I understand the need to remove inactive subscribers on paid newsletter platforms (like Kit, for example) but when it’s at no cost to you to leave them on your list, what’s the benefit of removing them? Other than knowing you’ve got a ‘more engaged’ list?
good question. the two main benefits are 1) increased opening rates, 2) more engaged community. especially if you think about working together with branding companies, they look at opening rates, so that’s a strong point for sure
Why does opening rate percentage matter? It seems to me the important number is how many opens total you’re getting, and if that number is growing. And I don’t understand what “more engaged community” means. Those who “engage” don’t know what the open % is, nor do I think it would matter to them if they did. I’m just trying to get an understanding of what the real hard boiled benefit is. If I have proton mail subscribers or app subscribers who read my email but don’t click links, I don’t want to delete them. They might be forwarding the content, or become paid supporters, etc. So I see clear downside to, and don’t understand what the claimed upside is. What am I missing?
opening rates matter for example for SEO as some search engines consider that, or also if you want to have brand deals/sponsors and they ask you for your opening rates.. so if you want to be more visible/earn, it does matter. but of course, it’s always depending on your goals
Interesting. Do you know how search engines would know the open rate of your emails? Or is it just something you’ve heard? Doesn’t make sense to me, exactly. And it might be the case that a sponsor would ask about open rates, but that would be bad judgement on their part. If I have to choose between someone who gets 10,000 opens at a 75% open rate and someone who gets 20,000 opens at a 50% open rate, I’m obviously going to go with the latter because that means my ad gets to twice as many eyeballs.
so the SEO thing you are right, that's just something I read here that other writers said (actually also in these comments), so I cannot really vouch for that. The other part with the sponsors is something I experienced myself though - unfortunately, they have their metrics as well and if you talk to their marketing team that's still something they do look for. that also makes sense to me because often if you have a higher opening rate it can also signal (not in all cases) that you have a more trust-base with your readers. Well, I made this experience once, so maybe not generalisable. But those are my 2 cents on that topic :)
Thanks for the insights. I suppose I still think that one's trust base with readers is better measured by the quantity, not percentage, of regular opens. But i get the optics. Would be nice if there was a feature to send out an email to possibly-inactive subscribers asking them if they want to remain subscribed.
The only problem I see is that substack has emailed deliverability issues
And that's a big problem because a lot of people will open in the Substack app as well
And also getting rid of these email addresses, take them away from using them down the road with kit or another ESP.
someone who's pretty well known on Substack told me that they did not open a certain person's emails for over a year and then that person sold a $2500 course and they bought it now see if they had deleted their email then they wouldn't have gotten the thing about the course that they wanted to buy
So I guess you just have to weigh out what you wanna do. I don't think it's gonna hurt the numbers that much. And the algorithm isn't perfect anyway and we do know that there are deliverability issues.
that's just what I've learned because I had heard people were doing this and I went in and did it after about six months of being on Substack and I deleted 19 emails. I know that's not a lot but those are 19 email addresses. I don't have anymore. Except for the fact that I printed them all out before I deleted them so I can manually add them to another ESP.
hm, good question. not that I know of & at least at the moment I also don’t think so.. I think at this point it’s mostly likes, restacks, comments etc..
Woot! Just dumped 94 subscribers that were filtered using your criteria. Here's to focusing on solid positive engagement and less on numbers. I'm so glad I found your suggestions.
There is a problem with this. Many email systems, especially iCloud, don't show if an email has been opened. Some emails also go into spam folders, making it more difficult to know who is a genuine subscriber.
You have probably deleted many good subscribers!
It makes me wince when I see many on Substack Notes doing subscribe for subscribe as they might on social media. It's pointless!
thanks for this, Roland. but that’s why I chose the other 4 filters as well and I double checked 10% of them. they were either almost non-existing accounts anymore or were last active on Substack like months ago. does not help me with my mission here, so I’d do it again :)
In theory, this should help boost your email deliverability. With a regular email list, when you scrub your unengaged subscribers, your open rate will go up. The "Google gods" like this and it's a good signal. That's always a good thing.
This is great Claudia, and exactly the setup I was looking for! Do you send your inactives one more email to give them one more chance, or if they fall in these parameters, it can be safe to assume it's okay to "cut them loose" as it were?
I figured if they have not opened the last 40 e-mails and were not active at all, I can cut them loose. would have been too much manual work for me to then filter out individuals etc. but maybe I’ll try it one day :)
I've tried this method, asking them to click on a link to confirm. They still wanted to be subscribed and just had a few people do so. When I checked back later, they never opened any future emails.
I recently cleaned my email list. Like you I let the new subscribers stay if they haven't read anything.
I like how you filtered things. I'll try your method next time.
great, let me know how it went :)
I cut about 30 people. Some of them had never opened one newsletter. A few of them didn't look active on Substack at all.
I definitely plan to do this again in a few months.
nice, it feels good, doesn’t it?
Yes it does. It makes my read ratio look a lot better. That may not mean a lot but it makes me feel good.
