The Deliverability Mistakes Killing Your Newsletter Open Rates with Alyssa Dulin

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Alyssa Dulin is Kit's deliverability expert.

She joined us to pull back the curtain on one of the most misunderstood forces shaping newsletter success: deliverability.

We sat down with her to unpack why emails land in spam, what the big Gmail and Yahoo changes really mean for individual creators, and how to build a sending reputation that lasts. From domain warmups to fake opens to bot clicks, this episode covers the stuff most newsletter creators won't learn until something goes wrong.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The custom domain mistake tanking open rates — and how to make the switch
• Why your sender reputation works like a credit score, and what "starting at zero" actually means for deliverability
• The top 3 subscriber engagement signals ranked by impact
• How long you should wait before removing inactive subscribers
• What actually happens to your sender reputation if you take a break from sending 
• Alyssa's deliverability checklist for newsletter creators
• How to onboard Creator Network and "recommendation" subscribers without hurting deliverability
• The uncomfortable truth about whether your open rates and click rates are even real
• How AI inbox summaries are becoming the new gatekeeper between your email and your reader
• How to safely increase your send frequency without triggering spam filters

LINKS MENTIONED

• Kit — email platform used by Alyssa and the hosts
• Google Postmaster Tools — monitor your domain reputation and complaint rates with Gmail
• SendGauge — Alyssa's new deliverability intelligence platform (beta)
• Deliverability Defined Podcast — Alyssa's podcast with the deliverability back catalog
• Kit deliverability support: deliverability@kit.com

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL

• Chenell: Twitter | LinkedIn
• Dylan: LinkedIn | Substack | Instagram

OUR NEWSLETTERS

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• growthcurrency.net

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