How to Use Sender to Migrate a List and Send a Newsletter

The short answer: verify ownership of your sending domain in Sender, add its three DNS records, export your old list with its unsubscribes and bounces, import the active contacts into a group with automations switched off, import the suppressions separately, connect a signup form to the same group with double opt-in, then build, test and schedule the first campaign; the free plan carries all of this for up to 2,500 subscribers (pricing page).

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Moving platforms goes wrong in two places: the domain is not authenticated on the day of the first send, or the people who unsubscribed in the old tool quietly come back as active in the new one. Both are avoidable in an afternoon. For what Sender includes and costs, see the Sender glossary entry.

Check these first:

• Which plan the list fits. The free plan takes 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month (pricing page, checked on 24 October 2026). For example, 2,100 subscribers mailed twice a week is 2,100 x 8 = 16,800 emails a month, over the free limit; Standard at 2,500 subscribers is $27 a month on monthly billing and allows 30,000.
• What the old platform holds. Fields, tags, lists and statuses all need a home in Sender. Its import guide maps lists to Groups and attribute tags to custom Fields, and supports five field types: Text, Date, Datetime, Number and Drop-down.
• Proof of consent. Article 7 of the GDPR (EUR-Lex) says that where processing rests on consent, you must be able to demonstrate it. Export the signup dates and sources from the old tool along with the addresses.
• What success looks like. Write down the open and click rates of your last three newsletters in the old tool, so the first Sender report has something to be compared with.

Step 1: Add the domain and confirm you own it

Go to Account settings, Domains, and click Add domain. Enter the domain, then an email address on that domain, and click Verify ownership. Sender emails a link to that address; once you click it, Ownership confirmed turns green, per the SPF, DKIM and DMARC guide. If the email does not arrive, check spam and promotions folders and allow mail from sendersrv.com, as the domain verification article suggests.

Step 2: Publish the three DNS records

Click the domain row to see the records, then add them at your DNS provider:

• DKIM: a CNAME record, name sender._domainkey, value dkim.sendersrv.com.
• SPF: a TXT record on @ with v=spf1 include:sendersrv.com ?all. If the domain already has an SPF record, add the include to it instead of creating a second one; a domain may have only one.
• DMARC: a TXT record on _dmarc with v=DMARC1; p=none; as a monitoring policy you can tighten later.

Back in Sender, click Check SPF, DKIM and DMARC records. Three green ticks in the Authentication column mean you are done. The guide allows up to 24 to 48 hours for DNS, though most changes land within minutes, and advises against sending from a free address such as gmail.com.

Step 3: Prepare the export

Export the full contact list from the old platform as CSV or XLSX, with column headers in the first row and dates as YYYY-MM-DD. Export unsubscribed, bounced and complaint contacts as a separate file. Then, in Sender, create the groups under Subscribers, Groups, and any custom fields under Subscribers, Fields, so the mapping step goes quickly (import guide).

Step 4: Import the active contacts

Go to Subscribers, Add subscribers, and choose Import from a file (up to 64MB). Read the Opt-in Agreement: by importing you certify that everyone on the list consented. On Map fields, map or deselect every column; the wizard will not continue until the counters match. On Organize and import, select the group, and leave "Trigger active automations upon import" unticked, so a historical list does not receive a welcome series meant for new signups. Click Start importing; the import runs in the background, and a Review needed status comes with a CSV report of the rows that failed and why.

Step 5: Import the suppressions

Run a second import with the unsubscribed and bounced file, mapping only the email column and again leaving automations off. Then set those contacts to Unsubscribed. The import guide is explicit that there is no status column to map during import, so this second pass is the only thing keeping opted-out people opted out.

Step 6: Connect a signup form to the group

Under Forms, click Create a new form, name it, and pick Embedded, Popup or Spin-to-win. In the builder, open Settings: under Groups, choose the group from step 4, and under Options tick Confirmation checkbox so visitors actively agree (connecting forms guide). Click Save and continue, switch on Double opt-in settings on the Publishing settings page, and edit the confirmation email's sender name. Click Publish, then paste the JavaScript snippet before the closing head tag of your site (form guide).

Step 7: Build and schedule the first campaign

Click Email campaigns, New campaign. The first campaign guide runs through four stages: Settings (subject, preview text, sender), Design (drag and drop, plain text or custom HTML), Recipients (the group, with exclusions if needed) and Review and send. Use Send test email to see it in your own inbox, then Schedule for a time your audience reads.

Step 8: Hand the next draft to an assistant

Sender's MCP server connects Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor to your account at mcp.sender.net/mcp through OAuth, with your own role's permissions. Ask it to list your sending domains and it reports SPF, DKIM and DMARC status for each; ask it to draft next week's newsletter for the imported group from your notes, and the campaign appears in Sender as a draft. Campaigns are never sent through this connection, so the human step is built in: you open the draft, edit it and schedule it yourself.

What Sender's guides warn about

• A form that never went live. Save and continue saves a draft; only Publish makes the form active.
• A popup that does not appear. Usually the snippet is missing from the page head, or the Visibility settings hide it on that device.
• Edits after sending. A sent campaign cannot be changed; duplicate it instead.
• A second SPF record. It breaks validation; merge the include into the existing record.

One thing the help centre states in passing matters more than it looks. Sender's GDPR page says accounts are reviewed at signup and after major list uploads, and purchased or scraped lists are flagged. That review protects the shared sending reputation, which is the vendor's interest, not your launch date. Import a few days before the first newsletter, not the morning of it.

FAQ

Will imported subscribers get my welcome email?

Only if you tick "Trigger active automations upon import". Leave it off for migrated lists and on only for files of new signups who expect a welcome, per the import guide.

What happens if someone already on the list submits the form again?

Sender updates their profile with any new field data and does not create a duplicate, according to the connecting forms guide.

When do double opt-in subscribers count as active?

After they click the confirmation link. Until then they show as unconfirmed, and automations connected to the form start only after confirmation.