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Broadcasts are Kit's one-off campaigns — the weekly newsletter, product launch, or seasonal announcement. The difference between a broadcast that opens at 45% and one that opens at 20% is segment choice, subject line, and send timing.
Who this is forKit creators sending broadcasts to their list and frustrated with declining open rates. If your list has grown but engagement has dropped, this rebuilds your broadcast workflow from the ground up.
What you'll need
Step 1
Pick a default cadence (weekly is most common) and content format (essay, link roundup, story+lesson) BEFORE writing. Consistency drives open rate.
Cadence: 1x/week is the sweet spot for most creators. 2x/week if you have high engagement (>40% open rate). 1x/month is too slow — subscribers forget you and unsubscribe spikes when you do send.
Send day: Tuesday-Thursday for B2B audiences. Saturday-Sunday for hobby/consumer audiences. Friday is the worst day in either category.
Send time: 10am-2pm in your audience's primary timezone. Avoid <8am and >5pm — they get buried in inbox or look unprofessional.
Content format: pick ONE primary style (e.g., "weekly essay") and stick with it for 90 days. Format-jumping every week trains subscribers to ignore your sender name.
Save these decisions in a doc. Reference them every time you sit down to write — discipline compounds.
Step 2
Kit → Send → Broadcasts → New. Recipients: choose 'Engaged 30-day' segment, NOT 'all subscribers.' This is the single biggest deliverability lever.
Kit → Send → Broadcasts → + New Broadcast.
Recipients section → click 'Choose a recipient list.'
Default selection should be your 'Engaged 30-day' segment (created in tutorial #5). This excludes cold subscribers who haven't opened in 30 days.
Result: send to ~60-75% of your list instead of 100%, but open rate jumps 10-15 points because you're only sending to people who actually read.
Quarterly: send a 'wake-up' broadcast to cold subscribers separately (the lower-engagement send doesn't drag the rest down).
Exclude tags: add 'NOT subscribed:paid-newsletter' if you have a paid tier and don't want to double-send. Set up the exclude logic once; reuse every broadcast.
Step 3
A/B test 2 subjects on every broadcast. Subject patterns that work: curiosity, specificity, lowercase-first-word.
In the broadcast composer → Subject line.
Click "A/B test" → enter 2 subject lines. Kit will send variant A to 50%, variant B to 50%, and report the winner.
Patterns that consistently outperform: lowercase first word ("the 4-part framework" beats "The 4-Part Framework"), curiosity over claim ("Why I changed my mind on X" beats "X is dead"), specificity ("12 lines of code" beats "a few lines of code").
Length: 30-50 characters lands cleanly on mobile previews. Over 60 characters truncates — write the most important word in the first 40 characters.
Emoji: one well-placed emoji can lift open rate 5-10%. Three or more drops it 10-15% (looks spammy). Test, don't guess.
Step 4
Plain-text-looking emails outperform heavily-styled HTML. Aim for 60/40 text-to-image ratio minimum. One CTA per email.
Use the Plain Text template (Kit → Broadcasts → Templates → Plain Text). Marketers consistently find plain-text-looking emails open 15-25% higher because they look like a friend wrote them.
Body: 300-800 words. Long-form essays work in some niches; short briefs work in others. Test your audience.
One CTA per email. Multiple CTAs split attention and drop click-through rate 30-50%. If you have multiple things to promote, run multiple broadcasts.
Images: max 1-2 per email. Always with alt text. Image-only emails get filtered to spam by Gmail.
Links: 2-5 max. Excessive links (8+) trigger spam filters. Don't shorten links via bit.ly — Kit's native link tracking is cleaner and doesn't look phishy.
Sign-off: same every time. Your name + 1-line PS. Consistency builds recognition.
Step 5
Preview tab → check desktop + mobile render. Send test to yourself + 1-2 friends. Verify it lands in Gmail Primary, not Promotions.
Click 'Preview.' Check desktop and mobile views.
Verify every link works. Click each. Broken links in published broadcasts erode credibility.
Click "Send test" → enter your email + 1-2 trusted addresses. Send. Wait 60 seconds.
Open Gmail Primary tab. Does it land there or in Promotions? If Promotions consistently, reduce links and images.
Open on iPhone Mail and Android Gmail apps. Mobile rendering breaks for 40% of subscribers — must validate.
If anything looks off, edit and re-test. Don't publish a broken broadcast — recovery costs more than re-testing.
Step 6
Use scheduled send (not "send now") to hit the right local time for your audience. Monitor first 4 hours for spikes in unsubscribes or bounces.
Click "Schedule" (not "Send now").
Choose the date + time. Use the timezone selector to match your audience's primary timezone (NOT yours).
Confirm. The broadcast is queued.
At send time + 30 minutes: check Kit → Broadcasts → Reports. Open rate at 30 min should be 8-15% (most opens come in the first 2-4 hours).
