21 Comments

I’ve worked with email newsletter for nonprofits for many years. Asking for money, linking to checkout pages and certain keywords like “sale” or “free” etc in subject line can get you spammed.

Thanks for the article good info!!

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More good stuff you should know when publishing your newsletter with Substack!

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I haven't found any Substack emails in my spam either. The thing with asking people to reply to the Welcome email, or click links or double opt in is, if they aren't getting the email delivered or it's sitting in spam which they never checked... they can't. From when I had my jewelry business with a large email list, a great subject line seems to work best, something if they scan their spam folder will attract attention... not caps or more than 1 emoji though.

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Great advice, Tania, thank you. (And yes, if the Welcome email goes straight to spam it's pretty hard to do anything).

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Thank you, Karen! for the great guidance

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Good to know. Thank you.

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Great piece. Email deliverability is crucial for newsletters. With new security protocols, ensuring your emails are seen means actively engaging subscribers, cleaning your list, and considering double opt-in. Substack manages much of this for you, but staying proactive is critical.

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Thank you Karen. I love the lemon fishies

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Thank you this was great advice.

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This is truly helpful. Thank you!

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Thank you, good to know!

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Thanks, Karen - good to know!

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I check my spam box occasionally and thankfully, I've never found a Substack email in there. But still useful info.

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I regularly find Substack emails in my Gmail Spam folder. If I tell Gmail, they're not spam, that usually fixes it but not always. Frustrating!

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I first thought it was deliverance issues, then I imagined the pandemonium of failing to cast out evil haha

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Thank you Karen, such helpful info!

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Thanks for the information

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I do all of those things and my Substack open rate was down to 25% yesterday, and it's down 25% from the beginning of April with roughly the same list.

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Hi Russell, wow, that's sucks. My paid publication's open rates were down last week too. I'm hoping it is a measuring thing, not a real data thing. But I also see noticeable dips in the weeks before and after US holidays.. it's memorial day or something there next week I believe...

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Thanks for sharing that Russell, it’s so helpful to hear. I have a small list so a pretty good open rate then two weeks ago it plummeted to 35% I thought it was all over. Sort of reassuring if it’s happening to bigger accounts too

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