Adding a Joomla newsletter module to your website
Some of our GK templates for Joomla 2.5 and Joomla 3.3 have a “newsletter” module inside the demo layout, such as Bluap, MusicState and Simplicity, while others don’t have it at all.
Unfortunately on the templates where you saw the “newsletter” field there was not in fact a real newsletter module – this is only HTML code which pretends to be real for aesthetic purposes. If it was a real newsletter, you would always need a component as the basic functionality available without an additional component couldn’t manage an unlimited number of subscribers, organize them into mailing lists, and send personalized newsletters.
But back to real web-developer life – you should always install and configure a newsletter component that includes a module which can collect e-mails from front-end of Joomla!.
What is an Email Newsletter
An email newsletter is content broadcast to subscribers by email on a regular schedule (weekly, monthly) or whenever you plan to do it, such as when you release a new update to your content. The content in an email newsletter is seen as valued editorial content rather than a commercial message with a sales offer.
When should you use the Joomla Newsletter extension?
Email newsletters are often used to keep in touch with existing users or shop customers. A newsletter is a proven way to keep your audience loyal to your brand; whenever you have interesting offers, sales or developments, you can create a newsletter and send it to your subscribers as well as your Joomla! Users.
Use the free Newsletter Joomla component with module
If you don’t want to spend money on an advanced solution then you can use the free / basic versions at first; we suggest that you check out these popular components (link to JED with newsletters):
- Acymailing Starter (available for both Joomla 2.5 & Joomla 3.2)
- jNews free (available for both Joomla 2.5 & Joomla 3.2)
- JINC (Joomla! Integrated Newsletters Component)
Upon installation, almost all settings and features are setup as needed so that you can start capturing subscribers (both anonymous and authenticated users can opt-in to different mailing lists) and sending newsletters immediately. Of course don’t forget about creating interesting content and themes for your newsletters; bland lists without comments won’t engage your audience. Most of the extensions have automatic synchronization with your Joomla! Users – so when a user registers on your Joomla! website, this user can be automatically and immediately subscribed to one or several mailing lists.
For example, AcyMailing, which I prefer – allows you to personalize newsletters (enables you to add any kind of information from the user profile: Name, Username, etc.) and also to segment the sending of newsletters to specific subscribers based on certain criteria.
Some of newsletter components have statistics about your subscribers for a specific time period, and can give you feedback on the emails read/opened, unsubscribes, bounces and even the clicks on links inside the newsletter so that you know what works and what doesn’t.
Summary
Once you have setup your email newsletter with one of the components that we’ve suggested, you will need to add the newsletter module into your Joomla! template. You can use one of the several module positions available in the template, or place the module inside the menu as a menu item.
If you are using the default module position remember to use the “ newsletter” Module Class Suffix for this newsletter module.
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