At send time + 4 hours: check unsubscribe rate. If > 1% within 4 hours, something in the email triggered subscribers — investigate. Acceptable baseline is 0.1-0.3% unsubscribe per send.
At send time + 24 hours: pull final report. Open rate (target 25-45%), click rate (target 2-5%), unsubscribe (target <0.3%).
Step 7
Once a quarter, send a separate broadcast to your 90-day-cold segment asking if they want to stay. Unsubscribers stay unsubscribed; openers come back active.
Build a new segment: subscribed AND has not opened email in last 90 days.
Broadcast subject: 'Are you still reading?' or 'A quick ask.'
Body: short. "I noticed you haven't opened in a while. If you'd like to stay, click here. If not, no hard feelings — you can unsubscribe below."
Send to ONLY this segment, not the engaged list.
After 14 days: anyone who didn't click should be auto-tagged as `lifecycle:cold` and excluded from future broadcasts. They can be deleted or kept dormant.
This cleanup once a quarter keeps your engaged-30d segment healthy. Without it, the 'engaged' list slowly drifts back into bloat.
Common mistakes
Sending to "all subscribers" every broadcast
What goes wrong: Cold subscribers drag down engagement metrics. Gmail/Outlook see the resulting low open rate and downrank your sending reputation. Open rate drops 8-12 points across the entire list over 6 months.
How to avoid: Default broadcast recipient = "Engaged 30-day" segment, NOT all subscribers. Once a quarter, send a separate re-engagement broadcast to cold subscribers.
Inconsistent cadence
What goes wrong: Sending 3x in one week, then nothing for a month, then once, then twice... trains subscribers your sender name is unpredictable. Open rate drops because they can't anticipate your emails.
How to avoid: Pick a cadence (weekly is standard) and stick to it for 90 days minimum. Skipping a week is fine occasionally; bursting 3x then dropping is not.
No A/B testing on subject lines
What goes wrong: You don't learn what your audience responds to. Open rate plateaus. Every broadcast is a guess.
How to avoid: A/B test EVERY broadcast. 2 subject lines, 50/50 split, winner reported automatically. Over 6 months you build a playbook of what works for your specific audience.
Heavy HTML templates with multiple CTAs
What goes wrong: Plain-text-looking emails outperform stylized HTML by 15-25% in most creator niches. Multiple CTAs split attention; click-through rate drops 30-50%.
How to avoid: Use the Plain Text template. One CTA per email. Build the brand through voice, not visual design — Kit isn't the right tool for HTML showcases.
No mobile preview check
What goes wrong: 40%+ of subscribers read on mobile. Emails that look fine on desktop frequently break on iOS/Android — line breaks fail, images blow out, links wrap incorrectly. Drops click rate 20-30% on mobile.
How to avoid: Always preview on desktop AND mobile before scheduling. Send a test to yourself, open on phone, verify.
No quarterly cold-list cleanup
What goes wrong: Engaged-30-day segment drifts into bloat. Cold subscribers re-enter. Reputation gradually degrades. After 12 months, you're back to where you started.
How to avoid: Quarterly re-engagement broadcast → tag non-clickers as `lifecycle:cold` → exclude from future engaged sends. 30-minute task; 90-day benefit.
Recap
Done — what's next
How to build a ConvertKit/Kit tag + segment taxonomy that scales
Read the next tutorial
Hand it off
Broadcasts are recurring work — the workflow matters more than the tooling. A specialist can set up your broadcast template, segment defaults, A/B framework, and re-engagement cadence in 4-6 hours for $300-700 at $14-16/hr. After that you write; they handle the system.
See specialist rates
1x/week is the sweet spot for most creators. 2x/week works for very engaged niches (open rate >40%). Less than 1x/month is too slow — subscribers forget you and unsubscribe rate spikes when you do send. Pick a cadence and stick to it.
25-35% baseline for general creator newsletters. 35-45% for niche/engaged audiences. Apple Mail Privacy inflates open rates 30-50% on iOS, so a 'real' 30% is more like 22% true opens. Below 20% suggests reputation or segment issues.
No. Default to your Engaged 30-day segment. Send to the full list (including cold subscribers) only for quarterly re-engagement broadcasts or major announcements. Routine sending to cold subscribers tanks reputation.
Yes — Kit → Broadcasts → + New → Schedule. Pick date/time/timezone. You can schedule months in advance. Always use scheduled send (not 'Send now') so the broadcast queues through Kit's delivery infrastructure cleanly.
Composer → Subject line → click 'A/B test' → enter two subjects. Kit sends variant A to 50% and B to 50%, then reports the winner in the broadcast report. You can also A/B preview text the same way. Currently no native A/B on body content.
Common causes: heavy HTML styling, too many links/images, generic 'From name' (brand instead of human), missing domain authentication. Switch to Plain Text template, reduce links to 2-5, use a human From name, and verify SPF/DKIM. Most accounts move to Primary within 2-3 broadcasts after these fixes.
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