JANUARY 24, 2025

Welcome to The Tilt, the newsletter for content entrepreneurs from Tilt Publishing. Together, we’re redefining what it means to be a publisher.
Read about the latest hit from Tilt Publishing’s newest author below.

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How To Craft a Personalized Welcome Mat

You work hard to get people to subscribe to your email lists and sign up for your content products.

Too often, though, content entrepreneurs’ next step is to put up a proverbial sign, “Please seat yourself,” abandoning newly committed audience members who must find their way in your place of business.

That’s a mistake. Instead, act like a maître d’ — welcome your new guests and show them how to get the most out of their experience with your content business.

And that all starts with the welcome email. It can be the most valuable communication you ever send. InboxArmy reports:

  • 74% of subscribers expect a welcome email immediately after signing up.
  • Open rates average 68% or better.
  • Click-through rates are four to five times better than other email types.
  • Almost half of email-driven sales are generated from automated welcome emails, according to EmailTooltester.com.

1. Don’t use the default welcome: Email subscription platforms have a default welcome email. It’s written generically and is designed to confirm that the person’s signup has been processed. Don’t use it.

Customize the welcome email for your business and subscriber.

2. Make introductions: Let the new subscriber get to know a little bit about you and why you created this business. Even better, let them see you. Newsletter creator Chenell Basilio says good emails include a welcome video from the sender.

Invite the recipient to let you know about them. Include a short survey or ask them to reply to the email (just make sure the address works and you check the account regularly). Asking questions can produce helpful audience research and let new subscribers know their input is valued (and there is a person behind the email).

3. Give the tour: Onboard the subscriber by letting them know what to expect with your content product. For example, a newsletter publisher would detail the frequency, delivery time/day, and content lineup. An online course provider would outline the curriculum as well as how to access the classes. You can’t provide too many details. (That said, don’t expect everyone to read every word. Some will likely come back and ask questions that you have already answered in the welcome email.)

If your site or content product is very detailed, do a video tour so they can see exactly what you’re talking about and how to navigate the platform.

4. Call for action: What do you want the new subscriber to do? What would the new subscriber want to do? Answer both those questions and identify where the answers overlap. Those are the possibilities for your must-include call to action.

The CTA could simply invite the recipient to consume relevant content now or ask them to buy a content product. Just make the request clear and easy to execute.

Dan Oshinsky of Inbox Collective cites a report showing that a significant portion of revenue earned from a new subscriber occurs in the first 30 days. If you opt to ask for a sale, consider including a discount code or incentive with a deadline to get the new subscriber to act immediately.

Caveat: Don’t go overboard with CTAs. It’s OK to include more than one as long as you don’t turn the email into CTA after CTA after CTA.

5. Go beyond the body: Pay attention to the sender, sender email, subject line, and preview. Frankly, these bits and pieces are even more important than the body of the email. After all, it’s what the recipient sees first.

Have you ever received an email from “[email protected]”? Nothing is as unwelcoming as “do not reply.” Establish an email address with your name (make it different than your working email address) or at least a friendly generic name – hello@ is better than donotreply@. You can also edit the sender’s name so it doesn’t match the email address. Modify it to reflect your and/or your brand’s name.

Remember to pay attention to the subject line and preview text. Sure, these people signed up, so they should expect an email. But that doesn’t mean you can exude your brand personality and helpful information in the subject line.

Chenell illustrates the difference between bad and good subject lines:

  • SUBJ: Welcome to our newsletter (bad)
  • SUBJ: You’re in! Here’s how 1440 works (good)

If the subject line sets the tone, the preview provides a few words that explain the email’s purpose. Focus on the first three or four words and opt for punchy verbs and adjectives, such as “Join the fun …” or “Crack the code …”

Do you have a welcome email to share? We’d love to see them and share them with your Tilt Publishing peers. Send them to [email protected].


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tilt publishing book club

Congrats to Justin Moore, the latest author at Tilt Publishing to release his book! In Sponsor Magnet, Justin demystifies the process of securing brand deals – something every content entrepreneur would benefit from knowing.

Justin also expertly crafted a successful launch, which includes his 10K Copies Challenge. Buyers before April 21 receive exclusive bonuses, including private workshops and access to premium courses. (What a great idea to borrow for your own book launch!)

Buy Sponsor Magnet directly from Justin.

In other book publishing news,


things to know

Money
  • Sales job: Newsletter writers are in the ad business, too, and the “marketplace is full of one-off deals” and widely varied pricing, which causes challenges for marketers and the entrepreneurs themselves. [The Wall Street Journal]
    Tilt Take: Can you build a business with one revenue stream (subscribers)? These content entrepreneurs are finding they cannot.
  • Up some: IAB says podcast revenue will rise 7.4% this year, though its share of overall ad spending will decrease as more money is spent on social media and paid search. [Inside Audio Marketing; h/t Sounds Profitable]
    Tilt Take: If you have a valuable audience and connect with those who want to reach them, spending trends won’t have that big of an impact.
Audiences
  • Another Tik: Instagram upped its Reel length to three minutes. That’s double what it’s allowed and the same length TikTok has had since 2021. Instagram says user feedback is the reason for the change. [The Verge]
    Tilt Take: Those users are probably the ones who preferred (well, prefer) TikTok.
Tech and Tools
  • Another Tok: Bluesky added a trending videos section to the explore tab. [Tech Crunch]
    Tilt Take: Yep, despite its reprieve, TikTok’s disappearance looms large as other social platforms make changes to attract the popular app’s viewers.
And Finally
  • Cry me a river: Forget clickbait; “sadbait” is the latest trend in social content. Tales of hard luck (frequently by scam artists) and tears of influencers have grabbed attention, so the social algorithms are delivering more of it. [BBC]
    Tilt Take: People don’t always say the content they really want, so always check your analytics to know what their behavior says.

business of content


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