JANUARY 16, 2024

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Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

New Email Rules

Sending your newsletter from a Gmail.com address?

Growing your newsletters to thousands of subscribers?

If you answered yes to either question, Google and Yahoo would like to have a word.

This February, they are changing the rules for bulk senders. You’ll need to take a few steps to ensure you follow them. But the good news is that these new rules – and your adherence to them – will better ensure your emails arrive in the inbox of your subscribers.

Change your email sender domain from Gmail.com. First, the free Gmail account won’t work anymore as a bulk sender. To remedy this, acquire a domain name and set up an email address as the new sender. Make sure to let your audience know about the change since it could appear differently in their inbox.

Onto the other new requirements for bulk senders. While Yahoo doesn’t quantify bulk senders, Google says it’s anyone sending over 5K messages a day to Gmail addresses. No matter your subscriber count, it makes sense to do these updates so your emails don’t trigger any red flags in their systems.

Strengthen your email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. OK, I know that alphabet soup probably sounds imposing to entrepreneurs who aren’t techies. Google and Yahoo offer sender guidelines, but so will your email database service (i.e., ConvertKit, Mailchimp, Constant Contact). They are all eager to help legitimate email senders.

Spam rates should never exceed 0.3% and ideally be less than 0.1%. Take steps to ensure your subscribers don’t mark your newsletters or other emails as spam.

Make it easy to unsubscribe. Don’t beg a subscriber to stick around. Let them click a single button that’s easy to find. And drop them from your distribution list right away. If you make it difficult to unsubscribe or delay the effect, the subscriber is more likely to mark your email as spam.

Use the free Google Postmaster Tools to help. It provides dashboards on Gmail delivery errors, spam reports, feedback loops, etc. It also can monitor your spam rate for Gmail accounts.

Implement two-factor authentication for new subscribers. This task may reduce the number of people who sign up and become actual subscribers. But it will ensure your list is made up of truly interested people who aren’t likely to mark the emails as spam.

Every six months or so, scrub your subscriber list. If someone hasn’t opened an email in six months, send them a last-chance email series. Let them know since they haven’t opened your emails in six months, you’ll remove their name from the list if they don’t click on a yes-keep-my-subscription link.

Now you know the new rules are good for content entrepreneurs like yourself. You may see your open rates rise by taking steps to authenticate your distributions and create a good subscriber experience to thwart unwarranted spam notifications.

Helpful Resources:

• ​Google Email Sender Guidelines​
• ​Yahoo Sender Hub​
• ​Google Postmaster Tools​

– Ann Gynn

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Entrepreneur: Helena Bottemiller Evich

Biz: Food Fix ​

Tilt: Food policy news and analysis

Primary Channel: Newsletter (6K)

Other Channels: Website, X (29.9K), LinkedIn (3.3K)

Time to First Dollar: 1 month

Rev Streams: Paid subscriptions

Our Favorite Actionable Advice:

• Spin off your expertise: Helena covered food policy for Politico and a trade publication for a decade before she quit and launched a content business on that topic. Her subscriber growth has come from her professional contact base and referrals.
• Start with a paid strategy: She sent the twice-a-week newsletter for free the first month. Then, she charged $500 a year for the Tuesday newsletter while keeping Friday free.
• Be patient: You are going to run into people, even years after you launched, who have no clue you’re doing something new. Don’t be discouraged by this, or take it personally. Embrace the opportunity to gain a new subscriber.
• Take breaks: If you feel burnout creeping in, take a break. Be transparent with your audience and tell them you are interrupting the publication schedule. They will understand.

​Read the longer Helena Bottemiller Evich story.​

Know a content creator who’s going full tilt? DM us. Or email tilt@thetilt.com.

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• ​6 Ways To Rethink Your Content Business (Content Inc.)
• ​The Water Polo-Playing Squirrels Episode (This Old Marketing)
• Let’s chat at 12 p.m. US EST Tuesday on LinkedIn for Tilt Your Business: A Weekly Mastermind for Content Entrepreneurs.
• Join your fellow serious content creators at the Content Entrepreneur Expo May 5-7, 2024. Registration now open!​

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