Just bring them back into the fold with two or three emails to give them an idea of what they can expect from you now, and dump them back into your regular list.
And then any who weren’t responsive from this group or the other group(s) is going over the side like so much ballast. It’s time to purge the dead weight, folks.
18 - Purging Dead Weight
This is going to be pretty short and straightforward, because this topic is exceedingly simple. As we discussed a few chapters ago, people who don’t open or interact with your emails hurt your overall deliverability, to the point where even people who do interact with your emails will start to see fewer of them. Weed them out ruthlessly—you must be ruthless here, because you are protecting your relationship with the subscribers who do want to hear from you.
Weed them out? But how? How do you know which subscribers to keep and which to get rid of? It’s actually not that hard; you find anyone who hasn’t opened a certain number of your recent emails (a number you’ve determined) or who hasn’t clicked on anything in a certain number of emails (again determined by you), and you get ready to give them the boot.
All of the mailing list services will let you query your database of subscribers to see who has interacted with your emails in whatever way. (The method is different for every service; consult the Help section or Customer Service if you can’t figure out how to do this.) You can ask who didn’t open the last email, or the last 5 emails, or several specific emails. You can ask who has clicked on anything in a certain email or emails, or who has clicked on a specific link or links. Basically, you can isolate anyone who isn’t doing what you want your subscribers to do.
Once you’ve identified them, what do you do with them? This part is about as simple as it gets. You give them a chance to stay, and then you boot them, without remorse.
What this means is you’ll send what we can call a “Do you want to stay?” email (only one; any more than that is too much effort for very little reward). A “Do you want to stay?” email needs to say a few things:
you’ve noticed (or your mailing list service has told you, or however you want to phrase it) that the subscriber hasn’t been opening your emails
you don’t want to send emails to people who aren’t interested
you will unsubscribe them unless they click on a link (which you can set up just to go to a dummy page on your site that says “Your click has been recorded” or something) or send you a reply
Anyone who clicks will register as an open; all the services are smart enough to figure out that someone who clicks obviously opened the email, even if they didn’t register the open for any of the reasons we’ve discussed previously. You should then tag those people—as well as anyone who replies to you—so you know going forward that your service reports their activity inaccurately, and you don’t have to bother sending them future “Do you want to stay?” emails. The number of people in that situation will be quite small, and asking them constantly if they’re still there is annoying. That way lies madness.
Subscribers who don’t interact with your “Do you want to stay?” email get unsubscribed after whatever period of time you set out in the email. No exceptions and no regrets. You need subscribers who want to be on your list, and who show it by opening, clicking, and replying. You do not need to pay your mailing list service for dead weight that isn’t interested in you.
This can sometimes mean culling a large number of people, particularly if you don’t do it regularly. Suck it up, cupcake, and do it anyway. (And then come sit by us oldsters and talk about the great GDPR debacle of 2018; it’ll make your wound look like a paper cut.) Whatever sales you lose from removing the few people who might have come around and begun opening your emails again is more than offset by the net gain in open and click rates, and the subsequent positive effects on your reputation as a sender. Just tell yourself they can always rejoin if they want to, and toss them overboard.
Dump the extra weight, keep your list lean and engaged, and it will continue to perform for you even as it gets bigger and bigger. And that is, after all, the whole point.
Then off you go into the sunset, with a list of subscribers who hang on your every email, buy all your books, and will eventually rocket you to superstardom, because you are a Newsletter Ninja.
Afterword
Thanks so much for buying this book! I hope that it was helpful to you, and that you picked up at least a few tidbits that will improve your newsletter skills (or maybe more than a few).
I’ve tried to make it as comprehensive as I could; I definitely did not want to be one of those people whose book was really just a not-so-thinly-veiled advertisement for a course. I didn’t want to hold back information in the hopes of increasing course signups, so I’ve tried to put everything I know into the book itself, trusting that if you need further help you will either seek me out or experiment on your own to find the best practices for your particular list.
I do teach a course, and you can read more about that in the next section, if you like (or skip it entirely), but here is my promise to you: Simply by reading this book and putting the techniques into practice, you will build a more engaged list, or re-engage the one you’ve got. I’ve also included some links in the Helpful Links section that showcase authors who are really doing their newsletters right. Because doing this stuff right means increased deliverability, better visibility, higher ranks, more earnings, and a steady influx of devoted mailing list subscribers who will help you get to the next level, and then the next.
I’ll see you there!
Do You Need More Help? (aka The Inevitable Upsell)
I have further help available if this book wasn’t quite enough to get you where you need to go. I don’t imagine that comes as a surprise, so I’ll keep this short and simple:
Several times a year, I teach a month-long course on all the topics I’ve covered here. The course includes help with creating subscriber avatars, list planning and setup, autoresponders, and deliverability and engagement. Each student has access to a weekly live lecture, and a thirty minute consult each week to help them implement the strategies in the way that’s most effective for their situation. You can find information on the next available class by going to http://www.newsletterninja.net. Use the coupon code NN-2018 any time until the end of 2018, and get a 10% discount on your registration. (Please don’t share that coupon code.)
I also do individual consulting on all aspects of mailing list creation and maintenance, as well as planning and writing autoresponders for authors who would rather contract that part of the process out. Email me at [email protected] to inquire about prices and availability.
But, as I said before, I sincerely hope you’ve gotten enough out of this book that you don’t need any further services from me—in which case, go do your thing. I’ll be cheering you on from the sidelines as you finally conquer your newsletter issues.
