Deliverability Defined

As creators, trust is everything. The trust between you and the subscribers who stay tuned is the foundation of your business and the source of your creative freedom. And while it can take months or years to build up hard-earned trust, it only takes one spammer to derail it. 

In the tech-driven twenty-first century, spamming is more prevalent than ever. Unfortunately, an email list and an ESP mean you’re a prime target for spammers seeking lists, data, and, above all else, subscribers who trust your domain. As such, it’s important to take steps toward staying secure and spam-proof, for your peace of mind and for the sake of your business. 

In this episode, Alyssa and Melissa discuss the top three steps for stopping spam, hacks, and phishing. From two-factor authentication to securing forms, double opt-ins, and the beauty of DMARC, here’s everything you need to know. 

Key Takeaways

• [03:55] - An email list backed by a trusted ESP is valuable email currency. This currency makes you especially vulnerable to spammers and phishers. 
• [06:48] - Using two-factor authentication at your ESP is essential. 
• [10:19] - The most common damage spammers do is buy loads of subscribers or followers and send them spam or phishing links. 
• [14:18] - Data breaches have long-lasting impacts. The two seconds it takes to double authenticate are worth it to avoid years of potential fallout. 
• [15:06] - Use double opt-in and reCAPTCHA to prevent list bombing. 
• [25:57] - Aside from spam prevention, double opt-ins ensure your list has the most engaged subscribers. 
• [27:38] - Implement DMARC to prevent spoofing. 

Quotes

[03:56] - “You might be thinking, ok, email spam is annoying, but how does this affect my email list? As someone with an email list and an account with an ESP, you have an asset that’s valuable to spammers.” ~ @mel_lambert_

[14:38] - “You could have someone send spam from your account or phish, and then it could take you months to build that up again. But it would only take one send for them to ruin your whole reputation.” ~ @mel_lambert_

[26:00] - “Double opt-in is so great to make sure the people in your list are the most high-quality. ” ~ @alyssa_dulin

Links

• Contact Us!
• Have I Been Pwned?
• Canva
• MailChimp
• SendGrid
• Instagram
• Spotify
• Gmail
• Microsoft
• Yahoo
• reCAPTCHA
• Slack
• Leadpages
• Deliverability Defined 0106: Authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
• Dmarcian
• DMARC Record Checker
• Reply All
• Reply All #91: The Russian Passenger
• Statista
• Verizon

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• Alyssa Dulin
• Melissa Lambert

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As we evolve as creators, it’s inevitable that our audiences evolve with us. If you find yourself serving multiple audiences, deciding which audience to speak to and when can feel like an impossible task that inevitably isolates one fan base or another. Unfortunately, with most mediums, creators must choose. 

In this episode, Alyssa and Melissa answer the question, how do you create for multiple audiences? Because this is Deliverability Defined, email is always the answer. And while email has many superpowers, audience segmentation is possibly the most undervalued. Whether your audience is made up of both parents and teachers or dog owners and cat lovers, here’s how to embrace them all while keeping it personal. 

Key Takeaways

• [08:08] - Social media will inevitably be filled with clutter you don’t care about. Email allows us to subscribe to only the content we’re interested in.
• [13:33] - Before you segment subscribers, you have to learn about them. Start by asking questions through a welcome sequence. 
• [16:23] - Don’t feel weird asking people for information. We underestimate how much people enjoy talking about themselves. 
• [18:02] - Segmentation isn’t permanent. As you start sending content, you can combine your lists when content is relevant to multiple audiences. 
• [19:00] - Having multiple audiences via email can lead to multiple business opportunities.
• [19:35] - Gathering subscriber information at signup is more upfront work, but it makes your life much easier down the line. Build the system, don’t be the system. 

Quotes

[07:00] - “I think it’s easy to overlook that there are people in your audience who are different.” ~ @mel_lambert_

[11:25] - “Email is so unique in the way that you can have all of your audience together in one place, but send them completely different emails.” ~ @alyssa_dulin

[16:23) - “People underestimate how much people want to share about themselves. It’s definitely an art to learn to listen and ask people questions that get them excited about themselves, but once you do, people are willing to share a lot. And I don’t mean that in a weird way, it just creates that deeper connection with your audience.” ~ @mel_lambert_

Links

• Contact Us!
• Slack
• Nathan Barry
• The Internet’s Unkillable App

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• Alyssa Dulin
• Melissa Lambert

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It's now free to use ConvertKit with an audience of 1,000 subscribers or less! Start building your audience and reaching their inboxes: convertkit.com/pricing. 

