Opt In ChallengeTry Some Of These Deliverability Tests
The team at Folderly posted a battle card blog about the players in the email deliverability test market. This could be worth your own testing, too. The one Ryan Sager told us about from GMass isn’t on the list for some reason.
I’d love to hear from those of you who use these. Which ones are your favorites and why?
Related: Experts weigh in on why you’re landing wherever you’re landing in Email Deliverability Unfiltered: Gmail Tabs.
Tom May offers some advice for tapping back into your creativity when it feels like it might be running dry. Your Opt In Challenge this week is to try one (or all) of these techniques and be creative. Like, NOW!
Consider A Newsletter Referral Program
Kym Ellis breaks down the types of newsletter referral programs you might want to consider. This week’s Opt In Challenge is to think through what might work for you.
“Referral programs offer the potential to grow your mailing list and your customer base in a cost-effective way — but not all referral programs are created equal. The same type of referral program that worked for the newsletter giants like Morning Brew and TheSkimm might not be the best option for all publishers.
The good news is, getting started with a referral program for your newsletter is easier than you think, and by the end of this article you’ll have a good understanding of three different referral models, and actionable ideas about how to plan your own referral program.”
Promote Your Newsletter On Instagram
This week’s challenge is to consider Instagram promotion for your newsletter and follow some of Piyali Mukherjee’s advice for gaining some traction on that platform (IF it makes sense for your newsletter).
3 Questions That Will Help You Strategize Content
The gang at Digital Marketer has provided three key questions to help you decide what to cover in your email newsletter. If you’re a marketer, they’ll be particularly helpful in figuring out what sort of content you should include in yours. If not, they’re still actually worth looking at.
Your Opt In Challenge this week is to consider these questions (along with mine from the Prologue) now and to set a reminder to return to them at a regular cadence.
This 1-minute segment from Ryan Sager’s Screen Share interview shows how this GMass tool can be used to learn where your emails are likely to land.
Are Spam Trigger Words A Thing Of The Past?
Magan Le’s article on the Litmus blog says that spam trigger words are now mostly a thing of the past. She then dives into what actually impacts deliverability and the steps you can take to improve yours.
Your Opt In Challenge this week is to review her article and Ryan Sager’s tips (video below), which explains how a GMass tool can help you through the testing process.
Audit Your Advertising Spend & Adjust
Rand Fishkin thinks something is rotten in online advertising. In this article he breaks down the dirty math behind why he thinks advertisers pour money into campaigns that yield pretty unimpressive results: higher valuations.
Your Opt In Challenge this week is to audit your advertising spend with Rand’s opinion and ideas in mind. Towards the end he offers some alternative placement options, including email newsletters, which I’ve noticed Ahrefs doing recently.
Have a great week, y’all.
Start Teaching Your Audience to Prioritize Your Newsletter
In this article, Shivam K provides some helpful advice for avoiding Gmail’s less desirable tabs.
Your challenge this week is to read through, take action, and especially do the following:
“You simply send a mail to your engaged list to do one or all of the following:
1. Save your ID as a contact
2. Mark your mail as important
3. Drag your mail from Promotions to Primary tab”
Have you done this with Opt In Weekly? If not, now would be a great time.
Happy holidays!
Adapt Your Email Workflow to be Agile
Download this ebook from Litmus for some pointers on speeding up your email workflows and becoming better at testing and optimizing email performance.
For newsletter creators, this can be further adapted by improving the way you or your team creates each issue and how you look at data (for mine, I look at which categories are performing best over time to then respond to audience insights).
Your challenge this week is to browse this ebook and think through how you can be more efficient and responsive to what your audience wants.
