βRead in browserβ
A few weeks ago, I flipped a switch on a new setting inside of my Kit account that will now filter out supposed bot opens.
And the results were...unsettling.
From one week to the next, my open rates PLUM-MET-ED. By nearly half! π±
As much as I recognize that open rates are wildly inaccurate and they've become more of a vanity metric, it's still a kick to my ego.
And it speaks to just how disconnected marketing metrics can be from the signs that that you're marketing is working.
Josh Spector, who recently moved his 30,000+ subscriber newsletter behind a paywall, put it well on this LinkedIn post last week:
Iβm obsessed with knowing whatβs real.
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Thatβs harder to decipher than ever in a world increasingly designed to obscure it.
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Social media is filled with inflated impressions, AI comments, connection requests from people who just want to sell you something, and followers who never get shown your posts.
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And newsletters - once a bastion of βtruthβ - are now flooded with bot clicks, fake subscribers, and people who joined your list without even realizing it because someone else βrecommendedβ you in a popup window they didnβt read.
This is exactly what happened to my client Chelsea, a queer sex therapist & social worker, before she hired me to overhaul her email marketing setup into something consent-based that supported her business growth.
When we started our work, she had a segment of over 100 people who had taken her quiz, "Am I Gay Or Not?" but hadn't received a single email from her.
This was without her doing any active promotion of it, by the way. Sounds pretty great, right?
Except when I actually looked at those subscribers, it quickly became apparent that many of them were fake.
(As in the "email addresses" were super offensive and gross.)
So we cleared out the obviously fake ones, turned on double opt-in going forward so people had to take action to prove that they had actually signed up, and sent the remaining subscribers a simple "do you actually want to hear from me?" email. Anyone who didn't click, got removed.
In the end, about 85% of her original quiz takers were removed from her list.
But here's the part I actually want to tell you about.
Last week, Chelsea sent out a newsletter to a different segment of her list to share about an incredible milestone in her person (sharing with her permission):
"It actually worked. This week, someone became a paying coaching client because of a quiz I made over two years ago."
When Chelsea built the quiz back in 2024, she started bringing people in. But until she had a way to nurture the real people and filter out the fake signups, none of it mattered.
They were just email addresses - many of them junk - accumulating in her Kit account.
So this year, we built the missing piece: an automated system that runs without her thinking about it (and filters out the fake signups).
And it paid off!
And that, right there, is what is truly magical about email marketing.
That someone can be Googling at two in the morning, "Am I gay?", take a quiz that affirms their feelings, and receive an automated series of emails that makes them feel seen and understood.
That's what we need to be aiming toward.
Not the vanity metrics of number of subscribers or open rates, but having a simple, consent-based email marketing system that allows you to reach real people who are looking for your expertise.
Take it one step at a time,β
Bev
Newsletters you might've missed last month
βmy epiphanyβ
βcadence calibrationβ
βcompounding trust (guest post)
What I've been listening to & reading
I just completed Advika and the Hollywood Wives by Kirthana Ramisetti (highly recommend!) and am halfway through On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah (predictable and the characters are a bit flat).
Both are totally random reads that I found in my local lending library.
I got about 80 pages Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham, and realized that was an interesting but unnecessarily stressful read.
Cool conversations I've had
βAs I recently shared on LinkedIn, "The best part of having an online-based business? Meeting in-person with people you've only previously met online."
I got to host a fantastic in-person meetup with Aneisha Velazquez, Meghan Stevenson, Meg Brunson, and Maura Madden. Our 90-minute scheduled meetup ended up going for nearly three hours!
Here's their info:
Done-for-You Kit & Email Marketing Strategy Services
Or if you're ready to work together, fill out this form. β
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Power Hours
Get an hour of my eyes & brain for email marketing strategy and/or tech support:
4 3 spots available for the week of August 24
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