Creators always ask, “how do I grow my audience?” While the answer is different for everyone, when you’re an emerging creator with a tight budget, referral programs are a great way to expand without burning revenue. And not only expand, but find subscribers more likely to engage.

As we continue moving away from open rates as our main metric, referral programs are a great step toward increased engagement. Luckily, where there’s a will, there’s an app. Tools like SparkLoop smooth out the logistics and make tracking your referral progress fun and easy. 

In this episode, Alyssa and Melissa discuss the benefits of a referral program, the steps to referral success, and examples of creators who are doing it right. 

Key Takeaways

• [07:09] - Referral programs are a great way to grow your audience in a way that’s relatively “hands-off”.
• [08:39] - Tools like SparkLoop help you automate your referral program. Automation is especially useful if you’re a small creator.
• [14:24] - People trust referrals from friends more than anything else. A referred subscriber has built-in trust with you that otherwise, you would have to spend time, money, and energy to establish. 
• [16:11] - Referral programs reward subscriber engagement. 
• [16:47] - Using incentives not only drives traffic to your newsletter but also the content outside of your newsletter. 
• [19:22] - Referral programs lower the cost of subscriber acquisition and get people excited about your upcoming content. 
• [22:18] - Before launching a referral program, you need a newsletter with measurable subscriber value rather than a brand new newsletter with no built-in audience. 
• [24:08] - You also need a clear explanation of how your referral program works so it’s obvious to your subscribers what they have to do. 

Quotes

[12:12] - “Any other way to try and find people to join your list, like maybe doing paid ads, can only do so much to get the right person in front of that sign-up form. And it’s kind of more like casting a wide net and hoping to find the right people. But this is perfect. Your subscribers clearly are the perfect fit for your email list, they’re already there, they signed up for it, and they likely know other people who also would love your content.” ~ @alyssa_dulin

Links

• Contact Us!
• Morning Brew
• theSkimm
• SparkLoop
• ConvertKit Creator Pro account
• Manuel Frigerio
• Louis Nicholls
• Codie Sanchez
• Nathan Barry’s newsletter
• SparkLoop’s growth calculator
• SparkLoop rewards library
• James Clear
• The 3-2-1 Newsletter
• Great Talks Most People Have Never Heard
• Nathan Barry’s podcast
• Brennan Dunn
• Create & Sell
• Angel at ConvertKit
• Isa at ConvertKit 

Connect with our hosts

• Alyssa Dulin
• Melissa Lambert

Stay in touch

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Try ConvertKit's deliverability in action

It's now free to use ConvertKit with an audience of 1,000 subscribers or less! Start building your audience and reaching their inboxes: convertkit.com/pricing. 

If we learned anything last season, it was that open rates are no longer the magic email metric. Changes to Apple’s privacy settings dethroned an already shaky measurement tool, albeit one many marketers loved to tout.

While staying laser-focused on one metric is a surefire way to derail your email strategy (and fill your subscribers’ inboxes with spam-friendly subject lines), is there a new golden standard for senders? Now that open rates are a thing of the past, how can we shift our focus?  

In this episode, Alyssa and Melissa discuss the importance of focusing on subscribers and encouraging engagement, breaking down the benefits of subscriber engagement, and sharing some creative ways to encourage likes, shares, and replies. It’s time to stop viewing subscribers like spreadsheets and start building a real relationship with the people behind your metrics. 

(29:13) “In this day in age, we’re all so focused on clicks and likes and that’s what this whole podcast episode is about. But in order to get those things from your subscribers, you have to build a relationship with them.” ~ @mel_lambert_

Key Takeaways

• [11:26] Add “reactions” to your email message. This is a great feature that not only encourages engagement but helps you as a sender understand how your subscribers are responding to your emails. 
• [14:50] Create a fun segment in your email newsletter that encourages responses. Polls and surveys are great for engagement and another way to solicit feedback. 
• [21:48] With tools like ReplyVid, you can even ask subscribers to reply to your email with a video message. It’s a fun relationship-building technique and a feature unique from any form of social media. 
• [24:18] Add something to your emails that subscribers can interact with – like a pet to “feed” or a flower to “water”. 

Links

• Litmus Live
• Deliverability Defined 0218: Apple’s New Privacy Changes
• RP Daily newsletter 
• SparkLoop
• ReplyVid
• Empress of Dirt
• Chris Vasquez
• Send us your great email signup form! 

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With the holiday season right around the corner, it’s never too early to start planning. In fact, the longer you wait, the more likely you are to find yourself on the naughty list, aka, in the spam folder.

