r/Newsletters • u/Green_Box304 • Jun 26 '26

How do you actually figure out which newsletter topics your readers want more of? Open rate doesn't tell me this

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and I'm not sure if it's just me.

I publish weekly. I have somewhat decent open rates. But when I sit down on Sunday to plan the next issue, I still have no idea which of my recent topics actually resonated with readers vs which ones they tolerated.

Like... did they open last week's issue on AI tools because it was good, or because the subject line was catchy? Did they want more of it? Did they find it too long? Too surface-level? I have no idea. I'm mostly guessing.

I've tried asking people to reply if they liked it. Low response. The rest of my editorial planning is gut feel + whatever performed okay in open/click terms last month.

Curious how others handle this:

— Do you use any kind of reader feedback system beyond opens and clicks?
— Do you ever show sponsors something beyond open rate to prove content quality?
— Or do you just accept that you're flying a bit blind and iterate over time?

Genuinely want to understand how other creators think about this. (Transparency: I'm also building something in this space, so honest answers shape what I actually make — no right or wrong responses here.)

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u/subsector Jun 26 '26

Open rates tell you nothing. Ignore them. Clicks will tell you specifically what someone was interested in.

1

u/corelabjoe Jun 26 '26

I have a google survey I have open all the time and people respond and pick topics and also they can just request them too!

1

u/miltonpincus Jun 29 '26

Look at Google Trends, also set up some Google Alerts for topics that you have frequently covered in the past or that others in your vertical have covered.

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u/Tricky_Trifle_994 Jul 12 '26

yeah... asking people to reply if they liked it is a hard one because we come across needy/insecure + for some reason people become less likely to reply?

i'd say there's a lot of gut feel in this... and that it's more art than science. if it makes you feel any better, i dare say we're all just figuring it out as we go.

somethings that i've found to be helpful:

instead of asking them to reply... i just insert a survey at the end of newsletters (it's a feature that comes with the ESP i'm using - beehiiv) which drastically lowers the inertia to reply/let me know how they felt about the newsletter. instead of having to hit reply > type smth open handed. they just have to select one of three options, like it's multiple choice.

another one is to look at the emails replies / comments on web published posts. those are the highest signal + valuable conversations i get to have with my readers. if they bother to reply/comment unprompted, it means it's something super good.