I had something else planned to send you today. You'll get that next week, so don't worry! But I got sidelined by a comment in an email service provider's FB group that had me all riled up.

Here's the tea.

The Original Poster asked if anyone could help them figure out why their deliverability had suddenly tanked.

The dedicated support person in the group responded with a few standard deliverability guidelines, make sure you have Google Postmaster set up, oh and you'll need to cull your list.

Cue the comment section implosion. All of a sudden, everyone was having the same problem. And no one wanted to remove subscribers. One commenter said something to the tune of, I've worked too hard to get my thousands of subscribers and there's no way anyone is going to make me remove them.

When I first started email marketing, I thought there was just ☝️one right way of doing things.

You know—the way every online marketing 'celebrity' made it look: ✨Effortless. 📦Standardized. 📈Scalable.

But after relentlessly building my list to emulate what I'd learned (expand, expand, expand), take what I knew and share it with potential clients, wash, rinse, repeat, I realized something important:

​👉Cookie-cutter doesn’t cut it. ​

👉Bigger lists don't equal bigger bank accounts.

👉If I’m doing it the same as everyone else, and not seeing results, why would you hire me?

It’s not what I want—and more importantly, it’s not what you want from me. So I made some intentional decisions about how I run my business, deliver my work, and show up.

Here’s how I build quality lists and systems—and why I do it that way on purpose:

🧩 1. Focus on list-building activities that hold value for my readers. No exceptions. No 300-wide list-building promos unless you're at the very, very beginning of this game, and even then, you can find better results with different strategies.

This slow build does not always feel good for clients. In fact, it feels terrifying. But email is a game of chess, not checkers. You're thinking 5 moves ahead, often months and years down the line. Email isn't social media. It's brand building, slow growth and high yields once you get comfy with that.

📅 2. If you start to see a decline in your metrics, you need to cut. And no, I don't care if Reader A emails you to ask why you're not sending her emails anymore. Truly think about it. Is it a handful who email you or is list that huge of a problem? Chances are, it's one or two readers and you quietly put them back on and move on with your day. If they're not engaging and clicking, you have to create emails that tackle that problem. And cut the dead weight.

I'm not going into the technical reasons for this because that's an entire course but trust me when I say getting those readers back into seeing your emails is so freaking hard. And you have better things to do with your time and money. And yes, this is true, and actually even more so, for the lists that don't charge per subscriber. The bloat will kill your conversions.

This is my method and I can back it up with data. I won't bend on it. So, if you book an audit with me, get ready for section #2 to be about list culling possibilities.

🤝 3. You have to partner with authors who have the exact same audience. Do your due diligence. Don't be shy. Ask for a profile. Look at covers. Read reviews. It's a waste of time and energy just to build partnerships if the subscribers you're going to onboard are only there to get free stuff and then leave. Again, I'd rather have a small list that spends than a large list that costs me money and I don't earn out on.

🎯 4. You have to learn how to segment. Deeply. Targeted emails are the only way forward in 2025. It's just too crowded inside an inbox. I'm leaving it at that. Segment. Every single email.

🌶️ 5. Finally, the size of your list does NOT equate to the worth of your books or you as a writer. You will get there. I promise. A big following doesn't equal value to you. Quality over quantity. We all know it, but why do we all ignore it when it comes time to plump up our list with readers who never open or click? Say no, so you can scream YES when sales start to move from your emails.

Bonus tip: When you ask a professional for help and the answer annoys you, it's likely because you are deep in the tip 5 trenches. Ask yourself again: why is it so important to me to have a giant list?

Take it from me. I manage some lists that are well over 100K subscribers and they have the same challenges you do. If not more. Quality lists matter. Google is getting super aggressive with this. More and more of you are ending up in the spam folders than ever before because of the new gates Google, Yahoo and Apple have created. You have to learn the game in order to win.

TL;DR? I don’t do things the same way everyone else does and sometimes you disagree with my methods. And if you’ve ever worked with me, you’ve likely felt the difference. But we're bravely creating business best practices in 2025 and that includes a healthy, high-converting email list. Are you in?

See you inside your inbox,

Holly

PS Direct selling emails are not the emails you know and love. They are a different kettle of fish and require a completely different hook to catch a conversion. I'm releasing modules as I build Klaviyo For Authors. So far, we have modules one and two complete and ready for you to get started with. This week, module three will come online too! Want to learn how to use this powerful direct selling email tool? Grab it now on pre-order and save $110!