How to Set Up a Ghost Newsletter (Complete Guide)

Ghost Newsletters: Everything in One Platform

Ghost includes a full email newsletter system built directly into the publishing platform. No Mailchimp. No ConvertKit. No third-party integrations to configure. Write a post, choose your audience, publish — it goes to your website and your subscribers’ inboxes simultaneously.

This guide walks through every step of setting up Ghost newsletters, from initial configuration to deliverability optimization.

Step 1: Enable Newsletter Sending

In Ghost Admin, go to Settings → Email newsletter. Toggle on newsletter sending.

If you’re on Ghost(Pro), email delivery is already configured — no additional setup required. Ghost(Pro) handles all the infrastructure: SPF, DKIM, DMARC authentication, blocklist monitoring, and sending domain reputation.

If you’re self-hosting, you’ll need to configure Mailgun (covered in Step 7).

Step 2: Create Your Newsletter

Go to Settings → Email newsletter → Newsletters → Add newsletter.

Configure:

• Name and description — the internal identifier and what subscribers see
• Opt-in toggle — whether existing members are automatically subscribed
• Display name — shown in the email template header
• Sender name — the “From” name in your subscribers’ inboxes
• Reply-to email — where responses go when subscribers hit reply

Ghost supports multiple newsletters per site. Each newsletter has its own subscription list, settings, and email template. Use cases include:

• Topic segmentation — a weekly product roundup and a monthly deep analysis
• Frequency segmentation — daily news briefs and weekly digests
• Content type segmentation — articles vs. podcast episode notifications

Members subscribe to individual newsletters at signup or through their account preferences.

Step 3: Design Your Email Template

Go to Settings → Email newsletter → Newsletters → [Your Newsletter] → Edit → Design.

The design panel has three sections:

General/Email Info

• Header image (recommended 1200×600 PNG with transparent background)
• Publication title show/hide
• Newsletter name display
• Footer content: audience feedback toggle, comments link, recent posts, subscription details, custom text
• “Published with Ghost” badge toggle

Global Design

• Email background color
• Heading and body font selection
• Heading weight (bold, normal)

Header and Body Styling

• Post title color and alignment
• Header background color (separate from email body)
• Section/heading colors
• Button style: corner shape (square, rounded, pill), appearance (filled/outline), color
• Link color and style (underlined, regular, bold)
• Image corner style (rounded, square)
• Divider color

When I tested the email design panel on our Nio theme demo, the heading and button customizations rendered correctly across Gmail, Apple Mail, and Outlook without any additional CSS work.

Step 4: Configure Signup Forms

Ghost offers three methods for collecting subscribers:

Ghost Portal (Default)

A floating signup button appears in the bottom-right corner of every page. Customize its appearance and which tiers/newsletters to display in Settings → Membership → Portal.

Embeddable Signup Forms

Go to Settings → Membership → Embeddable signup form. Two layout options:

• Branded: Includes your logo, publication name, description, and background color
• Minimal: Just an email field and subscribe button

Copy the embed code and paste it into any website. Labels can be assigned at signup to track which form or page drove each subscriber.

Portal Links

Add #/portal/signup to any link in your content or navigation to trigger the signup modal. For example:

<a href="#/portal/signup">Subscribe to our newsletter</a>

This works in posts, pages, and custom navigation — giving you signup opportunities anywhere on your site.

Step 5: Set Up Welcome Emails

Go to Settings → Membership → Welcome emails.

Configure separate welcome emails for free and paid members:

• Free members: Introduce your newsletter, set expectations for content and frequency, and include a link to your best posts
• Paid members: Thank them for subscribing, explain premium benefits, and provide a direct contact channel

Welcome emails are your first impression with a new subscriber. Keep them short, personal, and clear about what they’ll receive.

Step 6: Segment and Send

When you’re ready to publish, the email section in the publishing panel lets you choose your audience:

Delivery Options

• All members — everyone on your list
• Free members only — people who subscribed but don’t pay
• Paid members only — paying subscribers
• Specific label — a custom segment you’ve created

Publishing Modes

• Publish and email — the post goes to your website and subscribers’ inboxes simultaneously (default)
• Publish only — appears on your website with no email send
• Email only — sends to subscribers without creating a public web post (good for roundups, promotions, or exclusive content)

Email-Only Content Within Posts

Insert an “Email content” card (via the / menu in the editor) to add content that appears only in the email version, not on the web. This is useful for subscriber-only calls-to-action inside publicly visible posts.

Content Access Rules

Post access level automatically determines email delivery. A post set to “Paid Members Only” is emailed only to paying subscribers. A post set to “Members” goes to both free and paid.

Step 7: Self-Hosted Email Setup (Mailgun)

Skip this step if you’re on Ghost(Pro) — email delivery is already handled.

For self-hosted Ghost installations, Mailgun is the only supported bulk email API. Here’s how to configure it:

1. Create a Mailgun Account

Sign up at mailgun.com. Add a sending domain — recommended format: mg.yourdomain.com (using a subdomain keeps your root domain reputation separate).

2. Configure DNS Records

Add the SPF and DKIM records Mailgun provides to your domain’s DNS settings. Add a DMARC record:

Type: TXT
Name: _dmarc.yourdomain.com
Value: v=DMARC1; p=none;

Start with p=none and escalate to p=quarantine or p=reject after confirming everything works.

3. Get Your API Key

In Mailgun Dashboard → Settings → API Keys, copy your Private API Key.

4. Configure Ghost

In Ghost Admin, go to Settings → Email newsletter and enter your Mailgun region, domain, and API key.

