Perfect! Glad to hear the promo one worked well. I've thought about doing the same with my other pub now that I've got a couple thousand subs. Might be worth it!
Thanks! I know there are a lot of differing opinions on whether or not to do it (especially given some ESPs purposely mask activity), but I add a ton of filters in to create a list, and make it really easy for recipients to stay in the community.
I’m doing some spring cleaning and want to make sure I’m only sending emails to people that really want to receive them.
I’m removing subscribers who aren’t opening, reading, or otherwise engaging with any of my emails/posts, and my stats show you as one of them.
If that’s true, no hard feelings! We’re still friends. Promise. You don’t need to do anything, and I’ll remove you from the list in a week.
BUT: Hopefully, that’s not true. Maybe I missed something? Maybe you’re reading exclusively on the app? Maybe there’s a ghost in the machine messing with the stats?
I dunno. But if that’s the case, and you’d want to stay a part of this community (and I hope you do!), simply reply to this email and say “I’m in!” or something similar. “
I tried to do this recently and I wanted to email all subscribers but they weren’t all loading and I keep selecting more but it never showed all of them so I couldn’t select all of them. Has this happened to anyone else? I just gave up bc I couldn’t figure out how to fix it
If you select the first 50 on your list, it should then ask you if you'd like to select all (#of subscribers) on your list, and then if you want to send an ad hoc email to all of them.
I can't paste a screenshot in, so hopefully this isn't just me repeating what you've already tried?
OK I think I did select 50 but I don’t know I can’t remember it’s just that I have 12k subs so to keep hitting load more felt like it was going to take forever
Holy shit! That seems like a topic for Substack support because they really should up their backend game and make it easier for people like you who have THAT many!
I don't blame you! You shouldn't have to do that 50 at a time, though. An option to select everyone on your list should be showing up immediately after clicking the box to select the first 50.
Yes it can be annoying because you have to keep hitting the "load more" button until your entire list shows up. Substack's back end could use some work. But once you've loaded them all you can scroll back to the top and hit "select all" with the proper filters engaged.
Great info! Love Natalie’s ask. I just got a bunch of suspicious subs. How can one determine if they’re bots? One email address was all numbers so I emailed them and asked to let me know why they subscribed. Luckily I was able to send from a scrambled email address.
That is incredibly interesting. I can definitely see how that could be very useful. What a lovely feature. It's like I've said before, I think most of us are barely scratching the surface of what this site can potentially do. Which is why Publications like this, that can help point us in the direction of new possibilities, are so valuable! 😎
Since my posts are usually heavily illustrated with photos, I turn off sending to subscribers when I publish and instead send an email with a short blurb.
I even added a short video to my latest post, knowing it won't get hung up on anybody's email server.
I just discovered this last week when I emailed my paid subscribers. Your idea of sending an email to our most engaged free subscribers to offer a discount is a great idea. I'm about to do another fundraising push in a couple weeks and this is making me rethink how I want to do that!
I knew you could publish a post to your own Substack site and not send it out as a newsletter or have it show up on the app. I usually do this when I am creating a series TOC and add to it as I create the subsequent posts. Then link the TOC in the series chapter posts.
I knew this feature was possible. And, I really appreciate the real life examples.
Kristi! I did NOT realize this and have wondered if there was a work around of sorts. Thank you! 🙏
PS BEYOND fab to chat with you yesterday. 😄
Perfect, I'm glad at least one person found this useful 😁
And I agree! I could have sat half the day chatting with you lol. So much fun and great ideas swirling around.
Yessssss! Its amazing what kind of synergy happens when 2 people of like minds start talking… 🦄
I feel like if I ever showed up for a weekend in Vegas we'd both takeaway so many new business ideas.
Ummmmmm #letsplan THIS!!!
I’m totally down. I just need to get my friggin finances in order first!
I have done this for a couple of different reasons:
1. To send a "promo" email to my most engaged free subscribers.
2. To send a "do you still want to hear from me?" email to my *least* engaged readers ahead of pruning my list down.
FWIW, both worked well.
Perfect! Glad to hear the promo one worked well. I've thought about doing the same with my other pub now that I've got a couple thousand subs. Might be worth it!
That number 2 is a really good tip.
