This month my newsletter had a 60% open rate.
But it wasn’t luck. It took a lot of deliberate effort to get there. I spent the last few months trying to improve it.
Here’s what worked for me.
📖 Create a reading habit
Every week I send out my newsletter on the same day, at the same time, with the same subject.
This helps get subscribers into the habit of reading your emails.
🚫 Avoid the spam folder
I make it very clear to my subscribers that I want to hear back from them.
When someone replies, it sends a strong signal to the Gmail algorithm that all your future emails should land in their primary tab.
🧼 Keep a clean list
Every 3 months I go through my list and delete subscribers who haven’t opened at least one email.
It’s important to make sure your sender reputation and deliverability stay high.
✍️ Use a custom preview text
Every week I try to write an interesting preview text to grab my recipient’s attention.
If you don’t, make sure the snippet of copy pulled in from your email isn’t something like “click here to view this email in a web browser.”
Why do I care so much and don’t focus more on growth? Because at the end of the day, I’m not interested in having a giant list.
I mean, of course the bigger the better. But what I really want is a bunch of people who are genuinely interested in hearing what I have to say about marketing.