Bonbonica Swampscott, MA

Lesson 4 of 7

Set up your list properly

This is the least interesting lesson and the one that decides whether any of the others work. Half an hour, once.

A magenta card reading Set up your Subscribers List in white serif type

Start here

Nobody reads an email they never receive

Deliverability is not a marketing topic. It is plumbing, and it either works or it silently does not.

Every inbox provider decides whether to trust you before it decides whether to show you. That decision is made on technical signals you set up once, plus a behavioural record you build over months.

The good news is that the setup is a checklist. The part that takes discipline comes later, and it is mostly just not doing stupid things.

Four rules

Do these and you will be fine

In order. The first one is the one people skip and the one that causes the most damage.

Send from a subdomain

Not your main domain. Something like news.yourdomain.com. If your business email runs on Google Workspace, this is what keeps a marketing mistake from taking down the address your clients write to.

Authenticate it

Your email tool gives you two or three DNS records to add. This is the single biggest factor in whether you land in an inbox at all.

Only people who signed up

Never upload a list of contacts who did not ask. Not even people you know. Complaints are what destroy a sending reputation, and they are almost impossible to undo.

Keep unsubscribe visible

Someone leaving quietly is far better than someone marking you as spam. Hiding the link is how you turn a small loss into a permanent one.

Why the subdomain

Because your business inbox is not worth the risk

This is the part worth understanding rather than just following.

If your domain already sends email through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, it already has an SPF record. A domain is only allowed one. Authenticating your main domain means editing that existing record by hand, and getting it wrong stops your business email from working.

A subdomain gets its own separate record. You add, you never edit, and nothing that already works can break. It also keeps your marketing reputation separate from the address your clients write to, which matters more the longer you send.

Set the reply-to address to your normal email. That way replies land in the inbox you actually read.

Before you send

Write the email that delivers the guide

This is the first thing a new subscriber ever gets from you. Do not make it a receipt.

Prompt: write my delivery email

Write the automated email that goes out the moment someone signs up for my free guide. Before you write it, ask me these questions one at a time and wait for my answer each time: 1. What is the guide called, and where will it be linked from? 2. What is the one thing you want them to read or do first? 3. What do you want them to reply and tell you, if anything? Then write the email. Keep it under 150 words. Rules: - Say hello like a person, give the link, and point at the one thing to do first. - Ask them to reply with something specific. Replies are the strongest signal an inbox provider can see, and they are how conversations start. - No exclamation marks, no "excited to have you on board", no bullet lists of what is inside. - Plain sign-off with my name.
Open Claude Open ChatGPT

Send it to yourself first, at a Gmail address and a non-Gmail address. If it lands in spam, your DNS records are not right yet.

Where this goes

Now the machine works

Guide, page, list, delivery. From here on, every new signup is handled without you touching anything. The only thing missing is people.

The full sequence sits in the free 7-Day Content Engine guide. If DNS is the part that makes you nervous, it is a normal piece of what web design and SEO work involve, and you can always ask me directly.

Your task before lesson 5

Sign up through your own form as if you were a stranger. Twice, with two different email providers. Confirm the guide actually arrives.

The seven lessons

Read them in order, or jump to the one you are stuck on

  1. 1 What to give awayPick the one thing worth handing over for free.
  2. 2 Write it in two pagesDraft it in one sitting, using a five-part shape.
  3. 3 The page that collects emailsOne page, one job, and what to leave off it.
  4. 4 Set up your list properlyYou are here.
  5. 5 Tell people it existsWhere to put the link, and how to keep mentioning it.
  6. 6 One thing, six placesTurn a single idea into a week of content.
  7. 7 Sell what you knowCharge for the deeper version, with nothing monthly.