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The Verify Your Signup Reply Trick

The Story

Tom’s automatic welcome email has the subject line “Verify your signup.” The body asks readers to verify the signup by replying with the word “growth.” (Source 1).

Do new subscribers actually need to reply? “No. 😏” (Source 1).

But the reply pattern is real: “I get hundreds of such emails (responses with ‘growth’ as the only word in the email) every week.” (Source 1).

Tom’s hypothesis for why this matters: “I can’t know for sure, but I have a strong suspicion that this double opt-in requirement makes my emails pop up in the primary inbox (and not in the ‘promotions’ tab) more often, and thus increases my open rates.” (Source 1).

The result: open rates of about 45% (Source 1).

The same growth playbook gives a list of “4 non-negotiables for a great first-time experience” — having an ultra-clear newsletter promise, pinning a “Start Here” post to the homepage, using a goal-oriented website menu, and asking for the verification reply (Source 1).

His positioning logic for “Start Here”: “Probably my #1 tip for improving your newsletter’s reader experience: Add a ‘Start Here’ post to the top of your Substack homepage.” This post should include a brief ‘About’ section and links to all published articles like a table of contents (Source 1).

Lesson for Creators

Inbox placement is the silent killer of newsletter open rates. Most creators obsess over subject lines while their emails sit in the Promotions tab unopened. Tom’s reply trick is a deliverability hack disguised as user experience: when a subscriber replies to your email, Gmail and Apple Mail upgrade you to the primary inbox for that user, permanently. The genius is that he doesn’t actually need the reply to do anything — he just needs the action to happen. 45% open rates in 2025 are extraordinary, and a portion of that is structural, not creative. The “Start Here” pin is the same kind of structural advantage: the new visitor’s first 30 seconds determines whether they subscribe, and a curated index outperforms whatever your latest post happens to be.

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