Don't Let the Inbox Decide What You Read
A few simple steps can help the Substack emails you want reach your inbox.
Hi you all guys, just a small housekeeping note.
First, this came up thanks to Deborah T. Hewitt, who raised a really good point and got me thinking more carefully about how newsletters actually reach readers.
Check this out too:
Readers, I could use your help.
Sometimes newsletters end up in strange corners of the inbox: Promotions, Updates, Spam, or wherever the algorithms decide to send them. If you’d like to keep receiving my posts by email, or the work of any Substack writer you enjoy, there are a few simple things that help:
Move the email into your Primary inbox if it landed in Promotions.
Mark it as “Not spam” if it ended up in Spam.
Add the Substack email address to your contacts.
If you read in the Substack app, check your notification settings and choose email notifications, or both email and push notifications.
Everything will always be here on Substack, of course. But email is still the simplest and most reliable way for writers to reach people, without depending entirely on feeds, algorithms, or luck.
And if you’re writing too, deliverability really matters. Here are a few things that are worth paying attention to:
Maintain list hygiene.
Keep an eye on inactive subscribers and engagement over time.
Use custom authentication settings if possible.
Consider double opt-in instead of single opt-in. It usually leads to a healthier list by reducing fake emails, typos, bots, spam complaints, and disengaged subscribers.
Make it easy for readers to unsubscribe.
Avoid using URL shorteners in emails.
Don’t give up. There’s almost always a way to fix what isn’t working. And if we can’t find one yet, we build one.
Thank you, as always, for reading and being here.
Michael
Helpful links
Reddit discussions: r/Substack
Do you prune your subscriber list?
A subscriber told me they aren’t getting my emails. What should I do?
How do I get my email out of the Promotions tab?
I subscribed to a Substack publication but am not receiving any emails. What can I do?