nothing changes until they press it, because email security scanners open every link in a message and must not take anybody off by accident. Afterwards the same page offers Subscribe again.

Gmail, Apple Mail and Outlook also show their own Unsubscribe button at the top of the message. That one works straight away.

One switch

Unsubscribing turns off the member’s Club emails setting — the same tick box on their profile, the same setting in the members’ app, and the one GDPR marketing consent changes. Turning it off anywhere stops the newsletters. Emails about their own bookings, rota duties and membership, such as the renewal notice, are not affected.

Anybody who has unsubscribed is left out of every newsletter send, whichever group you choose, and the recipient count in the send dialog already leaves them out.

Who gets your newsletters

At the bottom of the Newsletter Builder home page is a list of active members with an email address, with a search box and an Everyone / Subscribed / Unsubscribed filter. Each row shows whether they get the newsletters and, if not, when they unsubscribed and whether it was them or you.

Unsubscribe takes somebody off for them — when they ask by phone or at the clubhouse. Subscribe again asks you to confirm first: only put somebody back on if they have asked you to.

In the email, as a PDF, or both

Publish & send and Send test both ask how to send it as: in the email (as before), as a PDF attachment with a short covering email, or both. The PDF is A4, made fresh for each send and deleted afterwards, and it looks like the email itself: the same columns, colours, borders and pictures, on white paper. (On the rare host that cannot run the PDF maker, Pavilion falls back to a plainer PDF: pictures from your media library only, buttons printed with their web address underneath, and live blocks such as fixtures as their words.) The covering email carries the border, footer and unsubscribe link like any newsletter. A PDF suits members who print it or pin it up; for everyone else the email is easier to read on a phone.

A newsletter made somewhere else

If your newsletter editor makes it in Publisher, Word or Canva, save it as a PDF and open Import a newsletter → Import a PDF on the Newsletter Builder home. Choose the file and it becomes a newsletter here, with a short page instead of the block editor: the file (with Replace PDF), the title, the email subject and the message that goes with it. It is always sent as the PDF attached to that message, to whichever members you choose, with the same opens count, unsubscribe link, test send and scheduling as any other newsletter.

Sending to a list of addresses

Choose A list of email addresses under Send to and type or paste up to 500 addresses, separated by commas. An address that belongs to a member is treated as that member: if they have unsubscribed they are skipped, and their open is counted. Anybody else gets the newsletter as typed, with no unsubscribe link, because they are on no list of the club’s — so only add people who have asked for it, such as a neighbouring club’s secretary or the county association.

Member groups only appear as audiences when your plan includes member groups.

Sent and scheduled

On the Newsletter Builder home, Sent and scheduled lists every newsletter that has gone out or is waiting to, newest first: who it went to, when, how many it went to and how many opened it. Open takes you to it.

Before you send

The Publish & send dialog reminds you to send only to people happy to hear from the club (UK GDPR and PECR), and that about once a month is plenty. If a newsletter went out in the last fortnight it says how many days ago. Send stays greyed out until you tick that the people in the group are happy to get emails from you. Too many spam reports can stop all of the club’s email getting through, booking confirmations included.

Newsletters now leave from the same From address as every other email Pavilion sends (Settings → Email Settings). Before, a site with no From address filled in sent newsletters from the host’s default sender, which many mail servers refuse.

Common questions

A member says they unsubscribed but still got a renewal reminder.

That is expected. Unsubscribing stops newsletters and club emails. Renewal notices, booking confirmations and rota reminders are about their own membership, so they still go.

Can I see who unsubscribed?

Yes. Choose Unsubscribed in the filter under “Who gets your newsletters”. Each row shows the date and whether it was the member or you.

What does the unsubscribe link in my test email do?

It opens the page members see, with a note that it is a sample: nobody is unsubscribed and the button does nothing. In a real send each member gets their own working link. The live preview and a newsletter turned into a campaign have no member behind them, so their link goes nowhere.

A picture is missing from the PDF.

Pictures are included whether they are in your media library or on another website, as long as the other website lets them be fetched. If one is still missing, upload it to your media library and choose it from there.

What does the Opens column count?

How many members opened the newsletter, and what share of those it went to. It is counted once per member, when their email app loads the pictures, so a member whose app blocks pictures is not counted even if they read it. Treat it as a guide rather than an exact figure.

Somebody asked to come back on. How?

Find them under “Who gets your newsletters” and press Subscribe again, or they can use Subscribe again on the page their unsubscribe link opens, or tick Club emails on their own profile.