Why Deliverability Matters with Alyssa Dulin and Melissa Lambert

Explicit content warning

02/16/22 • 39 min

5 Listeners

There’s no better feeling than building a livelihood doing the work you love. For many creators, that means a life of painting, pottery, design, and left-brain thinking. But to succeed as a full-time creator, you have to get technical every once in a while. If you’re not a numbers person and shy away from the analytical aspects of email and business marketing, ConvertKit has a built-in set of technical experts ready to explain.

Enter Alyssa Dulin and Melissa Lambert, ConvertKit deliverability experts and hosts of the podcast Deliverability Defined.

So what is deliverability? In simple terms, deliverability refers to the number of messages reaching your inbox versus the spam folder. Just like the post office, even though a letter or package is marked as “delivered”, that doesn’t always mean it’s sitting in your mailbox ready to be opened. Luckily, there are ways to resolve email deliverability issues and here at ConvertKit, Alyssa and Melissa are pros at helping creators solve those issues and reach the inboxes of their subscribers.

In this episode, Charli, Haley, and Miguel talk with Alyssa and Melissa about why deliverability matters, how to improve your sender reputation, why removing subscribers from your list is actually a great strategy, and how to embrace life’s (and email’s) technicalities.

Key Takeaways

[01:06] - Have you heard?
- [01:46] - Wordle was acquired by the New York Times.
- [04:19] - An upcoming Apple update will turn every iPhone into a form of contactless payment.
- [05:28] - ConvertKit is conducting a survey about the creator economy.
[06:24] - Today’s main topic: Why Deliverability Matters.
- [10:28] - Deliverability means the number of messages that go to the inbox versus the spam folder. Mailbox providers won’t tell you where they place a message so you have to use other metrics to determine your deliverability such as delivery rates and open rate trends.
- [12:49] - ConvertKit doesn’t accept spammers or those with incredibly poor list health to protect the deliverability of other ConvertKit customers.
- [18:39] - Where your emails are placed is often based on your sender reputation. A “sender reputation” is determined by the “positive” and “negative” reactions of the people receiving your emails.
- [20:46] - When recipients engage with your emails (reply, click links, etc.), that’s a positive signal that boosts your sender reputation. Try to be creative with the strategies you employ to encourage engagement.
- [23:26] - Your sender reputation is tied to yourself as the sender as well as your ESP. However, your sending domain as the creator carries the most reputational weight.
- [27:20] - A DMARC record prevents spammers from using your sender domain or “spoofing.”
- [28:49] - Sometimes creators use a verified sending domain to help bolster and authenticate their sender status. To have an account with ConvertKit, you have to use a verified sending domain.
- [32:25] - Remove unengaged subscribers from your list every six months. It’s better to have a small list of highly engaged subscribers than a lengthy list of cold subscribers, for the sake of your deliverability and your bottom line.
[36:11] - Creator callout! Laura Vanagaite is an amazing illustrator and branding expert who recently had some of her illustrations shared by great influencers.
[37:12] - A sneak peek at our next episode.

Quotes

[18:54] - “Your sender reputation is very similar to a credit score. It’s very easy to damage and not as easy to build back up again.” ~ @mel_lambert_

[20:46] - “One thing we’ve been talking about a lot on this season of Deliverability Defined is those creative strategies to increase engagement. There are a lot of different ways you can encourage people to engage with your messages.” ~ @alyssa_dulin

[32:38] - “Keep a clean list. If you have never run any kind of cold subscriber re-engagement, if you’ve never cleaned your list before, that’s a really good place to start. You just want to make sure that you’re sending to the people on your list who are most engaged. And if you aren’t, that can sometimes negatively impact your sender reputation.” ~ @mel_lambert_

Links

Enter Alyssa Dulin and Melissa Lambert, ConvertKit deliverability experts and hosts of the podcast Deliverability Defined.

