Blog About Support Docs License

← Back to Documentation

Newsletters in Roe

Roe has a full featured newsletter system that supports free and paid members. Members can sign up with just their name/email, no password required.

Enabling Newsletters in Roe

Before using newsletters, you need to: Enable Members: Go to Admin → Settings and click ENABLE MEMBERS.

Setting Up Postmark

Roe has intregrated with Postmark to send member and newsletter emails. Follow the instructions below to set things up.

1. Basic Postmark Setup

Postmark has good documentation. Use this article to get your account set up correctly:
Getting started with Postmark. This ensures that your emails are delivered reliably.

Next:

  1. Sign up for a Postmark account at postmarkapp.com
  2. Apply for approval: How does the account approval process work?
  3. Create a new Server or use the defaults created with your account (you can rename them)
  4. Go to your Server → API Tokens tab
  5. Copy your Server API Token
  6. Paste it above and click Save Configuration

2. Connect Postmark to Roe

  1. Go to Admin → Postmark (upper right)
  2. Paste your Server API Token
  3. Click “Save Configuration”
  4. You’ll see a green confirmation if successful

3. Configure Webhooks

Webhooks tell Roe when emails are delivered, bounce, or are marked as spam:

  1. In Postmark, go to Postmark Server → Choose your Broadcast Stream → Settings → Webhooks
  2. Click “Add webhook”
  3. Copy the webhook URL shown in Roe’s Postmark settings
  4. Paste it into Postmark
  5. Enable these events:
    • Bounce (required)
    • Spam Complaint (required)
    • Delivery (optional, for logging)
  6. Save the webhook
  7. Repeat steps 1-6 for Transactional Stream

Sending Newsletters

You can send yourself a test email using the SEND TEST button. This allows you to preview exactly what will be sent.

Sending on Publish

audience and published_to are required in order to publish a Post. If you haven’t set them, you can do so when you click PUBLISH.

  1. Click “Publish” on any post
  2. Choose your Published To option:
    • Site - Only appears on website (no email)
    • Newsletter - Only sent as email (not on site)
    • Both - Appears on site AND sent as email (most common)
  3. Choose your Audience:
    • Everyone - Sent to all newsletter subscribers
    • Paid - Only sent to paid members
  4. Click “Publish”

The newsletter is queued and sent in the background. Under url_name you’ll see how many members this Newsletter was sent to and when.

Resending to New Members

  1. If new members have joined, you’ll see: “Resend to X new members”
  2. Click the button
  3. Confirm the send

How it works:

  • Only sends to members who joined after the original send
  • Respects the post’s audience setting (everyone vs paid)
  • Prevents duplicate sends automatically
  • Queues in background just like original send

Bounce & Spam Tracking

Roe automatically tracks email deliverability through Postmark webhooks:

Hard Bounces

When an email address is invalid or mailbox doesn’t exist:

  • Member’s newsletter_status is set to bounced
  • They stop receiving future newsletters
  • You can see bounced members in Admin → Members
  • Filter by Newsletter Status to see who’s bounced

Soft Bounces

Temporary delivery failures (mailbox full, server down):

  • Tracked in member metadata as soft_bounce_count
  • After 5 soft bounces, automatically treated as hard bounce
  • Prevents wasting sends on problematic addresses

Spam Complaints

When someone marks your email as spam:

  • Member is immediately unsubscribed (legal requirement)
  • newsletter_status set to unsubscribed
  • They won’t receive future emails
  • You can see this in Admin → Members

Deliveries

Successful deliveries are logged but don’t change member status.

Managing Newsletter Subscribers

Go to Admin → Members to manage your list:

View Newsletter Status

The member list shows a Newsletter column with status icons:

  • 📬 Subscribed - Will receive newsletters
  • 🔕 Unsubscribed - Opted out or spam complaint
  • ⚠️ Bounced - Email address is invalid

Filter by Newsletter Status

Use the dropdown to filter: - All Newsletter Status - 📬 Subscribed - 🔕 Unsubscribed
- ⚠️ Bounced

This helps you: - See your active newsletter list - Clean up bounced addresses - Check who’s unsubscribed

Member Detail View

Click any member to see their newsletter status and when they subscribed.

Unsubscribe Flow

Members can unsubscribe in two ways:

Every newsletter includes an unsubscribe link in the footer:

  1. Member clicks “Unsubscribe”
  2. Taken to confirmation page
  3. Clicks “Unsubscribe from newsletter”
  4. Status changed to unsubscribed
  5. Confirmation message shown

2. Account Settings

Signed-in members can manage their subscription in their account page.

Email Templates

Newsletter emails are rendered using your active theme’s styles, ensuring brand consistency. The system automatically:

  • Converts markdown to HTML
  • Inlines CSS for email compatibility
  • Makes all URLs absolute (not relative)
  • Adds responsive styles for mobile
  • Includes proper email headers

You can customize the email template by editing your theme’s CSS.

Technical Details

Send Tracking

Every send is recorded in the database:

  • Post ID + Member ID = unique send record
  • Tracks when it was sent
  • Stores Postmark message ID
  • Used to prevent duplicates and enable resends

Best Practices

The newsletter system is designed to be reliable and hands-off - set it up once, and it handles sending, tracking, and list management automatically. When you send a newsletter to your full audience, check: Admin → Members and check the Bounced Newletter Status to see if you’re getting more bounces than expected.

Always a good idea to check Postmark from time to time. You can check on specific email deliveries, make sure your domain is setup correctly, etc.