5. Configure Transactional Email (SMTP)

Mailgun handles bulk newsletter delivery. For transactional emails (signup confirmations, magic login links), add SMTP configuration to your config.production.json:

{
  "mail": {
    "transport": "SMTP",
    "options": {
      "service": "Mailgun",
      "host": "smtp.mailgun.org",
      "port": 587,
      "auth": {
        "user": "postmaster@mg.yourdomain.com",
        "pass": "your-mailgun-smtp-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

6. Test

In Ghost Admin → Settings → Email newsletter → send a test email to verify delivery.

Mailgun Pricing Note (2026)

Mailgun raised Flex plan pricing on December 1, 2025, from $1.00 to $2.00 per 1,000 emails (100% increase). Free accounts were converted to Foundation accounts at $35/month minimum. Current tiers start at: Free ($0, max 100 emails/day), Basic ($15/month, 10,000 emails), Foundation ($35/month, 50,000 emails), Scale ($90/month, 100,000 emails).

For most newsletters under 1,000 members, Ghost(Pro) Publisher at $29/month (with unlimited sends included) is more cost-effective than self-hosting with Mailgun.

Step 8: Custom Sending Domain (Optional)

Available on Ghost(Pro) Publisher plan and higher.

A custom sending domain changes your “From” address from noreply@ghost.io to something like newsletter@yourdomain.com. This builds domain-specific sender reputation over time.

Setup Process

1. In Ghost(Pro) Admin, go to Domain → Setup
2. Add the DNS records Ghost provides to your domain registrar
3. Click Activate in Ghost Admin
4. Wait for DNS propagation (up to 24 hours)

Warmup Period

New sending domains require approximately 6 weeks of gradual warmup. During this period, some recipients may still receive emails from ghost.io. This is normal — email providers need to build trust with your domain.

When You Need It

Unless you send more than 50,000 emails per month, Ghost’s shared ghost.io domain performs well. Custom sending domains are most valuable for large publications or organizations with DMARC policies on their domain.

Improving Deliverability

Email deliverability is what separates a newsletter that reaches inboxes from one that lands in spam. Here are the practices that matter most:

For Ghost(Pro) Users

SPF, DKIM, DMARC authentication is handled automatically. Focus on content and list hygiene:

• Limit links: Keep to 12 or fewer links per email. Keep hyperlink text under 120 characters.
• Avoid spam trigger words: “free,” “act now,” “urgent,” “limited time” in subject lines
• Ask subscribers to add you: Include a note in your welcome email asking readers to move your emails to their Primary tab (Gmail) and add your address to contacts
• Clean your list: Use the Members dashboard to filter by open rate. Periodically remove subscribers who haven’t opened an email in 6+ months. A smaller list with high engagement outperforms a large list with low opens.

Testing Before Sending

Run your email through mail-tester.com before sending to your full list. It scores your email on authentication, content quality, and blacklist status.

Understanding Open Rates

Ghost benchmarks each send against your last 20 newsletters. Industry average open rates across all sectors: ~43% (2025). Media and publishing average: 33-34%.

Important caveat: Apple Mail Privacy Protection (holding ~46% of the email client market) preloads email content, artificially inflating open rates by an estimated 18 percentage points. All open rate data since late 2021 should be interpreted with this in mind.

Analyzing Newsletter Performance

Ghost provides per-post email analytics accessible via the graph icon in the Post list:

• Opens: Unique member opens / total recipients = open rate
• Clicks: Unique member clicks / total recipients = click rate
• Individual link performance: Each link with unique click counts
• Audience feedback: “More like this” / “Less like this” responses
• Benchmarking: Your rate vs. your last 20 newsletters

Ghost 6.0 added a dedicated Newsletter tab in the Analytics section with subscriber growth graphs, average open and click rates by date range, and filtering across multiple newsletters.

For a CSV export of email analytics, go to Settings → Import/Export — this exports your last 1,000 posts including sends, opens, clicks, free signups, and paid conversions.

Growing Your Subscriber List

Ghost’s native tools for audience growth:

• Portal on every page: The floating signup button provides constant subscription opportunities
• Embeddable forms on external sites: Place forms on any website with label-based source tracking
• Source attribution: Ghost’s analytics show where each subscriber came from (referral, direct, organic)
• Welcome email onboarding: Set expectations and encourage engagement from the first email

What Works for Ghost Publishers

Ghost’s own newsletter, Publisher Weekly, consistently achieves 40%+ open rates. The strategies behind it:

• Consistent branding and recognizable sender name
• Predictable schedule communicated at signup
• Subject lines of 5-10 words that reference the publication name
• Content that delivers on the signup promise

Ghost publishers have earned a combined $9.2 million in subscription revenue. The average free-to-paid conversion rate across Ghost publications is 6.3%. Publishers offering free trials see 28% more conversions to paid.

Ghost(Pro) vs. Self-Hosted for Newsletters

For most publishers, Ghost(Pro) is the simpler and often cheaper option once Mailgun’s 2026 pricing is factored in. Self-hosting makes sense for technical teams who want full infrastructure control or need custom server configurations.

Your Newsletter’s Visual Identity

The theme you choose for your Ghost site also affects how your newsletter signup pages, membership pages, and public archive look. A premium theme creates a cohesive brand experience from the first visit to the inbox.

Our Shiro theme includes custom membership pages, 7 color schemes, and a built-in search — creating a professional hub for your newsletter’s web presence.

See Shiro live demo →

Browse Ghost themes →