Hey Reader!

I had a friend in college named Sally. Her rallying cry? “Dump the bum!” A guy isn’t treating you like the queen you are? Don’t think twice. 🙅🏻

It’s kind of like that with your email subscribers. If they're not giving you anything, i.e., opening your mail. they're merely clutter.

If you've got a bunch of these deadbeats on your list, it's time to do some clean up. 🧹🧽

Lest you think I'm being harsh, there are practical reasons for list cleaning. For one thing, it improves deliverability.

The Wizard of the Internet can see how many people are opening your email (creepy, right?) and if that number is low they may decide that you are some kind of faker/scammer/ne’er-do-well and they’ll send your carefully crafted missives straight to spam. 🗑️

And if you’re being charged by the number of subscribers on your list you might be spending money on “readers” who never even open up. 💸

Finally, holding on to non-readers is the definition of a scarcity mindset.

If you find yourself thinking, “well, they haven’t opened an email since 2018 but they MIGHT…” then it’s time to walk up to the mountaintop and take stock of your life. 🧘🏼‍♂️ You are not here to try to sell to people who can’t even bother to OPEN AN EMAIL.

You are here to share your brilliance with people who adore and appreciate you.

No shade; they’re not bad people. They’re just not YOUR people. Trust me, watching your open rate soar after cutting away the dead wood is much more satisfying than having a bigger subscriber number. And much more profitable.

So, now that I’ve convinced you (I have convinced you, haven’t I?) how do you do it?

There are a couple of ways.

If you’ve got a small list, you can just go through your contacts, see who hasn’t opened an email in a long time, and shove them off the boat. 😱

What’s a long time? Well, that’s up to you.

I’d say that if a subscriber has received more than 10 emails, and has never opened a single one, let ‘em go.

If they open them every once in a while you give them a little more leeway. The beauty of this is that you get to decide what number or time period seems right to you.

But don't be too generous. 😁

It’s possible your stuff is going into their spam folder, or they’re one of the many people I’ve encountered who have literally thousands of unread emails cluttering up their inbox. In which case they probably aren’t even seeing them.

Whatever. Don't worry about it, just move on.

If you’ve got a big list, you can set rules or create automations.

I use Kit, which I really like. (That's an affiliate link - sign up through me and I'll receive a small commission at no cost to you.)

They have a referral program, so you can recommend other newsletters and be recommended in turn. This can be a terrific way to acquire new readers - I've nearly tripled my list this way - but the downside is that a lot of people end up subscribing to my newsletter accidentally, or on a passing whim.

An awful lot of them never open a single email. 🤷🏻

I’ve got an automation set up that determines that if someone comes through the referral network and doesn’t open a single email in 30 days, they’re automatically unsubscribed. 👋

Is it possible that someone might have opened an email on the 40th day? Yup. Do I worry about losing out on this potential client? Nope.

Life is too short to stress about what might have been. You could opt for 60 days instead of 30, or whatever makes you feel more comfortable. But I encourage you to make a plan and stick to it.

Don’t second guess yourself in a moment of weakness. Eat a pint of Cherry Garcia and rewatch Heated Rivalry instead. 🍨🏒 🏆

Setting up this type of automation early on is really helpful as it’s hard to do anything like this retroactively. But you can always comb through your subscriber list looking for readers who are shunning your beautiful emails.

Send up a little prayer of gratitude and then delete them. 🙏🏻 It’s better for everyone.

If that feels too precipitous, you could try a reengagement email.

This is a tactic I haven’t used yet myself but I’ve seen it in practice. A reader stops opening your email, so you send them a “Hey, what’s going on?” kind of email. Possibly with an enticement to come back into the fold. 😍

You want to be thoughtful about how you title this one, because if they’ve gotten out of the habit of opening your mail they’ll need something that will get their attention.

This is a great time to use the personalization feature that likely is available on your platform:

➡ {first name}, was it something I said?

➡ I miss you, {first name}!

➡ {first name}, are we breaking up?

You can also use the preview text:

➡ Do you really want off my list?

➡ Open to stay on my list.

➡ Let’s talk it out - open up!

Sweeten the deal with an offer - you can tease that in the preview text as well. Basically you want them to open the email. Then they can opt to stay on the list by clicking a link or replying. ✅

Anyone who doesn’t respond within two weeks is just not that into you right now. 💔

Which does not mean they’ll never be back! I’ve unsubscribed from newsletters and then signed up again. It can happen.

The thing to remember is that your value and the value of your work is not based on this particular person liking your newsletter. I’ve had friends unsubscribe from mine. In fact even my sister unsubscribed, but that’s another story...

What you’re offering isn’t for everyone and the sooner you make peace with that, the better. As Bill and Ted might say, just be excellent to the readers who stick around. ✌️

If going through your whole list feels like a daunting task, break it up! Spend 15 minutes cleaning and then make note of where you stopped. Get back on it and keep at it.

Seriously, you’re going to feel so good when you see that open rate go up. 🥳

That’s the number you should be concentrating on, not the subscriber number. That one is just a vanity metric.🕺

If you feel like you should have thousands of people on your list it’s because you’re seeing headlines like “I went from 30 to 30,000 subscribers in six months!” or some similar malarkey.

Don’t fall for it. Keep writing great emails and work on building your list.

How? I’ll save that for another email. For now, be brave! Be consistent! Reserve your talents for people who appreciate them.

Here's to the good kind of slimming! (No GLP required.)

Julia

​Edith Piaf has no regrets, and neither does this email. Forward it to someone who is tempted to second guess their excellent decisions.

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