Hey,

Sorry for the delayed email this week – I had chumps to pwn.

You might remember that the last time we talked about email we spoke about crafting the perfect reader magnet, and some common mistakes authors can make, but also some next-level tricks for those looking to really slay with email.

Today we are going to explore something which might not be the hottest of hot topics (according to my topic-o-meter at least), but which is absolutely crucial: all the ways in which your lovingly crafted reader magnet can… not end up in readers’ hands.

There are a swathe of technological pitfalls here, and most writers make several of the mistakes I’m going to detail here. Indeed, I’ve made many of them myself at one point or another. Some of them suuuuuuuuuck and can put a sizeable hole in your email operation, out of which will leak all those precious email addresses.

Seriously, I’ve lost thousands of subscribers by making one of these mistakes in particular. (That's Mistake #5 down below which experienced authors might want to skip to - seriously, you are probably making this mistake also.)

I'm not talking possible-future subscribers. Actual readers who signed up to my list with the hopes of getting my reader magnet.

Thousands of actual readers to whom I broke a promise, because they never received their free book. (I can put an actual dollar value on that mistake, but my therapist said I’m not ready yet.)

Does that sound like I’m being overly dramatic?

Think about it this way: delivering that reader magnet is the first real communication you have with that reader. If that email goes to Spam or Promotions – or is otherwise not received and seen and opened – then there is a reasonable chance that subscriber is lost to you. Possibly forever. (Especially if they are mad that they didn’t receive the free book they were promised.)

Your relationship with every new subscriber is in an extremely fragile state when they first sign up. Their Gmail account doesn’t know you and starts off from a position of scepticism. It’s looking for any excuse to dump your email into Promotions, or even Spam, and is very sensitive to a number of things we will go through in a moment – things authors regularly do, unfortunately.

If everything is working correctly, however, and you avoid some of the classic errors below, you will generally see a high open rate on that first email in your welcome sequence – i.e. the one delivering your free book. It’s normal for open rates to decline after that, but your job is to limit that as much as humanly possible – and your success rate with that endeavour will depend on a bunch of technical wotsits, as well as the quality of your content, of course.

In other words, if you have all the technical bits and bobs lined up correctly, and your emails are fun or interesting, then your open rates should remain high over time.

Those classic mistakes:

1. Attachments

This might sound obvious but it’s a common mistake among email marketing beginners – sending the promised freebie as an attachment. Don’t do it under any circumstances or else it’s highly likely that Gmail will flag your emails as Spam. You need to use a dedicated service for delivering your reader magnet – one which will also get your book onto reader devices without generating dozens of tech support emails to you (I promise you, this is not something you want!).

​I recommend BookFunnel for the job, which costs just $20 a year when you are starting out and does all sorts of nifty things. Although there are others writers are fond of such as StoryOrigin.

And while we are on the topic, definitely don’t use Gmail to send your newsletter – for the same reasons. You will get flagged as a spammer once your email volume goes over a certain amount. Use a dedicated service like ConvertKit or MailerLite – both of which have free plans when you are starting out.

2. Images

Too many images will almost certainly drop your email in Promotions. The threshold varies and this can be a moving target for boring technical reasons, but I generally find I can get away with one or two – sometimes three or four. You can test for yourself, but minimizing as a general policy is clever.

Experienced authors might know all that, but can include incorrectly formatted images. You need to watch but the size and shape of your images. It will depend on the service (and exact template) you are using, but I generally find 640px wide works well for MailerLite and 800px wide is better for ConvertKit.

Remember to also check the size. I generally shoot for 50kb or less for my images, which is almost always possible (covers might be bigger though).

Use .jpg rather than .png, and use this free compression tool to shrink everything down without making it look like a portrait which has been left on a radiator.

3. Links

Same goes for links. I can usually get away with a few and more than that often drops the email into Promotions. That isn’t as serious as getting dropped into Spam, but I do often see a 10% hit in open rates when something does drop into Promotions, so it’s worth avoiding that fate where possible.

One thing with links can drop you into Spam so be careful: using link shorteners. Unfortunately, they tend to be very popular with spammers as they allow nefarious types to hide where they are really sending you, so avoid them in emails whenever possible.

(I realise this may create a problem for some of you who use shorteners to minimize links – like with many things, there is a trade off here, but I would personally advise more links over a shortener because you really, really want to avoid Spam whereas avoiding Promotions is important but not necessarily mission-critical, if you like.)

4. Funky formatting

I like a well-placed ALLCAPS as much as the next gal, but too much of that can drop you into Promotions. Same goes with red text, tons of exclamation marks, or anything else… funky. Basically if you are doing some “trick” with your formatting to grab attention, it’s probably a bit iffy.

5. Spammy words

Experienced authors need to particularly watch this one, as it is the trickiest of all – and everyone falls foul of this regularly, myself included. Services like Gmail scan your messages and subject lines for “spammy” words – many of which can be entirely innocent. Too many spammy words, and you email can drop into Promotions – or even Spam. You need to be especially careful with subject lines.

Here’s one error that cost me a giant pile of subscribers (a mistake you might be making as well): using the word “Free” in your subject line.

Yes, you can see increased opens when you use it, but you will also probably drop into Promotions for a whole bunch of subscribers who won’t see your email at all. This is another one of those pesky trade-offs and you need to put on your magic writer pants and come up with a smarter way of getting the same open rate boost without actually using the word free. (Do this well enough and you will see an even bigger increase than using the word “Free.”)

For a while, I used the word “Complimentary” which might not be as clickworthy, but did avoid the pesky Promotions tab… for a while. Problem is that spam filters are constantly evolving to deal with the new tactics that black hatters constantly come up with, and we are all collateral damage in that permawar. It is what it is.

But we are writers. We can drum up new words.

Of course, the likes of Gmail don’t publicize what they consider to be spammy words – we can only try and deduce same through testing. Luckily, this is a well plowed field and there are all sorts of possible/probable lists out there. Some are better quality than others but I personally think this list from Active Campaign is solid.

Some common spam words authors routinely use:

• sale
• free
• complimentary
• deal
• 100% free
• click here
• order now
• please read
• buy direct
• discount
• offer
• unlimited
• trial.

Yeah, I know.

I’m not saying you can’t use these words in an email. Clearly, I just used them in an email. Although if the above list sends this email into spam, that might be the most ironic thing since it rained on Alanis Morisette’s wedding day.

I am saying this: don’t use them in subject lines.

You can get away with a bunch of spammy words in the body of an email as long as you don’t go totally overboard. But using even one spammy word in a subject line can cause it to drop into Promotions – or possibly even worse, depending on how you are doing with the other things mentioned above.

Moan about it if you like, but if you want to get that reader magnet delivery email into as many hands as possible, then you need to be aware of this stuff, and deal with it.

With a few extra steps – that will become second nature pretty fast – you can start your relationship off with readers on the right foot. Not just in a real-world sense, but also in a deliverability sense – and both of those will really pay off over time.

Dave

P.S. Hammock music this week is Kishi Bashi covering Talking Heads with This Must Be The Place.