It keeps happening.
Every time Dylan and I ask people, “What’s your most important newsletter metric?” They always say the same thing.
It’s not opens.
Or clicks.
Not even subscriber count or your unsubscribe rate.
Those matter, but not as much as this one metric.
It’s replies.
Yep, I’m talking about the number of replies you get from your emails. Dylan and I went deep into the why, what, and how of getting more replies in our latest podcast episode.
But if podcasts aren’t your thing, I break down the biggest takeaways from the episode here.
Why Replies Matter More Than You Think
So, yes, replies really do matter. And they’re not important just because they can help you qualitatively know if you’re doing a good job. Here are a few reasons why we love getting replies!
Deliverability
Hopefully, you’re aware of this already, but if not, replies are possibly the #1 deliverability hack.
A reply is a trust signal to email clients like Gmail, Outlook, etc.
That’s why it’s so important to ask for a reply to your Welcome Email. That reply will help your emails continue to land in their inboxes. It’s not foolproof, but it’s an excellent bet.
Engagement signals
A reply can’t happen without a successful delivery, open, and someone reading your thing (they’ve at least read your subject line before replying).
Which means a reply is proof that those things are happening.
That’s also why we love getting replies that much.
It doesn’t necessarily mean they loved it, because you can get (hopefully constructive) replies as well. But it’s a signal nonetheless.
Mental Health
Stick with me here, this one’s big.
Getting a reply to something you’ve shed blood, sweat, and tears over (like your latest newsletter edition) is confirmation it was worth it.
The reply helps validate all the time & energy you put into it—because people are reading it, and it’s resonating! That’s both a momentum booster and massive relief.
You’re not just publishing into the void. People are actually reading.
PS – if you love an email from a creator, make sure to hit reply. There are loads of us putting out free content like this and a quick “this was great! Thanks for spending the time!” goes a long way.
Idea Generation & Opportunities
Replies can come in all shapes and sizes. But they can also surface deeper questions, challenges, or even new product ideas.
I got a ton of content ideas thanks to over 200 replies I got from an email recently, and I’ll share exactly what I did in a bit.
When To Prioritize Replies
The short answer? All. The. Time.
I think people focus way too much on getting replies on social posts and not enough via email.
And one of the best opportunities you have for getting a reply? The Welcome Email.
Your Welcome Email will be the most opened email you’re likely to ever send. It often gets 70%+ open rates even with larger email lists.
And if we have the opportunity to reach most of our readers right out of the gate, we should definitely be focused on getting them to reply!
Instead of confusing your reader with multiple CTAs and links in that email—focus on ONE goal with your Welcome Email: getting a reply.
It can be an answer to a question like:
“What is the biggest challenge you’re facing right now?”
Or as simple as asking readers to reply with “Hi (your name)” — that’s what I do in my Welcome email.
The trick is that the simpler you make it, the more likely the reader will reply. Asking a question that requires more thought will negatively you’ll impact your reply rate.
BONUS TIP: Respond to your subscribers’ replies!
Some readers will expect a response, while many won’t. Either way, if at all possible, I’d recommend responding. You never know what kind of relationships, content ideas, or even clients can come from replying to your emails.
And most importantly, you’re setting the precedent that you’ll reply to future responses, too.
You’re conditioning your readers to send you more replies in the future, which builds trust, content ideas, and hopefully even better deliverability.
Okay, so aside from the Welcome Email, how can we get more replies? Here are a few fun ideas.
4 Ways To Get More Replies to Your Emails
We’ve already covered the lowest-hanging fruit: just ask for a reply!
So if you’re sitting here trying to count the total number of replies and don’t even need a second hand, you probably should try asking.
But asking for a reply doesn’t always work. Even more, if you’re asking for a reply with every single edition, it’ll fade into the background and get ignored.
1. The Incentivized Reply
Check out how Katelyn Bourgoin makes replies to her welcome email a near-guarantee.
First, she prompts you on her Thank You page. Not to reply, but to open her Welcome Email for a “surprise.”
Then, in her Welcome email, she asks for a reply to get a “surprise gift,” as she calls it.
She is incentivizing people to reply to the email in a non-spammy way.
And of course, she’s piqued her subscribers’ curiosity by not exactly telling them what they’re getting, making it more likely they reply. Chef’s kiss. 😘👌
Note: Katelyn has since changed her welcome email to ask people to fill out a poll instead of replying, but this example worked for a long time, so I like sharing it.
2. The Seven Emotional Triggers
Another great way to get a reply is to spark an emotion.
You see it in social media all the time with posts that go viral, but creators seem to ignore emotions when writing their newsletters.
There’s a huge opportunity to spark emotion in our readers and get some response. But how?
Well, let’s look to the pros for some advice.
Shaan Puri popularized a framework that someone shared with him. They told Shaan that there are only 7 emotions that encourage someone to share a piece of content.
Those 7 emotions are simplified with this framework:
- LOL (Made me laugh)
- OHH (I learned something)
- WOW (That’s amazing/impressive)
- AWW (That’s so cute)
- YAY (That’s great news!)
- WTF (That makes me mad/shocked/upset)
- FINALLY (Finally someone said it)
Shaan aims to hit on at least one of those 7 emotions when creating content.
Why?
Because it sparks a powerful emotion that encourages them to engage. In Shaan’s case, he’s talking about what gets people to share content.
