The reply loop

Every month, I send an email roundup to Buttondown's subscriber list about new features that are launched, upcoming work, and other interesting updates.

I end each email with some sort of exhortation to reply to the email:

Loved this email? Hated this email? I want to hear about it! If you think there’s something that needs to be improved — or, even better, if there’s just something you wish was improved — reply to this email because I want to know more!

Each time I do this, I get a lot of answers — last month, it was around 65.

This sounds like a fairly banal call-to-action, I know. But I'm confident that some variation of "plz reply" is the best way to drive engagement, especially when you've got a somewhat amorphous newsletter: this mailing list is a delightful cornucopia of potential customers, existing customers, and churned customers, so trying to be aggressive about selling isn't quite the right fit. (It's also, frankly, not my style!)

Here's why:

1. The email gods and goddesses love a reply. It's a signal that the email being replied to is important and genuine, and therefore deserves to be in the 'Primary' tab as opposed to the 'Promotions' tab.
2. It's a great way to qualify your subscribers and learn more about them. (Surveys also work really well here!)
3. It's a huge font of information for what folks find interesting! Almost all of Buttondown's blog topics — including this very one — come from replies.

To quote from Brennan Dunn's excellent newsletter:

This is also a more reactive way of listening. Why? Because you can reply to those emails with, "This is such a great question, Brennan. Would you mind if I reply to this as a dedicated email to my list?"

This becomes a win for them (a much more thorough reply than they'd get if you were sending something 1:1), and a win for you – another piece of shareable content that reacts to an actual need someone has.