Thanks! I know there are a lot of differing opinions on whether or not to do it (especially given some ESPs purposely mask activity), but I add a ton of filters in to create a list, and make it really easy for recipients to stay in the community.
Would love to see a template Kevin!
Of the emails I send to cold subscribers?
Here’s the one I used last time:
“Hi There—
I’m doing some spring cleaning and want to make sure I’m only sending emails to people that really want to receive them.
I’m removing subscribers who aren’t opening, reading, or otherwise engaging with any of my emails/posts, and my stats show you as one of them.
If that’s true, no hard feelings! We’re still friends. Promise. You don’t need to do anything, and I’ll remove you from the list in a week.
BUT: Hopefully, that’s not true. Maybe I missed something? Maybe you’re reading exclusively on the app? Maybe there’s a ghost in the machine messing with the stats?
I dunno. But if that’s the case, and you’d want to stay a part of this community (and I hope you do!), simply reply to this email and say “I’m in!” or something similar. “
Saving this thank you! If you have a promotional one I would love to see that as well!
How did you KNOW?! I needed this info today. Thank you!
Jedi mind trickery? 🤣🤣
May the force be with you.🤣
I tried to do this recently and I wanted to email all subscribers but they weren’t all loading and I keep selecting more but it never showed all of them so I couldn’t select all of them. Has this happened to anyone else? I just gave up bc I couldn’t figure out how to fix it
If you select the first 50 on your list, it should then ask you if you'd like to select all (#of subscribers) on your list, and then if you want to send an ad hoc email to all of them.
I can't paste a screenshot in, so hopefully this isn't just me repeating what you've already tried?
I really wish Substack would enable image attachments in comments.
Same!
...and the irony of a writer wishing he had a picture to help explain something isn't lost on me, either. lol.
🤣🤣
OK I think I did select 50 but I don’t know I can’t remember it’s just that I have 12k subs so to keep hitting load more felt like it was going to take forever
Holy shit! That seems like a topic for Substack support because they really should up their backend game and make it easier for people like you who have THAT many!
I don't blame you! You shouldn't have to do that 50 at a time, though. An option to select everyone on your list should be showing up immediately after clicking the box to select the first 50.
Yes it can be annoying because you have to keep hitting the "load more" button until your entire list shows up. Substack's back end could use some work. But once you've loaded them all you can scroll back to the top and hit "select all" with the proper filters engaged.
This is really helpful Kristi! I've thought about wanting to email my subscribers privately before, but I've never said it out loud 😅
I did this for the first time this week—to send the zoom link to for our monthly call to my paid MG playground subscribers
Excellent!! It's a great and easy way to get it done.
Great info! Love Natalie’s ask. I just got a bunch of suspicious subs. How can one determine if they’re bots? One email address was all numbers so I emailed them and asked to let me know why they subscribed. Luckily I was able to send from a scrambled email address.
That is incredibly interesting. I can definitely see how that could be very useful. What a lovely feature. It's like I've said before, I think most of us are barely scratching the surface of what this site can potentially do. Which is why Publications like this, that can help point us in the direction of new possibilities, are so valuable! 😎
You were not the only one to convert to paid from that email! I think the conversion rate was about 6%.
Wow, that's impressive! That's way higher that my whole pub conversion rate!
Since my posts are usually heavily illustrated with photos, I turn off sending to subscribers when I publish and instead send an email with a short blurb.
I even added a short video to my latest post, knowing it won't get hung up on anybody's email server.
That's a great way to do it! I've never heard that before but kudos to you for thinking smartly.
When my gmail choked on one of my photo heavy posts I asked the Substack Help Chat what to do and that's they suggested.
I just discovered this last week when I emailed my paid subscribers. Your idea of sending an email to our most engaged free subscribers to offer a discount is a great idea. I'm about to do another fundraising push in a couple weeks and this is making me rethink how I want to do that!
Thank you. I didn’t know you could do that! 🙏
Just discovered this yesterday, actually. Handy!
I knew you could publish a post to your own Substack site and not send it out as a newsletter or have it show up on the app. I usually do this when I am creating a series TOC and add to it as I create the subsequent posts. Then link the TOC in the series chapter posts.
That's a creative use for it. I wonder if anyone else has done the same?
The info I needed! Thank you so much!