Key Takeaways

[01:06] - Have you heard?
- [01:46] - Wordle was acquired by the New York Times.
- [04:19] - An upcoming Apple update will turn every iPhone into a form of contactless payment.
- [05:28] - ConvertKit is conducting a survey about the creator economy.
[06:24] - Today’s main topic: Why Deliverability Matters.
- [10:28] - Deliverability means the number of messages that go to the inbox versus the spam folder. Mailbox providers won’t tell you where they place a message so you have to use other metrics to determine your deliverability such as delivery rates and open rate trends.
- [12:49] - ConvertKit doesn’t accept spammers or those with incredibly poor list health to protect the deliverability of other ConvertKit customers.
- [18:39] - Where your emails are placed is often based on your sender reputation. A “sender reputation” is determined by the “positive” and “negative” reactions of the people receiving your emails.
- [20:46] - When recipients engage with your emails (reply, click links, etc.), that’s a positive signal that boosts your sender reputation. Try to be creative with the strategies you employ to encourage engagement.
- [23:26] - Your sender reputation is tied to yourself as the sender as well as your ESP. However, your sending domain as the creator carries the most reputational weight.
- [27:20] - A DMARC record prevents spammers from using your sender domain or “spoofing.”
- [28:49] - Sometimes creators use a verified sending domain to help bolster and authenticate their sender status. To have an account with ConvertKit, you have to use a verified sending domain.
- [32:25] - Remove unengaged subscribers from your list every six months. It’s better to have a small list of highly engaged subscribers than a lengthy list of cold subscribers, for the sake of your deliverability and your bottom line.
[36:11] - Creator callout! Laura Vanagaite is an amazing illustrator and branding expert who recently had some of her illustrations shared by great influencers.
[37:12] - A sneak peek at our next episode.

Quotes

[18:54] - “Your sender reputation is very similar to a credit score. It’s very easy to damage and not as easy to build back up again.” ~ @mel_lambert_

Links

Previous Episode

How Wordle Went Viral (And What We Can Learn From It)

1 Recommendations

You know it, you love it...maybe you’ve never heard of it. Regardless, it’s the first viral trend of 2022 and after a rough few years, embracing something as wholesome as a free word puzzle has felt uniquely refreshing. But what made Wordle the viral sensation that it is? And what’s the best way creators can capitalize on a free service without destroying what made it special to begin with?

Like every success story and every creator misstep, there are lessons creators can learn from the absurd virality of Wordle. From its simplicity and innocence to the big scary question of monetization, this app-less internet game is both fun and a rich topic for discussion amongst creators of every niche.

In this episode, Charli, Haley, and Miguel discuss the wonder of Wordle, why it went viral, how the creator of Wordle can sustain its virality, and what every creator can learn from the success of a free word game taking the internet by storm.

Key Takeaways

[01:07] - Have you heard?
- [01:30] - TikTok is testing a paid subscriber model for creators.
- [02:22] - Instagram is launching subscriptions.
- [06:29] - YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki wrote a letter to the YouTube community with a breakdown of YouTube’s priorities for 2022 and a recap of impressive creator stats from 2021.
[08:33] - Today’s main topic: what can we learn from the virality of Wordle?
- [10:59] - Wordle is an addictive game with no barriers to entry.
- [14:37] - Wordle has given people a lighthearted excuse to check in with one another.
- [15:26] - The sharing function and scarcity of a one-game per day limit also contributed to its virality.
- [18:05] - There’s a compounding effect on the relevancy of something by the size of its adoption. In other words, something can be very fun, but if it doesn’t become embedded within a cultural wave, it won’t take off.
- [18:57] - There’s value in something that doesn’t immediately concern itself with monetization.
- [19:41] - Wordle has a universality to it that creators can apply to their own services.
- [23:54] - Starting a consultancy, including a TiPJAR, and capturing email addresses are great ways to monetize a free service without sacrificing integrity.
[34:31] - Creator callout! Noah from ProvocaTeach is launching a new site and has learned to code.
[35:58] - A sneak peek at our next episode.

