I'M MAKING A CASE FOR TITLES

Yo! Paperboy here 🗞️

This email could literally save your job/brand. Trust me, you’ll see why.

This email is a little more technical than normal, so skip if you’re only here for strategy. Send this to the person on your team who hits send on emails. Also tell them to subscribe ;)

Fix your titles in 30 seconds

Ever get an email from a brand and they typed your name in lower case, or all upper case?

Instead of saying “Hi Karen” they say “Hi karen” or “Hi KAREN”.

I get emails like this from banks, insurance companies and mega DTC brands all the time.

Don’t be like them.

The fix (in Klaviyo) is simple and can be done in 2 quick steps.

Step 1

Update your account name in Klaviyo to be in lower case.

Your Klaviyo home screen dashboard should look something like this:

I know, I know, it looks weird, but hear me out:

When you preview emails, your name will always show in lowercase if you didn’t personalize it properly.

Step 2

When you send text-based emails, include the following line instead of Hi [there],

Don’t do: Hi { { first_name|default:'there'} }

Instead do: Hi { { first_name|title|default:'there'} }

***Take out the spaces after the first bracket, and before the last one. Sorry my email editor doesn’t let me put two curly brackets next to each other.

This will automatically title case any first names in your email.

That’s it, that’s the fix.

You’d be surprised how many customers forget to capitalize their own name. 6 months down the line they’ll forget and they’ll assume your brand hates them for not capitalizing their name 😅

Bonus: Klaviyo Issue FYI

If you don’t have Google Postmaster setup already, set it up asap. It takes 30 seconds.

If you use a hosted page for email unsubscribes read this section. If you don’t use hosted pages, skip this whole section.

I caught a pretty major issue with Klaviyo’s hosted pages recently.

Basically when a reader clicked the one-click unsubscribe button (image below) it didn’t unsubscribe the reader. Yikes.

This would have impacted you in a few ways:

1. People got frustrated they didn’t get unsubscribed and marked you as spam OR reported you for not honoring unsubscribes

2. Customers lost trust in you as a brand for seeming to have low integrity

3. Google perceives your brand as less trustworthy

I spoke with Klaviyo support and they confirmed 1) this was a broader issue with hosted pages and 2) the issue should now be fixed.

There’s a few ways to test for the issue and check if you’re still impacted:

Method 1 (required): Click the 1-click unsubscribe on an email you got from yourself and check if it unsubscribes you. Do it from an iPhone ideally.

Method 2 (suggested): Go to postmaster and check the new dashboard to monitor your account health. Step by step images below

The example above from one of my brands shows the issue is still not updated. If this is you, don’t panic. Klaviyo just made the fix in early-May and it seems to still be updating in Google’s dashboard. As long as the functionality works you’re probably good.

Whether you like it or not, your domain may be flagged red under “user-reported spam” or “honor unsubscribe”. Unless you know someone high up at Google, there’s not really anything you can do. You just need to wait it out so that over time your domain recovers. Not ideal, I know.

If you continue to see an issue with your 1-click unsubscribe, email Klaviyo ASAP. Record a video testing it yourself and send it to them. Ask to escalate if they don’t admit there is an issue (because there is).

Be sure to test this every so often. Seriously, Google cares a lot about 1-click unsubscribes as a lot of countries are cracking down on spammy email marketing.

Caveat: I have no idea how widespread this issue was. All I have is the limited info from Klaviyo. It impacted enough of my brands that I thought it was worth flagging to you.

Stay safe out there y’all ✌🏼

Tariff Defense

Everyone’s going through tough times right now. Tariffs are hitting all our margins. It sucks.

One unlock for our clients has been reviewing and dialing in funnels to drive as much AOV as possible.

Two apps that I continue to suggest are:

• Bundles via Foxsell → lets you implement product bundling, mix & match, pre-built bundles, and more in your store. If you’re 7+ figures and not using bundles, you’re leaving $ on the table.

• Post-Purchase Upsells via Aftersell - lets you present offers to clients after their order without impacting CVR (pure AOV upside). This product can be very set-it-and-forget-it after a couple of rounds of testing, and works for stores of any size.

Disclaimer: They are both sponsors. I don’t make any commissions off suggesting them and love both of these products (and their teams).

Meme: It happens to the best of us, definitely not me though👀👀

That’s all for now,
Paperboy 🗞

p.s. Did you like the newsletter? Hate it? Reply and tell me why! I read and reply to every message.

Newsletter Sponsors

AfterSell - Upsells that drive AOV without hurting CVRs

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I use all these sponsored tools for 7 and 8-figure brands at my agency. I would never promote a product I don’t personally use.