Immediate Engagement Improves Email Delivery

Today we’re going slightly off topic. Instead of focusing on how to get more subscribers on your list, I’m going to share something simple you can do that will help make sure subsequent emails will get delivered to your readers' inbox. I’m sure you’ll agree that that’s pretty important.

With the advent of the Google promotional tab and primary inbox, it has gotten harder and harder to reach people who sign up for our lists with their Gmail address. Plus you may be surprised how large of a percentage of your readers use Gmail.

Don't Knock the Technique

It’s not just Gmail, this simple little technique will help you stay out of spam filters for any type of email service while helping you make a connection and engage with your subscribers on a more personal level.

It’s very simple to do. The idea is to get your readers to reply to your emails as soon as they sign up. When someone first signs up for your list, they are very interested in what you do and what you have to say. They’ll go look for that confirmation email in their promotional tab or even the spam folder if needed. In other words, you have their attention.

How To Get Your Readers To Engage With You Immediately

Your goal is to get your readers to hit reply and email you, ideally right after they get your first email or two. The best way to accomplish this is to ask them a question or invite them to share their input. What question you ask, or what prompt you use, is entirely up to you. Think of something that would be helpful to you in addition to helping you engage with your readers.

It also helps to make it relevant and don’t be afraid to change it from time to time. For example, if you’re a food blogger and share recipes on your site and in your emails, you could ask your readers what their favorite spring, summer, fall, or winter dish is. Or how about a favorite dessert. Make it easy for them to reply and answer you.

Another way to approach this is to start with the topic of your lead magnet. Let’s say your lead magnet is “5 Signs That Your Tomato Plants are in Trouble”. It’s targeted at tomato gardeners. You could ask them what types of tomatoes they grow, if they grow them indoors or outdoors, or even what their biggest struggle is when growing tomatoes.

All of these questions are highly relevant to the lead magnet, and thus very relevant to what your readers are interested in right now. They are also easy to answer and give you some great information that you can then use to create new content for your site and your emails.

The Rundown

As the questions come in, take the time to quickly answer each of them. This one on one engagement builds a lot of trust and helps ensure that your emails get delivered to your readers’ inbox.