Quotes

[17:11] - “There’s something very interesting and special about the fact that this is a thing that’s going viral when the sharing link doesn’t include a link to the project itself. You have to be invested to figure out how to play it yourself.” ~ @charliprangley

[19:49] - “A lot of times we’re talking to creators and we’re asking them to niche down, get really specific to their audience and don’t worry about the size of your niche, and niche down, niche down, niche down. Wordle’s really interesting because it’s totally universal. Everybody talks, everybody uses words, everyone writes. So I guess my lesson for creators is: what’s universal inside your niche? What’s universal inside your small little audience?” ~ @haleyjani

[18:57] - “There’s value in the success of the thing itself and not thinking about the full monetized pipeline. If the creator had thought, ‘Before I release this to the public, what sort of thing can I build around it to make something that makes money?”; that would have made it less interesting to people, it would have created barriers for people, which then would have made it not as viral which then maybe would have made it never take off.” ~ @miguelp.img

Links

Next Episode

How to Be Successful With Brand Sponsorships as a Creator with Justin Moore

2 Recommendations

Creators come to ConvertKit with dreams of doing what they love for a living. That usually means sacrificing 9-5s for passion and creativity. But often creators forget that a lifestyle doing what you love only comes when you learn to monetize that passion and think like a businessperson. While skills like negotiation rarely come naturally, all it takes is a little education to increase your income and experience real creative freedom.

Sponsorship Coach and Founder of Creator Wizard Justin Moore is an expert at helping creators navigate sponsorships and earn a living doing what they love, in the most literal sense. From living without a paycheck gap, navigating paid sponsorships, and negotiating rates, to simply having the confidence to initiate a brand deal, Justin helps people take the leap from aspiring creator to full-time, successful entrepreneur.

In this episode, Charli, Miguel, and Justin discuss the biggest mistakes creators make when it comes to brand sponsorships, what an ideal sponsorship looks like, how to win brands over with confidence, and why you’re never too small to add value and earn money working with the brands you love.

Key Takeaways

[00:58] - Have you heard?
- [01:05] - Snapchat is introducing revenue sharing on ads in creator stories.
- [04:47] - IZEA released their State of 2022 Influencer Earnings. YouTube and TikTok were the top-earning platforms.
- [06:51] - ConvertKit is conducting a survey about the creator economy. Here’s a sneak peek at early survey results!
[07:55] - Today’s main topic: How can creators run successful sponsorships?
- [08:08] - Always ask the brand what the goal of the campaign is. Your pricing should change based on the brand’s goal.
- [08:55] - Brands have three main campaign goals: conversion focused, content repurposing focused, and brand awareness focused. You can charge the most for brand awareness campaigns.
- [14:11] - Creators often negotiate against themselves. Rather than overexplaining your rate, lean into the silence and let brands respond.
- [16:38] - Don’t be reactive with your negotiations. You’re not beholden to the brand’s proposal. You can create your own “packages” with different content and pricing options.
- [21:54] - Be honest with yourself about which sponsorships are a good fit for your audience, be responsive with brands from the beginning, and be flexible if brands occasionally request things outside your contract.
- [28:51] - You have to engage brands at every stage of the creator pipeline. Otherwise, you may go months and months without receiving a paycheck.
- [30:51] - Don’t wait to initiate sponsorships! You have incredibly unique value regardless of your follower count.
- [34:41] - When it comes to working with brands, confidence is key.
[36:59] - Listener shoutout! Krystal Proffitt recently hit 4,000 subscribers on YouTube and got to speak at Podcast Movement University.
[37:40] - A sneak peek at next week’s episode.

Quotes

[13:56] - “There is so much value in the content that you’re creating for brands and you should not just be giving the kitchen sink away for free.” ~ @justinmoorefam

[22:23] - “It’s very very critical that you are honest with yourself that this is going to be a good fit for your audience. If you have a fast money mindset when it comes to working with brands and sponsors and things like that, it’s going to be very difficult for you to maintain an intimate connection with your audience as well as one with brands.” ~ @justinmoorefam

[31:48] - “What I’m here to say to you is that it does not matter how many followers you have for you to actually start working with brands. Because there are so many different ways that you can bring value to those brands.” ~ @justinmoorefam

Links