When you publish a post that's locked to paid members, we automatically send your free members a preview by email, giving them a taste of what they're missing and encouraging them to upgrade. This is on by default for every creator. This article explains when those emails go out, what determines whether a post qualifies, and how to turn them off in Autopilot if they're not right for your strategy.
What happens when you publish a locked post
Not every locked post triggers a preview email, and not every preview goes out the same way. Whether and how we send one depends on how substantial the preview is:
- A strong preview goes out right away to your eligible free members
- A shorter preview still goes out, but we space these out so any one free member only gets one every few days
- If neither of those happens, the post can still surface later in a free member's monthly roundup email, alongside your other recent posts
We only send the emails your free members are actually likely to want to open. A locked post with little to show above the paywall isn't going to make anyone want to join, so it's not going to flood inboxes either.
What makes a preview "good enough" to send right away
We look at what's visible above your paywall. A post qualifies for an immediate send to all your eligible free members if it has either:
- 1,200 characters or more of text above the paywall, or
- 600 characters or more, plus an image, video, or other media above the paywall
The idea is simple: Give free members enough to genuinely get a sense of the post, and we'll get it in front of them right away. A locked post with a one-line teaser above the paywall isn't going to trigger the same kind of send, since we've seen free members tend to unsubscribe from emails that don't provide substantial value.
What happens if a post doesn't meet that bar
It still gets a chance to reach free members, just not as quickly or as often.
- We space out shorter previews. If your post doesn't hit the threshold above, we still try to send a preview, but each free member can only get one of these from you every 3 days. If a free member already received one from you recently, they'll skip this one
- It might show up in the monthly roundup instead. Once a month, on the anniversary of when a free member joined, we send them a roundup of up to 3 of your best-performing recent posts from the last 30 days. A post that missed out on an immediate or spaced-out send can still land a spot here if it's a strong performer and still within that 30-day window
How to turn off preview emails
If email previews don't fit how you run your free membership, whether you're saving certain posts as a surprise, running your own free content strategy, or just don't want the extra noise in your members' inboxes, you can turn them off entirely.
Autopilot is only available on desktop.
- Click Promotions, then Autopilot
- Click Free member upgrade preview
- Turn off the toggle and click Save
Turning this off stops all of these emails, both the immediate and spaced-out sends, and the monthly roundup, so you're fully in control of if and when free members hear about your locked posts from us.