Latest / The Newsletter Podcast with Fexingo: Substack, Beehiiv, and Email Newsletter Business / Why Newsletter Creators Are Killing Their Own Growth
Transcript
- Lucas: Look, I have been tracking newsletter performance data for the last few quarters, and there is one metric that keeps me up at night. It is not revenue per subscriber. It is not even total subscribers. It is the silent killer of newsletter engagement, which we are calling the trust decay loop. Luna: That sounds ominous. Is this about those creators who hit one hundred thousand subscribers and then watch their open rates drop by half overnight? Lucas: Exactly. And it is not just about volume. It is about the quality of the relationship eroding because creators treat email like a broadcast channel instead of a conversation. We see this pattern repeatedly with mid-tier newsletters that pivot too hard into paid advertising or aggressive lead magnets. Luna: So they trade intimacy for scale? That feels like a classic startup trap, but applied to personal media. Lucas: It is exactly that. Let us look at a specific case from earlier this year. A financial newsletter creator named David, who had a steady five percent open rate on a list of fifty thousand people. He decided to launch a daily AI trend briefing to capture the hype cycle. Luna: And did it work initially? Usually, these pivots give a quick spike before the crash. Lucas: It worked too well for three weeks. His list grew by fifteen percent, and his open rates jumped to eight percent. But then the content became generic. The subject lines got clickbaity. And suddenly, his spam complaints started ticking up. Luna: I remember reading about that. The deliverability issues were severe. Did he realize what was happening until it was too late? Lucas: He realized it when his inbox placement dropped below sixty percent. That means forty percent of his emails never reached the primary inbox. They went straight to promotions or spam folders. For a business that relies on direct reader access, that is catastrophic. Luna: It is terrifying. You spend years building that direct line, and you can lose it in a month because you chased a trend. Lucas: The thing is, most creators do not understand how email providers calculate sender reputation. It is not just about bounce rates anymore. It is about engagement velocity and negative feedback signals like mark as spam clicks. Luna: Right. So if people stop opening, or worse, actively complain, the algorithm punishes you. It is not a punishment, it is just the system trying to protect the user experience. Lucas: Precisely. And here is the counterintuitive part. The creators who survive this are not the ones with the biggest lists. They are the ones who prune their lists aggressively. They remove inactive subscribers to keep their engagement scores high. Luna: That feels counterproductive though. Why would you want to reduce your number? Isn't size always better for advertisers? Lucas: Not if those subscribers are dead weight. In fact, having a smaller, highly engaged list is worth more than a bloated one. Advertisers and sponsors now look at engagement rates, not just raw numbers. A list of ten thousand people with a twenty percent open rate is infinitely more valuable than a list of one hundred thousand with a two percent open rate. Luna: That makes sense. It is like a garden. If you let weeds take over, the good plants starve. You have to weed out the bad soil. Lucas: I love that analogy. But the execution is hard. Most creators are terrified of losing subscribers. They think every unsubscribe is a failure. But actually, an unsubscribe is a signal that the content no longer matches the subscriber's needs. Luna: Or that the frequency is wrong. Maybe they just want weekly updates, not daily noise. We talked about frequency in episode two oh two, but this goes deeper. Lucas: It does. It is about alignment. When a creator starts chasing viral topics, they alienate their core audience. The core audience subscribed for a specific voice or perspective. If you dilute that to chase views, you lose the trust that made them subscribe in the first place. Luna: So the solution is not to grow faster, but to grow smarter? To curate the audience rather than just accumulate it? Lucas: Yes. And this brings us to the practical side of list hygiene. Creators need to implement regular re-engagement campaigns. If someone has not opened an email in ninety days, you send a final value-packed email. If they still do not engage, you remove them. Luna: That is a bold move. It requires confidence. Most people would rather keep the ghost subscribers than risk dropping their total count. Lucas: It does require confidence. But the math works out. By removing inactive users, your average open rate rises. Your sender reputation improves. Your emails land in the primary inbox. And your revenue per subscriber increases because you are talking to people who actually care. Luna: I am curious though. How do you handle the emotional side of this? Seeing your list shrink feels like losing friends, even if they are just email addresses. Lucas: It is a real psychological hurdle. But you have to remember that the people who stay are your true believers. They are the ones who will buy your course, read your book, or support your Patreon. Those are the relationships that matter. Luna: That is a helpful reframing. It shifts the focus from quantity to quality. From vanity metrics to value metrics. Lucas: Exactly. And speaking of value, if today was actually useful to you, the way these stay ad-free is listener support. Buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, if these conversations help you navigate your own marketing decisions, consider supporting the show directly. Lucas: It keeps the research deep and the analysis honest. Thank you for considering it. Luna: Back to the data. What about the technical side? Can platforms like Substack or Beehiiv help with this pruning process automatically? Lucas: They provide the tools, but the strategy is manual. Most platforms allow you to segment subscribers based on engagement. You can create a segment for 'inactive for ninety days' and run a suppression campaign. Luna: So you do not just delete them quietly. You give them one last chance to opt back in? Lucas: Ideally, yes. Or you send a win-back email. But if they do not respond, you archive them or delete them. The goal is to keep your active list healthy. Think of it like cleaning your house. You do not throw everything away, but you do clear out the clutter. Luna: I think many creators avoid this because they fear backlash. But honestly, subscribers respect transparency. If you explain why you are cleaning the list, they might appreciate the effort. Lucas: That is a great point. Communication is key. You can announce that you are focusing on quality over quantity. Frame it as a benefit to them, not a problem for you. Luna: Like saying, 'I want to make sure every email I send is something you actually want to read.' That feels very respectful. Lucas: It does. And it reinforces the brand promise. You are curating content, not just blasting information. That distinction matters in a crowded market. Luna: Let us circle back to David, the financial newsletter creator. Did he eventually fix his deliverability issues? Lucas: He did, but it took six months. He cut his list by thirty percent. He stopped the daily AI brief. He returned to his core analysis. And slowly, his open rates climbed back to seven percent. Luna: That is a painful lesson. Thirty percent of your audience gone, just to save the rest. Would you recommend that level of drastic action? Lucas: Only if the damage is done. For most creators, preventive maintenance is better. Regularly review your engagement metrics. Segment your list quarterly. Keep the signal strong. Luna: So the takeaway is not to wait for the crisis. It is to build systems that prevent it. Hygiene as a habit, not a reaction. Lucas: Exactly. Treat your email list like a portfolio. Rebalance it regularly. Cut the losers. Double down on the winners. It is boring, but it works. Luna: Boring is good. Boring is sustainable. I think that is the best advice we could give to any creator feeling the pressure to grow at all costs. Lucas: Growth is important, but not at the expense of the relationship. Because without that relationship, you have nothing. Luna: A simple truth, but easy to forget when the metrics start climbing. Thanks for keeping it real, Lucas. Lucas: Always. Now, the question is, how clean is your own list? Are you pruning, or just letting it grow?