Is it Time to Clean Your Email List?

Key Concepts

• Email deliverability: The ability of an email to reach its intended recipient's inbox.
• Email open rates: The percentage of recipients who open a particular email.
• Email Service Provider (ESP): A company that offers email marketing services (e.g., Flowdesk, Kit, MailerLite).
• Shared sending IPs: When an ESP uses the same IP address for multiple customers' email sending.
• Domain authentication: Verifying that the sender of an email is authorized to use the domain it's sent from.
• Email list cleaning: Removing inactive or unengaged subscribers from an email list.
• Email spoofing: Falsifying the sender address in an email to appear as if it came from someone else.
• Inactive subscribers: Email subscribers who haven't opened or engaged with emails in a long time.

Email Open Rate Decline and Potential Causes

The speaker, Latasha, discusses a significant drop in her email open rates, from 35-40% to around 5% within six months. This decline has negatively impacted her business, affecting sales, YouTube viewership, and AdSense revenue.

• Initial Excuses: Latasha initially attributed the decline to factors like holiday fatigue, the new year, or the economy.
• Melissa Rogers' Experience: An email from Melissa Rogers, detailing her reasons for leaving Flowdesk, prompted Latasha to investigate further. Melissa cited issues with Flowdesk's shared sending IPs and their impact on email deliverability.
• Shared Sending IPs and Reputation: Flowdesk uses shared sending IPs, meaning that if one user on an IP engages in spammy behavior, the entire group's sending reputation can be affected.
• Domain Authentication Issues: Latasha encountered problems authenticating her domain (latashajames.com) with Flowdesk, leading to further deliverability issues.

Flowdesk's Response and Recommended Solutions

Flowdesk reached out to Latasha and provided a document with recommendations to improve her email deliverability.

• Inactive Subscribers: Flowdesk identified that a significant portion of Latasha's list (25% haven't opened for a year, 42% haven't opened for six months) was inactive.
• Email List Cleaning: Flowdesk recommended performing an email list clean to remove unengaged subscribers. This involves sending a re-engagement email and segmenting those who don't respond to exclude them from future newsletters.
• Domain Authentication: Flowdesk highlighted the importance of domain authentication and the issues caused by Latasha's domain change and authentication errors. The mixed signals from using different domains (latashajames.com vs. jamesandpark.com) were confusing email service providers.

Exploring Alternative Email Service Providers (ESPs)

Latasha is exploring other ESPs, particularly Kit, as a potential alternative to Flowdesk.

• Kit's Pricing: Kit's pricing for Latasha's list size (over 40,000 subscribers) would be $266 per month, a significant increase from Flowdesk's $19-$35 per month.
• Fresh Slate Effect: Flowdesk explained that switching to a new ESP can provide a "fresh slate" with email service providers, potentially leading to a temporary increase in open rates. However, if poor email practices continue, the deliverability issues will likely return.

Arguments and Perspectives

• Responsibility of Tool Choices: Latasha emphasizes that business owners are ultimately responsible for their tool choices and should not solely rely on recommendations from others.
• Referral Systems and Incentives: She acknowledges that many SaaS products have referral systems, which can incentivize creators to recommend them.
• Importance of Email Deliverability: Latasha stresses the critical importance of email deliverability for her business and the need to address the declining open rates.

Actionable Steps and Recommendations

• Perform Email List Cleaning: Latasha is currently cleaning her email list by segmenting and excluding inactive subscribers.
• Address Domain Authentication Issues: She is working with Flowdesk to resolve the domain authentication errors.
• Test Alternative ESPs: Latasha is testing Kit through a free trial to evaluate its features and deliverability.
• Request for Audience Engagement: Latasha asks her subscribers to reply to her emails if they enjoy receiving them, as this signals to email service providers that her emails are trustworthy. She also encourages unsubscribing for those who no longer want to receive her emails.

Notable Quotes

• "At the end of the day, as a business owner, everything is your decision."
• "Permission to change my mind and kind of release myself of the obligation I guess, of, of making sure every tool never changes."
• "If I'm losing 30% of my audience, I'll pay pretty much whatever to get them back."

Synthesis/Conclusion

Latasha is facing significant challenges with her email deliverability on Flowdesk, leading to a sharp decline in open rates and a negative impact on her business. She is actively addressing the issue by cleaning her email list, investigating domain authentication problems, and exploring alternative ESPs like Kit. She emphasizes the importance of email deliverability best practices and encourages viewers to make informed decisions about their tool choices. The situation highlights the dynamic nature of online business and the need to adapt to changing circumstances.