First you should enable the option for the customers to confirm that they agree to receive the newsletter. This feature can be turned on from the Magento Admin Area-> System-> Configuration-> Customers-> Newsletter. Expand the Subscription Options area and change the Need to Confirm field value to Yes.
The clients can unsubscribe for the newsletter. The administrator can define the Unsubscription Email Sender and the Unsubscription Email Template through the corresponding drop-down menus. The same is valid for the newsletter's success and the confirmation e-mail senders and templates. You can use one and the same or you can customize them per your needs.
Click on Save Config to confirm the modification.
Then you should set the newsletter template through the Magento Admin Area-> Newsletter-> Newsletter Templates-> Add New Template.
Enter the template name, the subject of the newsletter which will be sent, the sender's name and e-mail and the newsletter template's HTML code.
Once you are ready, preview the template using the Preview Template button and save it by clicking on the Save Template button.
The template will be added to the corresponding list and you will be able to edit it.
If you plan to send the message to a large list of recipients, you should divide the list in small parts. You can configure such a functionality through the Magento Admin Area-> Newsletter-> Newsletter Templates-> Action-> Queue Newsletter.
In the Queue Date Start field define when the newsletter will be sent. The messages will leave the e-mail server in small batches. Check the other options and click on the Save Newsletter button when you are ready.
You can find different newsletter reports. From the Magento Admin Area-> Newsletter-> Newsletter Queue you can monitor the newsletter queues' progress.
You can see the list of the customers, subscribed for the newsletter in the Magento Admin Area-> Newsletter-> Newsletter Subscribers. You can manually unsubscribe them.
The Magento Admin Area-> Newsletter-> Newsletter Problem Reports section shows errors which have occurred during the newsletter sending and you can take the necessarily steps to resolve them.