But the same emotions can be used to drive replies to our newsletters. And if you can spark someone to reply AND share your newsletter? That’s icing on the cake, my friend.
3. The Pattern Interrupt Email
I sent a “pattern interrupt email” a few weeks ago. Completely by accident.
You see, I was feeling pretty uninspired and not confident about my work. If you’ve seen the graphic of the entrepreneur rollercoaster, I was at a low point.
So I decided to send a random email to my list, seeing if there was anything I could help with. I genuinely wanted to hear from people, and felt like it might help me improve my mood and make sure I’m actually helping people.
I wrote up an email and asked one simple question:
“Is there anything you’re stuck on or curious about right now?”
What happened next was unexpected.
That email got over 200 replies. (I’m still trying to answer each one!)
Looking back, I could think, “well, duh, did you expect 3 replies?!”
Honestly, I didn’t think that far ahead before hitting the send button. I just had an idea and went with it.
And man, did that change my mood – I didn’t have time to be feeling down anymore, I had emails to reply to! 🙂
So why did it work so well?
- Pattern Interrupt. It was a contrast to my longer weekly emails, it included no images or branding, and the subject line was clear and a little more personal.
- There was one CTA: a question. The goal of this edition was to crowdsource content ideas. So no need to cram more details, links, or other distractions. Only one CTA. And it worked.
- Simplicity. I asked for current struggles and potential content ideas; I didn’t promise or guarantee I’d answer, but I think this one-question approach really helped.
While this pattern interrupt email “worked”, it also had a downside.
I got the most unsubscribes I’ve ever gotten from one email.
I’m not sure if people thought it was AI, or I was being disengenuous, or what. But wow, I was not expecting that side of things.
Thankfully, I didn’t realize this number until the next day.
Again, I had this idea to send that email 10 minutes before I did. It wasn’t part of some grand plan or anything. Just genuine curiosity.
I hope this goes without saying, but this is not a strategy to overuse.
Please don’t overdo this for the “sake of engagement.”
4. The Gamified Reply Strategy
There are a few examples of newsletter creators who used gamification to get more replies.
Mario’s Puzzler Strategy
The first one is from the very first Deep Dive I ever wrote.
Mario Gabriele drove engagement with his The Generalist newsletter in several ways. But one way that stuck out was with his Puzzler section.
He poses a riddle and then prompts his readers to answer—by replying. Then to add more incentive, he shouts out the first reader who replies with the correct answer.
Simple, fun, and smart.
Toby’s “The Button” Game
Want 71% open rates and 24% click rates? Then check out this one that Dylan put me onto.
Toby Howell launched ‘The Game’ newsletter back in January 2023.
His newsletter content was really good, but Toby knew that good content alone didn’t guarantee engagement.
So he created a little game to optimize opens, clicks, and replies that was both unique and super smart.
At the end of his first edition, he shared “The Button” and an offer to his readers. If you correctly guess how many people clicked that button, you win $10.
He’s doing 3 super important things here:
- He’s getting people to reply with their guess
- He’s tempting them to click the button
- And then he’s priming them to open the next edition. If you replied and clicked the button, you’re going to be way more likely to open the next email he sends you.
And it worked.
At the end of the next edition, he shared all of the stats. He got 138 clicks on that button!
He then shared even more numbers to help subscribers with their next guess. But for us, it’s fun newsletter data.
If we do a little math – 71% open rate on 784 subscribers, that’s around 556 opens.
And 138 clicks on 556 opens is 24%.
A 24% click rate is pretty epic.
(Unfortunately, Toby never shared how many replies he was getting. But I’m sure he got more and more replies as the prize pool grew.)
This one might feel a bit gimmicky – and it is. But as long as Toby paid out the prize, I’m here for it! It was creative and fit the vibe of the newsletter.
After all, his newsletter was called “The Game,” so including an actual game is pretty hilarious and gets people talking.
And replying.
Katelyn’s Fri-Yay Poll Giveaway
While this doesn’t directly drive replies, it does drive lots of engagement.
We mentioned Katelyn earlier, but this strategy is another gem you could use.
Katelyn used to send out one email a week about buyer psychology, taught in a fun way. But earlier this year, she rolled out a second edition of the newsletter with a fun little game inside of these new “Fri-Yay” emails.
She’ll show you a real-world example of a company using buyer psychology to make their products better. Here’s a recent example from ChatGPT:
These are the exact types of things she shares in her “regular” newsletter editions each week, so it’s like coming full circle.
Once she tells you the story, she asks you to choose which buyer psychology technique this is showcasing.
The cool thing about this strategy is that she’s incentivizing you to pick an answer in the poll question. You’re not just learning and moving on — she’s helping you reinforce these concepts each week.
Pick an answer and get entered to win a $129 prize.
But this gets better 🙂
Once you make your pick, you get taken to a “confirmation” page that doubles as a sales page for the product you just entered to win.
Bing. Bang. Boom.
If Katelyn wanted to drive replies instead, she could just as easily make this a CTA to respond with the right answer.
While that would cap the chance to drive readers to a sales page, you’d still be driving replies—which are valuable for all the reasons we already talked about.
Get That Reply
If I’ve done my job here, you’re bought into why replies matter and have some ideas of how to get more of them. Now go get ’em!
And if you liked this, more good news!
I’ve got a whole vault of stuff like this. It’s called The Growth Vault. I built it for newsletter creators who want quick, tactical, high-leverage strategies to grow and optimize their email lists.
