Author newsletter campaigns and transactional emails in WordPress, then deliver through Mailchimp or Mandrill.
Post types
| Post type | Delivery |
|---|---|
prc_email_campaign | Mailchimp campaigns |
prc_email_txn | Mandrill bulk or dynamic system emails |
Organize products with the prc_newsletter_list taxonomy (for example The Briefing). Assigning a list can lock Mailchimp audience and segment from term meta.
Editor panels
| Post type | Document panel | Plugin sidebar (send icon) |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign | Subject, preview text, newsletter list | Campaign Setup — audience/segment/template, draft recovery, send status |
| Transactional | Subject, preview text | Transactional Setup — mandrill vs dynamic, lists/slug, automations, send |
Campaign publish flow
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Draft the email
Create a campaign post. Set subject, preview text, and optional newsletter list.
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Preview
Use Preview in the Email Content document panel to check rendered HTML.
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Publish or schedule
When Automatically send on publish is enabled in Newsletters → Settings (the default), reaching publish creates the Mailchimp campaign and sends it to the configured segment. When that setting is off, publish only saves the WordPress post; send from Campaign Setup.
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Recover or update
If auto-send fails, or automatic send on publish is off, use Send to Mailchimp. While status is save, Update Mailchimp draft can push revised HTML.
If auto-dispatch fails, use Send to Mailchimp. If the linked campaign is missing, use Unlink from Mailchimp, then Send to Mailchimp. Migrated Newsletter Glue archive posts are read-only for Mailchimp actions.
Production publish announcements in Slack get a thread reply when Mailchimp marks the campaign sent. Twenty-four hours later a second reply posts first-day Mailchimp stats (sent, unique opens and clicks, bounces, and top links).
Transactional and system emails
- Mandrill bulk — pick a recipient list from Emails → Transactional → Build audience, or from a quiz or dataset inspector. Choose CSV upload to create a list from a file of email addresses. Domain, quiz, and dataset builds can take several minutes. You can close the dialog or inspector; the list appears in the recipient picker when it is ready.
- Dynamic — the post slug is the system email key used by forms and APIs. Configure automations (follow-up steps and send window) in Transactional Setup when delivery mode is dynamic.
Email Library
Open Newsletters → Library for a DataViews table of campaigns and transactional posts. Filter by type, newsletter list, and combined send status; sort open/click rates for sent campaigns.
The first time you open Newsletters → Campaigns, a short tour shows Create new, then continues in the editor. It covers pattern, content, preview, newsletter list, and Campaign Setup. It does not send. Skip it, or restart it from the command palette. See WP Admin Tours.
Settings
Newsletters → Settings holds Mailchimp API key, From Name, From Email, Automatically send on publish, and automation default send window. When automatic send is off, publishing a campaign saves the WordPress post only; use Send to Mailchimp in Campaign Setup to deliver.
Newsletter lists
Edit a list under Newsletters → Newsletter Lists. Optional term settings include Mailchimp audience and segment, default From, accent color, campaign pattern, and Preview newsletter.
Preview newsletter controls the Latest Newsletter Preview block on that list archive. Leave it empty (the default, Latest published newsletter) to always show the newest published campaign. Search by title or paste a campaign URL, then select a published campaign to pin that preview until you change it. The campaign must belong to this list. If the chosen campaign is no longer published or assigned to the list, the block falls back to the latest campaign.
Blocks
prc-email-builder/campaign-email-previewshows a phone-width, vertically scrollable preview of campaign HTML. Its link can use the campaign permalink or a custom destination.prc-email-builder/latest-campaign-query— registers the Latest Newsletter Preview Query Loop variation. On a newsletter list archive it shows that list's latest campaign, or a campaign chosen on the list term.prc-email-builder/campaign-query— registers the Newsletter Campaigns Query Loop variation (title and excerpt listing; authors choose count and newsletter list)