Substack Email Not Sending? Troubleshooting Guide
Experiencing issues with your Substack emails not reaching your subscribers? This can be frustrating, but often it's due to easily resolvable issues. Here's a breakdown of common problems and how to fix them.
Common Causes and Solutions
Several factors can prevent your Substack emails from being sent. Let's explore the most likely culprits:
- Spam Filters: This is the most frequent reason. Emails can be flagged as spam by recipient email providers (Gmail, Outlook, etc.).
- Substack's Sending Limits: Substack has limits to prevent abuse. While not publicly disclosed, exceeding sending limits, especially to a large new list, can trigger delays.
- Technical Glitches: Occasionally, temporary server issues on Substack's end can cause problems.
- Subscriber Unsubscriptions/Bounces: A high bounce rate or large number of unsubscribes can impact your sender reputation and deliverability.
- Email Authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC): Although Substack handles this, incorrect configuration on your domain (if using a custom domain) could be an issue.
Troubleshooting Steps You Can Take
Here's a systematic approach to diagnosing and resolving the issue:
- Check Substack's Status Page: Visit Substack's official status page (often linked in their help documentation) to see if there are any reported outages or known issues.
- Verify Subscriber Email Addresses: Ensure the email addresses of your subscribers are valid and haven't bounced. A bounce rate above 5% is a red flag.
- Segment and Test: Send a test email to a small, engaged segment of your list. This helps isolate whether the problem affects all subscribers or just a subset.
- Check Your Spam Folder: Ask subscribers to check their spam or promotions folders. If your emails are consistently ending up there, it indicates a reputation problem.
- Review Your Content: Avoid using spam trigger words (e.g., "free," "guaranteed") and excessive exclamation points or all-caps text in your subject lines and body.
- Contact Substack Support: If you've exhausted the above steps, reach out to Substack support. They can investigate server-side issues and provide more specific guidance. They typically respond within 24-48 hours.
By following these steps, you can significantly improve your Substack email deliverability and ensure your content reaches your audience.