When it comes to sales, deals, and purchasing potential, the holiday season is in a category of its own. Subscribers are slammed with more emails than ever, retailers slash prices, and inbox providers are extra sensitive to spam. One rookie mistake can derail your most profitable time of year.

In this episode, Alyssa, Melissa, and Akos, a ConvertKit deliverability specialist, talk about how to stand out from the holiday crowd, prevent inbox fatigue,  and avoid the spam folder.

Main Takeaways

• [04:39] To have success during the holidays, don’t suddenly increase your volume or frequency. Ramp up to that volume or frequency starting now. If it’s a surprise come December, subscribers and inbox providers may send you straight to spam.
• [07:49] Don’t procrastinate your planning strategy. It’s never too early to start cleaning your list for the holiday season.
• [08:09] Remember consistency and engagement. Sending a consistent volume will train the inbox algorithm and sometimes, less is more. Over-sending can cause inbox fatigue. And as the holidays approach, slowly tweak your list to include only subscribers most likely to engage. 
• [16:57] Subscribers receive so many holiday promotional emails every season. It’s important to make your holiday emails stand out from the crowd. Get creative and add value for your audience.

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When it first landed in our inbox, many believed the promotions tab would ruin email marketing for good. Years after Gmail’s controversial update, it’s time to set the record straight for scared senders. 

In this episode, Alyssa and Melissa break down their take on the promotions tab while unpacking insights from ConvertKit’s team of email pros. 

When it comes to deliverability, there are plenty of email mishaps to worry about. But is landing in the promotions tab one of them? While this secondary tab can feel like a spam folder for senders, here’s why Gmail may actually be doing you a favor.

Main Takeaways

• [06:27] Opens in the promotions tab are much stronger signals than opens in the primary tab. Users are in a much better headspace to respond or purchase when they’re not responding to emails from their grandmother, boss, or dentist.
• [06:53] If you’re really hoping to avoid the promotions tab, you can ask subscribers to drag your email into the primary inbox, encourage subscribers to reply, and regularly clean your list of unengaged subscribers.
• [12:00] The promotions tab is still the inbox. If you’re landing in the promotions tab, find ways to make your interactions with your audience feel one-to-one. 
• [21:05] To create more valuable content, know your audience, segment your subscribers and send personalized messages, create captivating subject lines, avoid link shorteners, and balance images with text. 

Links

• ConvertKit’s Deliverability 101 Guide
• Send us your episode ideas!
• Tags & Segments
• Turn off Gmail categories and tabs
• Bitly

Try ConvertKit's deliverability in action

It's now free to use ConvertKit with an audience of 1,000 subscribers or less! Start building your audience and reaching their inboxes: convertkit.com/pricing. 

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While Season 02 of Deliverability Defined has come to an end, email never stops! Before we kick off Season 03, we’re doing a series called Ask Our Experts, where we pose important deliverability questions to our amazing team at ConvertKit.

Today’s question: Other than open rates, what metrics should senders focus on? With Apple’s new privacy laws furthering the fall of open rates, it’s time for senders to get creative and pivot to a measurement system that’s right for their business.

In this episode, Alyssa and Melissa discuss the math behind conversion rates, the power of healthy organization, and getting subscribers excited to hit ‘reply’ on your latest email.

Main Takeaways

• [03:51] Determine the action you want from your senders and use that action to determine your measurement of success. For example, if you want subscribers to download a podcast, your target metric should be the number of podcasts downloaded from a link in your email.
• [07:21] Encourage clicks and replies. Ask your subscribers a question they would be excited to reply to. You can also learn a lot about your subscriber base from their replies. 
• [11:16] Pay attention to conversion rates. The formula for determining your conversion rate percentage is (# of conversions / delivered emails) x 100.
• [16:48] Don’t forget about your cold subscribers! Look for patterns among your cold subs to determine how to improve your email strategy and reduce unengaged recipients. 
• [22:042] Focus on your account organization. A lack of organization within your email deliverability system will lead to email mistakes. 

Links

• Deliverability Defined on Instagram
• Nathan Barry
• Email Conversion Rate Blog Post
• Braze
• HBO Max Tweet
• Let us know your thoughts!

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Whether you’re a musician or an author, a blogger or an artist, email is the secret sauce to owning your audience and making a passion project your full-time hustle. While deliverability may sound like an algorithm with built-in metrics for success, there’s more than one way to reach the inbox and engage subscribers.

Last season, we defined the ABCs of deliverability. In season 02, we went beyond the basics, looking at the complexities of email and (hopefully) proving that inbox success has more to do with the person receiving your emails than a robotic, spam-resistant recipe.

