Hey there—hope your week’s off to a strong start.

This one’s short, but powerful.

If you’re not leaning into your most loyal subscribers, you’re missing out on one of the biggest levers in email. I’m talking about the folks who open everything, click often, reply, comment, and genuinely care about what you’re building.

These people aren’t just “active”—they’re your deliverability insurance policy.

We talk a lot about sender reputation, inbox placement, and the Base Sending Segment (BSS). But here’s the truth: your VIP readers hold more power than most people realize.

For our newsletter Daily Skrape:

We pulled a segment of subscribers who had left comments, replied to our emails, or regularly engaged—and were still active.

Here’s what we sent them:

✅ Asked for a testimonial or feedback
Real feedback sharpens your offer. Testimonials drive conversions. And bonus—replies boost inbox placement.

✅ Asked them to share with a friend
These are your warmest leads. And referrals from trusted subs beat any paid lead every day of the week.

✅ Asked them to whitelist us
When a subscriber drags your email to their Primary tab or adds you to Contacts, ISPs notice. That’s engagement gold—and it helps everyone else on your list inbox more reliably.

Here are my whitelisting instructions; you can feel free to copy.

👉 https://www.audiencebridge.io/email-whitelisting-instructions

It’s not about scale—it’s about intent.

These subscribers already trust you. They're already engaged. And when you make a personal ask, they’re way more likely to respond, refer, and reinforce your reputation with Gmail, Yahoo, and the rest.

Here’s what we received:

Feedback on ways we could improve our newsletter.

Testimonials to bolster our social proof for our sign-up pages.

These are in the form of replies providing great signals to the ISPs.

And hopefully some whitelisting of our email address.

TIP: Make sure to reply back to the replies for more signals 😃

BEFORE YOU GO

If your emails aren’t landing in the inbox, they’re not doing their job. I’ve seen too many brands struggle with deliverability issues without knowing why.

The truth is, a few key optimizations can make all the difference in getting your emails seen, opened, and clicked.

Too many people obsess over reactivating cold leads… while ignoring the VIPs who are waving the flag every day.

Talk to them.

They’re your deliverability defense squad, your referral engine, and your most honest feedback loop.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to realize they’re the ones keeping you in the inbox.

Chris Miquel

PS: If you want to set this up and don’t know where to start, reply to this email. I’ll send you the exact segmenting criteria and messaging we used.