What is Newsletter Studio for?
Running a newsletter means writing every week, but also tracking subscribers, understanding what gets opens and clicks, selling slots at the right price, reassuring sponsors and keeping emails out of spam. Newsletter Studio brings it all together, newsletter by newsletter.
You get a 6-axis score, the key formulas calculated (growth, unsubscribes, click-to-open, revenue per subscriber, slot price, actual CPM…), a comparison with your industry benchmarks, prioritised recommendations, a calendar generator based on your send dates, a revenue projection, a branded sponsor report and a media kit.
And with Email Sequence Studio?
The two tools complement each other. Email Sequence Studio is for writing automated email series (welcome, launch, abandoned cart, follow-up…), email by email, with a spam check and exports to Mailchimp, Brevo, Kit or Klaviyo. Newsletter Studio is for running your regular newsletter over time: the edition calendar, the figures, revenue, sponsors and deliverability.
In Newsletter Studio, the “Welcoming new subscribers” section is just an overview of your welcome emails, for the retention score. To write them, use Email Sequence Studio.
Who is it for?
Independent writers
Keep the rhythm and know what to improve with every edition.
Small media outlets
Sell slots and report back to sponsors.
Businesses
Run the customer newsletter with clear benchmarks.
Trainers and coaches
Grow the audience that buys your courses.
Agencies and freelancers
Manage several clients' newsletters (up to 30).
Non-profits
Keep members informed and track donations.
The steps, one by one
Discover the tool with the demo
🎁 Demo button (at the top): every section fills in with a fictitious newsletter for independent creatives, with dates set from today. Browse the tabs, then clear the demo (Delete button) or create your newsletter (+ New button, in Pro).
Lay the foundations
Section 1: name, industry (it sets the benchmarks), rhythm and send day, 12-month goals. Section 2: up to 3 reader personas. Section 3: tone, promise and editorial pillars with their share (the “Suggest pillars for my industry” button gets you started).
Fill in the calendar
Section 4: one edition per line, to write, paste from a spreadsheet or create with ⚡ Generate edition ideas. Section 5: subjects in preparation, with their due date. The 📅 Calendar tab shows them by month or as a list.
Enter the month's figures
Section 13: subscribers (today and 30 days ago), new subscribers and unsubscribes, open and click rates, revenue and costs. Section 14: sent editions and their results, to enter or import (Pro). Then, as needed: revenue (11), sponsors (12), deliverability (15), A/B tests (16), competitor watch (17). No section is mandatory.
Read the dashboard and prepare the sponsor report
The dashboard updates with every entry: alerts, indicators, monthly revenue, upcoming editions, recommendations, goals and industry benchmarks. Section 18: choose the sponsor (same name as in section 12), its logo and colour. The 📋 Sponsor report tab shows the exact result; print it to PDF or download it (with a watermark in the discovery version, without it in Pro).
The calendar and the generator
Each edition fits on one line: date | no. | subject | pillar | status | author | reading minutes | call to action | expected revenue.
The status is idea, draft, scheduled, sent, paused or failed. Dates accept the 2026-11-03 or 11/03/2026 format.
The generator places an edition on every free send date in the period:
- according to your rhythm (daily on weekdays, 3 or 2 times a week, weekly, every two weeks, monthly) and your send day;
- following the share of each pillar (section 3), or pillars suggested for your industry if you have none;
- with a starting subject suited to the type of pillar (tools, interview, guide, behind the scenes…), a call to action and numbering that follows your editions;
- without touching dates that already have an edition.
Subjects are starting points with the “idea” status: rewrite them your way. The generator goes up to 12 weeks at a time, discovery version included; with Pro, the AI can also suggest tailored subjects.
Where to find your figures
| Data | Where to find it |
|---|---|
| Subscribers, new, unsubscribes | The dashboard or the “Subscribers / Audience” page of your sending tool, over the last 30 days |
| Open and click rates | The statistics of each send or the 30-day average |
| Results by edition | The CSV export of your sends (“Posts”, “Campaigns” or “Emails”): import it in section 14 (Pro) |
| Bounces and complaints | The deliverability statistics of your sending tool |
| SPF, DKIM, DMARC | The “Sending domain” or “Authentication” page of your sending tool, or your domain host |
| Revenue | Your paid subscription platform, sponsor invoices, your shop, your donation platform |
The 6-axis score
Each axis is rated out of 100 from several criteria. A criterion without data is ignored, and an axis with no data at all shows “n/a” (not rated): it does not count in the overall score, which is the average of the rated axes.
| Axis | What is looked at |
|---|---|
| Growth | 30-day subscriber growth, the pace needed to reach your 12-month goal, arrivals versus departures, signup page conversion |
| Engagement | Open and click rates versus your industry, click-to-open rate, open rate trend, replies and forwards |
| Consistency | Editions sent in the last 4 weeks and planned for the next 4 versus your rhythm, subjects in preparation, pillar variety; late editions lower the rating |
| Retention | Monthly unsubscribes, arrivals versus departures, open rate stability, welcoming new subscribers |
| Revenue | Revenue versus your goal, revenue per subscriber, number of revenue sources, margin, share of paid subscribers |
| Deliverability | SPF, DKIM, DMARC, bounces, complaints, spam score, blocklists (only the values entered count) |
The calculated formulas
- Growth = (current subscribers − subscribers 30 days ago) ÷ subscribers 30 days ago × 100
- Unsubscribe rate = unsubscribes in the month ÷ subscribers at the start of the month × 100 (benchmark: 1% or less = good, up to 2% = acceptable)
- Click-to-open rate (CTOR) = click rate ÷ open rate × 100
- Revenue per subscriber = monthly revenue ÷ subscribers; subscriber lifetime value = revenue per subscriber ÷ unsubscribe rate
- Slot price = subscribers × open rate ÷ 1,000 × CPM
- Actual sponsor CPM = amounts ÷ measured opens × 1,000 (only slots whose opens you entered count)
- Net margin = (revenue − costs) ÷ revenue × 100
The tool also flags when your subscriber figures do not add up (subscribers 30 days ago + new − unsubscribes ≠ current subscribers), for example after an import or a list cleaning.