Our top four takeaways from this season cover everything from marketing strategy to opt-in forms and what Apple’s privacy changes mean for measuring sender success.

Main Takeaways

• [04:00] Stop focusing so much on open rates and prioritize other metrics such as clicks and purchases. Open rates were never a perfect metric and with Apple’s new privacy changes, they’re even less meaningful.
• [08:44] Quality and consistency lead to email success. When you hit the sweet spot of high-quality content that’s also consistent, it’s hard not to be successful. 
• [16:03] Send relationship-building emails rather than purely promotional emails. Your subscribers determine your deliverability, so get to know them. 
• [27:49] Monetize your email list. Whether that’s through a paid newsletter, an email course, or an email series, figure out where it feels most natural to monetize. 

Links

• Deliverability Defined on Instagram
• Deliverability Defined 218: Apple’s New Privacy Changes
• Deliverability Defined 219: How to Have the Perfect Signup Form
• Slack
• Nathan Barry
• Heather Mcmahan 
• Heather’s podcast
• Patreon

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As a new creator, you may feel like reaching as many eyeballs as possible is the most important end goal. Just remember, not all subscribers are created equal. Having an opt-in form helps weed out the unengaged and uninterested subscribers that aren’t worth paying for and can damage deliverability.

However, like subscribers, not all opt-in forms are equally as effective. In this episode, Alyssa and Melissa walk through their must-haves for top-performing signup pages while showcasing one creator with a stellar, deliverability-approved website. 

From clear messaging to single opt-in versus double, here’s everything to keep in mind when you’re building out a signup form. This page is likely the first step in your relationship with a new subscriber. Make a great impression and make it count.

Main Takeaways

• [03:45] Don’t use opt-in shortcuts! They are terrible for deliverability. 
• [05:20] It’s not just about being a good sender, it’s about the quality of the subscriber. Subscriber quality is the most important factor when you’re trying to convert those subscribers into sales. 
• [10:26] If you have a double opt-in form, don’t make it fancy or gimmicky. It should be easy for a potential subscriber to find it in their inbox. 
• [14:53] Just because you have a single opt-in doesn’t mean your subscribers will be more engaged. In fact, you’ll typically see the opposite. 
• [39:35] Create a platform where people clearly understand what your value is and what problem you can solve. This helps potential subscribers trust you with their email list and their screen time.
• [41:54] Consistency is key to succeeding as an online business. 

Links

• reCAPTCHA 
• Deliverability Defined 104: Protecting Yourself From Listbombing
• Deliverability Defined 216: What Makes A Good Subscriber? 
• Deliverability Defined 218: Apple’s New Privacy Changes 
• Empress of Dirt
• Empress of Dirt on Instagram
• Two Minutes in the Garden

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You’ve probably heard about Apple’s latest privacy changes. Their new OS includes an update that marks all emails as opened, removing a metric many senders relied on to measure email success. 

Privacy is incredibly important and there’s no universe where senders are entitled to a recipient’s data. However, as deliverability specialists, it’s our job to find workarounds that help senders reach the inbox of their subscribers. And there’s no denying this update has impacted senders’ ability to reach that top deliverability spot, simply because a data point we previously relied on no longer exists!

In this episode, Alyssa and Melissa explain how to get creative and reach subscribers in Apple’s new world, why ignoring the update is your worst marketing move, and the new north star metric for measuring email success. 

Main Takeaways

• [15:10] Clicks are suddenly more important when it comes to measuring email success. They will likely become the metric open rates once were. To incentivize clicks, embed like buttons into your emails. 
• [17:24] Consider sharing less in the email itself and adding a “read more” button for recipients to click on. 
• [19:09] Include crystal clear calls to action. Don’t make recipients’ wade through thick text to find that coveted “click here to stay subscribed” button. 
• [21:36] Incentivize clicks by offering prizes or bonus content for recipients that consistently open or read emails. 
• [22:59] List cleaning is still important, but now you have to approach it differently. You have to start removing people from your list who appear to be opening your emails based on other data points that indicate they are cold subscribers. 
• [30:05] This update also makes it more difficult for ESPs like ConvertKit to identify spam.

Links

• Deliverability Defined 108: Hey.com: The New Mailbox Provider that Blocks “Spy Tracker” Pixels
• How Apple’s email privacy protection hurts creators
• Nathan’s Twitter thread on Apple’s privacy update

Try ConvertKit's deliverability in action

It's now free to use ConvertKit with an audience of 1,000 subscribers or less! Start building your audience and reaching their inboxes: convertkit.com/pricing. 

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