I did it. I cut 400 no-shows. Ouch. But not really that sorry
wow, well done!! 🤩
I understand the need to remove inactive subscribers on paid newsletter platforms (like Kit, for example) but when it’s at no cost to you to leave them on your list, what’s the benefit of removing them? Other than knowing you’ve got a ‘more engaged’ list?
good question. the two main benefits are 1) increased opening rates, 2) more engaged community. especially if you think about working together with branding companies, they look at opening rates, so that’s a strong point for sure
Why does opening rate percentage matter? It seems to me the important number is how many opens total you’re getting, and if that number is growing. And I don’t understand what “more engaged community” means. Those who “engage” don’t know what the open % is, nor do I think it would matter to them if they did. I’m just trying to get an understanding of what the real hard boiled benefit is. If I have proton mail subscribers or app subscribers who read my email but don’t click links, I don’t want to delete them. They might be forwarding the content, or become paid supporters, etc. So I see clear downside to, and don’t understand what the claimed upside is. What am I missing?
opening rates matter for example for SEO as some search engines consider that, or also if you want to have brand deals/sponsors and they ask you for your opening rates.. so if you want to be more visible/earn, it does matter. but of course, it’s always depending on your goals
Interesting. Do you know how search engines would know the open rate of your emails? Or is it just something you’ve heard? Doesn’t make sense to me, exactly. And it might be the case that a sponsor would ask about open rates, but that would be bad judgement on their part. If I have to choose between someone who gets 10,000 opens at a 75% open rate and someone who gets 20,000 opens at a 50% open rate, I’m obviously going to go with the latter because that means my ad gets to twice as many eyeballs.
Hi Christian,
so the SEO thing you are right, that's just something I read here that other writers said (actually also in these comments), so I cannot really vouch for that. The other part with the sponsors is something I experienced myself though - unfortunately, they have their metrics as well and if you talk to their marketing team that's still something they do look for. that also makes sense to me because often if you have a higher opening rate it can also signal (not in all cases) that you have a more trust-base with your readers. Well, I made this experience once, so maybe not generalisable. But those are my 2 cents on that topic :)
Thanks for the insights. I suppose I still think that one's trust base with readers is better measured by the quantity, not percentage, of regular opens. But i get the optics. Would be nice if there was a feature to send out an email to possibly-inactive subscribers asking them if they want to remain subscribed.
Helpful, thanks
very welcome, glad it helps!
Had no idea you could do this. Thanks for the info.
very welcome :)
As someone who generally reads substack via the app vs in email, I’m glad you didn’t remove us non-openers!
🙌 yes, for sure :)
The only problem I see is that substack has emailed deliverability issues
And that's a big problem because a lot of people will open in the Substack app as well
And also getting rid of these email addresses, take them away from using them down the road with kit or another ESP.
someone who's pretty well known on Substack told me that they did not open a certain person's emails for over a year and then that person sold a $2500 course and they bought it now see if they had deleted their email then they wouldn't have gotten the thing about the course that they wanted to buy
So I guess you just have to weigh out what you wanna do. I don't think it's gonna hurt the numbers that much. And the algorithm isn't perfect anyway and we do know that there are deliverability issues.
that's just what I've learned because I had heard people were doing this and I went in and did it after about six months of being on Substack and I deleted 19 emails. I know that's not a lot but those are 19 email addresses. I don't have anymore. Except for the fact that I printed them all out before I deleted them so I can manually add them to another ESP.
This is so helpful. Yes, I found the filter recommendations especially helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you. This is valuable information.
thank you, Lisa!
Helpful for sure
thank you! :)
I discovered the filter options, which are many, a while ago. But I never got around to doing it. Thanks for your article, I will now.
By the way, do you have any indication that if most subscribers show activity your newsletter will be rewarded by Substack?
hm, good question. not that I know of & at least at the moment I also don’t think so.. I think at this point it’s mostly likes, restacks, comments etc..
Can you confirm that your newsletter improves its performance if the majority of subscribers show activity?
no, I cannot confirm this really. would not know how to test that 🤷♀️
Ok, I thought maybe you have some info from Substack team. Nice to speak with you.
no, but I could ask in the next office hour! maybe someones knows :)
Fine! Let me know!
Woot! Just dumped 94 subscribers that were filtered using your criteria. Here's to focusing on solid positive engagement and less on numbers. I'm so glad I found your suggestions.
Well done Page, glad this helped 🥰
There is a problem with this. Many email systems, especially iCloud, don't show if an email has been opened. Some emails also go into spam folders, making it more difficult to know who is a genuine subscriber.
You have probably deleted many good subscribers!
It makes me wince when I see many on Substack Notes doing subscribe for subscribe as they might on social media. It's pointless!
thanks for this, Roland. but that’s why I chose the other 4 filters as well and I double checked 10% of them. they were either almost non-existing accounts anymore or were last active on Substack like months ago. does not help me with my mission here, so I’d do it again :)
What is your mission here?
to get rid of people that are inactive & to increase my opening rate
Hitting like so you don't purge me 😂
😂🙈
Thank you Claudia. Great idea in the long term 👍
thank you, Clare!
In theory, this should help boost your email deliverability. With a regular email list, when you scrub your unengaged subscribers, your open rate will go up. The "Google gods" like this and it's a good signal. That's always a good thing.
💯
This is great Claudia, and exactly the setup I was looking for! Do you send your inactives one more email to give them one more chance, or if they fall in these parameters, it can be safe to assume it's okay to "cut them loose" as it were?
I figured if they have not opened the last 40 e-mails and were not active at all, I can cut them loose. would have been too much manual work for me to then filter out individuals etc. but maybe I’ll try it one day :)
I figured that was the case, but makes sense, and figured I would check! Thanks as always!
I've tried this method, asking them to click on a link to confirm. They still wanted to be subscribed and just had a few people do so. When I checked back later, they never opened any future emails.