Revenue and sponsors
Section 11 describes your model (premium price, CPM and number of slots, products and donations over 12 months); section 13 holds the revenue actually earned this month. The 💰 Revenue tab estimates the monthly revenue of each model and projects the next 12 months by applying your measured growth (capped between −10% and +15% a month) to subscriptions and sponsors. It is an estimate, not a promise.
In section 12, log each sponsor: placement, edition date, status, amount, then the clicks and opens after the send. The 🤝 Sponsors tab calculates the actual CPM and click rate, and lists your next available dates.
The sponsor report and media kit
The sponsor report includes your newsletter's figures, the audience (personas, segments), the results of each of the sponsor's slots (opens, clicks, click rate, CPM, cost per click), benchmarks, recommendations and your next available dates. It carries the sponsor's name, logo and colour; with Pro, no Yok-Kod mention (the discovery version adds a “Discovery version · Made with Yok-Kod” watermark). The AI (Pro) can write the introduction, conclusion and next steps.
The media kit is a page to send to the brands you pitch: audience, readers, slot price calculated from your opens, past results and available dates.
Deliverability
Since 2024, Gmail and Yahoo require bulk senders to have an authenticated domain (SPF, DKIM and DMARC), one-click unsubscribe and a very low complaint rate. Section 15 and the 📬 Deliverability tab take stock. Leave “Not entered” for what you do not know: the value is left out of the score, and the checklist tells you what to check.
AI (optional, Pro)
With your own key (Agnes, OpenAI, Claude, Mistral, Groq, Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenRouter…), the ✨ AI tab offers: audit, 12-week editorial plan, 3 editions ready to write, subject lines to test, sponsor outreach email, revenue strategy, deliverability audit, 10 recommendations, sponsor report review, and a chat about your figures. The “✨ Subjects suggested by the AI” button fills the calendar on your send dates.
Exports
Documents (sponsor report, media kit, edition outlines, ZIP) can be exported in the discovery version too, with a “Discovery version · Made with Yok-Kod · yok-kod.com” line at the end of the document (and at the bottom of each printed page); Pro removes it. Data exports (ICS calendar, spreadsheets, Notion, Airtable, CSV, JSON) are for Pro members, and the discovery ZIP does not contain them.
| Export | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Sponsor report PDF, HTML, Markdown | Sending it to the sponsor |
| Media kit | Pitching new brands |
| Edition outlines | One outline per upcoming edition (subject line, opening, plan by pillar, call to action, checked sources), to paste into Substack, Beehiiv, Kit, Mailchimp or Brevo |
| ICS calendar | Send dates in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook |
| Calendar CSV, Google Sheets, Airtable, Notion | Your editions and figures in a spreadsheet, an Airtable base or a Notion page with checkboxes |
| Full CSV, JSON, ZIP | All the data, the newsletter backup, or everything in one (report, media kit, calendar, outlines, data) |
Sending tools do not import editions from a file: that is why the tool prepares outlines to paste rather than a fake “import file”.
Where is my data?
Your newsletters are stored in your browser (local storage), on the computer you use. Nothing is kept on our servers: calculations are made on the fly and then forgotten. Remember to export each newsletter to JSON regularly (Pro) to back it up or open it on another computer. The 🕐 History button keeps the latest versions.
Discovery version and Pro
| Feature | Discovery | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Full data entry, demo, 6-axis score, formulas, benchmarks, every tab | ✓ | ✓ |
| Calendar generator (up to 12 weeks) and starter pillars | ✓ | ✓ |
| Recommendations | 3 | all |
| Full sponsor report preview | ✓ | ✓ |
| Document exports (sponsor report PDF, HTML, Markdown, media kit, edition outlines, ZIP) | with a “Discovery version · Made with Yok-Kod” watermark | without watermark |
| Data exports (ICS calendar, Google Sheets, Notion, Airtable, CSV, JSON) | — | ✓ |
| Newsletters | 1 | 30 |
| 11 industry templates, statistics CSV import | — | ✓ |
| AI with your key | — | ✓ |
Newsletter Studio Pro costs €29 as a one-off payment, with no subscription; it is also included in Marketing Pack (€129) and in Full Access (€179).
Common problems
- A score axis shows “n/a”.
- It is not rated yet for lack of data. For example, the Retention axis needs the number of unsubscribes (section 13), the Deliverability axis at least one value in section 15.
- An edition does not appear in the calendar.
- Check its date (2026-11-03 or 11/03/2026) and the
|separator. Editions without a valid date stay in the list but not in the grid. - The generator says every date already has an edition.
- Your calendar is already full for the period: choose a longer period or check the rhythm and send day in section 1.
- The sponsor report says there is no slot under that name.
- The sponsor name in section 18 must match the one in section 12 (case and accents do not matter).
- The CSV import rejects my file.
- It needs at least a date column, a subject or title column, and an open rate (or a number of opens together with the number of recipients).
- The AI says “invalid key”.
- Check that the provider matches your key, then test it again. Free keys are limited to a few requests per minute.
- I cannot find my newsletter any more.
- Check that you are using the same computer, the same browser and the same account.
Another question? Write to us, we reply quickly.