Feel free to drop me a line and let me know how it’s going!
Helpful Links
This is a partial and not at all comprehensive list of some resources that will delve more deeply into some of the topics from the previous chapters. I also maintain a somewhat more dynamic list at newsletterninja.net/links
From Chapter 7 - The First Date
Whitelisting:
I use this one, and there’s a link at the bottom of it to generate your own version specific to your site:
* * *
https://newsletterninja.net/whitelist.html
* * *
These are good as well, with the benefit that you can just link to them without having to create a page on your own site and all that:
* * *
https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/whitelisting
* * *
https://www.whatcounts.com/how-to-whitelist-emails
From Chapter 12 - Straight-Up Bribes
What Makes a Good Cookie:
* * *
https://insights.bookbub.com/great-priz
e-ideas-for-book-promotion-contests-and-giveaways
* * *
https://blog.reedsy.com/6-steps-for-building-your-author-mailing-list-through-giveaways
* * *
Bookfunnel’s series on "Using Exclusive Content to Turn Readers Into Fans”:
* * *
- Introduction: Not Sold in Stores:
https://blog.bookfunnel.com/2017/not-sold-in-stores-intro
- Part 1: Short Stories:
https://blog.bookfunnel.com/2017/using-exclusive-content-to-turn-readers-into-fans-short-stories
- Part 2: Prequel Novellas:
https://blog.bookfunnel.com/2017/using-exclusive-content-to-turn-readers-into-fans-prequel-novellas
- Part 3: Serials:
https://blog.bookfunnel.com/2017/using-exclusive-content-to-turn-readers-into-fans-serials
- Part 4: Bonus Epilogues:
https://blog.bookfunnel.com/2018/using-exclusive-content-to-turn-readers-into-fans-bonus-epilogues
* * *
Cross-promotion ideas
- Newsletter swaps or other quid pro quo strategies
- Facebook group takeovers
- Blog tours
- Instafreebie
- Booksweeps (Ryan Zee): https://booksweeps.com
- Bookfunnel cross-promos. Find people to cross-promo with by asking other authors you know, or by visiting one of these Facebook groups:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookFunnelCrossPromo
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Bookfunnelpromoslistbuilders/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookFunnelRomance/
From Chapter 13 - Engagement
Reputation:
* * *
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/improve-email-deliverability
https://fulcrumtech.net/resources/email-deliverabilty-reputation
https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/07/bad-email-reputation-repair
From Chapter 14 - Deliverability
Articles on avoiding SPAM filters:
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https://www.yesware.com/blog/email-spam
* * *
https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/avoid-email-spam-filter
* * *
https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/how-to-avoid-a-spam-filter-5-rules.html
* * *
https://econsultancy.com/blog/64878-45-words-to-avoid-in-your-email-marketing-subject-lines (plus all the links in “Further reading” at the end of the article)
* * *
Lists of SPAM words:
* * *
https://emailmarketing.comm100.com/email-marketing-ebook/spam-words.aspx
* * *
https://www.mannixmarketing.com/blog/spam-trigger-words
* * *
https://www.simplycast.com/blog/100-top-email-spam-trigger-words-and-phrases-to-avoid
* * *
https://prospect.io/blog/455-email-spam-trigger-words-avoid-2018
* * *
http://blog.automational.com/2016/03/08/spam-trigger-words-to-avoid
* * *
https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30684/the-ultimate-list-of-email-spam-trigger-words.aspx
From Chapter 15 - Building Relationships
Good Questions:
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https://conversationstartersworld.com (This is my favorite. Just list upon list up on list of cool questions.)
* * *
https://blog.hubspot.com/service/rapport-building-questions
* * *
https://www.bustle.com/articles/119084-20-things-to-ask-your-best-friend-to-make-your-relationship-even-stronger
* * *
https://www.mantelligence.com/questions-to-ask
* * *
https://thoughtcatalog.com/sylvie-quinn/2018/04/101-totally-random-questions-that-will-help-you-start-a-conversation-and-also-keep-it-going
* * *
https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrahbrustein/2017/11/19/the-55-best-questions-to-ask-to-break-the-ice-and-really-get-to-know-someone/#4edd5afa3ca1
From Chapter 17 - Re-engagement
Subject line articles:
* * *
https://sumo.com/stories/best-email-subject-lines
https://www.digitalmarketer.com/blog/101-best-email-subject-lines-2014
https://optinmonster.com/101-email-subject-lines-your-subscribers-cant-resist
* * *
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-email-subject-lines-list
* * *
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/03/31/email-subject-lines
* * *
Emojis:
* * *
https://knowledgebase.constantcontact.com/articles/KnowledgeBase/17990-using-emoji-in-an-email-subject-line
* * *
https://econsultancy.com/blog/66043-email-subject-lines-the-best-words-emojis-to-boost-open-rates
* * *
https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/using-emojis-and-symbols-in-email-marketing
* * *
https://emailmonks.com/blog/email-marketing/using-emojis-subject-lines
* * *
https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/study-certain-emojis-in-email-subject-lines-boost-read-rates/443439 (This one contains the gem of info that the poop emoji gets the highest open rate. Discretion is advised.)
From the Afterword
Examples of awesome newsletters:
* * *
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-newsletter-examples-list
* * *
https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/best-email-newsletter-examples
* * *
https://www.business2community.com/email-marketing/13-examples-best-email-newsletters-around-web-01831746
https://reallygoodemails.com (You can sign up for their newsletter about newsletters, like a sort of newsletter-ception.)
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