New Newsletter Host, with a Behind the Scenes

New Newsletter Host, Who Dis?

I don't expect anyone to remember this, but when I started my newsletter I used Mailchimp. I was generally happy with them, and honestly would have stayed with them except that I learned about things like delivery rate.

For whatever reason, not all newsletter hosts are equal in the eyes of spam filters, so some have better successful delivery rates. I don't recall the difference, but it was something like Mailchimp had a 95% success rate while Mailerlite had a 97% success rate. Which 2% isn't much, granted. But one day when my email list is in the thousands, that 2% could, in theory, add up. 

So I made the switch. Both were free at my level, so there was no reason not to I figured. 

I should have factored on the 'Bob Luck' factor though. 

Because in typical Bob Luck, nine months after I switched Mailerlite started charging a month fee for accounts of my size. I actually went in and culled a bunch of emails who had never opened, but it wasn't enough to drop me below the paid threshold.

So I knew I wanted to switch, but honestly this hit at a super busy time for me. I really didn't have the time to do the amount of research that I like to do when making a switch like this, before the bill date came. So I paid for a year, then vowed to get off Mailerlite before my year was up. 

I settled on EmailOctopus. There are a couple of reasons:

• It has an octopus in the name. I like octopuses. I have a octopus/kraken/cthulhu tattoo on my leg. My mascot for my game design company is a trio of octopuses. They're neat.

• Everyone was recommending them.

• They are free. 

Pretty much the trifecta! So I made the switch. There were a few steps involved here:

• I exported my email list from Mailerlite to a .csv file, then uploaded it to EmailOctopus.

• I had to validate my domain. This was kinda complex, due to me using both a webhost and a domain host which are separate. It would have been easier if I used the same for both. But basically 

• I built an automation that triggers when folks sign up, letting them know they signed up.

• I set up an embed that will popup on my website when folks come, asking them to sign up. I know folks hate popups. I know it. And when I was using Mailerlite I actually turned that off. But fuck me, it does actually work. People were signing up that way.

• I built a template that I am really happy with. You could probably do this with Mailerlite, but I could never find the spot to do it. Instead I would just copy the previous months email and tweak it. But EmailOctopus made this super simple, and I dig it.

So I got all that done, and a few days ago I sent out my first newsletter. Obviously you are of course already subscribed to my newsletter, and you have seen it. But just in case, you can see it by clicking HERE. And if you aren't subscribed, shaaaaaaame. There was probably an annoying popup that asked you to already.

But I thought I would take a moment to show you some of the behind the scenes data I get when I send an email like this. Keep in mind this is the first one I've sent, and it's only been out for a couple days I think. So with that understanding, let's look!

Ok, so here is the big picture: I had 581 folks on my list when I sent it, and since 9am on Saturday 297 opened it, 7 clicked on links I had in the email, and 3 folks unsubscribed. So I have a good open rate (I've been told that you want above 40% at least), but my click conversion isn't all that great. Which means I need to do better on making clicking a link more appealing I reckon! As for the unsubscribes, I never really had this problem with Mailchimp. But since moving to Mailerlite, and now EmailOctopus, ever email gets a few unsubscribes. I don't know why. I am hoping its because they are doing a better job on delivery, and I'm weeding out folks who never really wanted to be signed up. But in reality, I am likely just doing something wrong. Maybe once a month is too much for them. Or maybe something about my layout is unappealing. Who knows, but feel free to reach out and give me your thoughts. 

Not much to say here. I do think it's neat that a lot of folks opened it as soon as they got it. That felt good. 

And here are the stats on those clicks. So this shows all the links you could have clicked in this email. To be fair, some of them are the default ones that go at the bottom, connecting you to my social media. But I was pleased that two folks went to check out my buddy J.E. Pittmans kickstarter, and someone clicked the link to see the episodes of Page Numbers. Otherwise it was folks checking out stuff on my site. Good stuff!

So that's that! One email sent, three subscribers lost, but maybe some folks clicked something that made someone some money. Maybe that someone was me, maybe it was my friends. Who knows!

I do know that I have some plans on how to grow my list, that I will probably detail out in another post.

Cheers!