Hey Reader!

I’ve been a single parent since my kids were three and six; basically they were just old enough to be pissed at me for breaking up their (theoretically) happy home. 😬

At the time, I was a working artist, painting a line of glassware that I sold to galleries across the country. It was fun! But not wildly remunerative, and definitely lacking any and all benefits that would lead to financial stability.

So eventually I closed that business and went to work for… a non-profit! Because everyone knows they pay really well. 🙄

Let’s just say it wasn’t raining money at my house, and it was stressful. So I did that thing too many of us do when we’re stressed about money; I buried my head in the sandiest sand I could find, namely being too busy to think about it.

I kept putting off the great reckoning that would, I hoped, lead to creating a manageable budget and attaining some sort of financial acumen.

Eventually I got a promotion, which came with a raise. 🏆🏆

I was hardly making Cristal in the G-Wagen money; this was barely Prosecco in the Toyota money. But it was enough to let me breathe a sigh of relief and to start getting real about managing the dollars I did have.

I started a savings plan.

By plan, I mean that I put money away every time I was paid, instead of in the haphazard way I'd been doing it; i.e., “Today I feel flush so let's give the old savings account a little snack!” 🫣

And here’s what I realized when I got serious about saving money - I could have been doing it all along.

I mean, it’s not that I never saved anything, but it suddenly hit me that instead of hiding from the truth of my financial situation and then making grand gestures towards my savings when I was feeling good about life, I could instead have made REGULAR modest deposits that would have left me feeling more competent and my bank account growing steadily, if modestly.

Damn.

It's easy to ignore numbers when you're scared of what they'll tell you. 😱😱

But it’s always better to understand your numerical reality. Turns out you can use that information to make decent life choices. 🧐

It's also easy to ignore numbers when you don't really see the value of tracking them.

If you’re not already, you might want to start paying attention to your newsletter stats, because they can give you info that will help you make business decisions. (I leave your finances to you, go with God.)

Your email platform helpfully compiles analytics for you! So kind. But what do they mean? Here are the basics:

Number of subscribers

It’s good to know how many people are picking up what you’re putting down! 🎉🎉

This number tells you how your list-building strategies are working. It also shows you what your sales potential is - are you offering your services to 10 people or 1,000? The answer will affect the way you do business.

Open rate

This is a big one.

Let’s say you're hosting a workshop and you've got 200 people on your email list and a consistent 20% open rate. If you mention your workshop in a single email then only 40 people have learned about it. 😐

Whereas if you have a 50% open rate then 100 people now know that you're hosting a fabulous workshop on dried teabag art. 🤗

Having a big list with a low open rate sucks. Lots of people ignoring your mail? That’s not helping you at all.

But having a small list with a high open rate is great! A few highly captivated people can really boost your business.

This is a good time to note that the larger your list, the lower your open rate is likely to be. 😳

When you first start building your list, you’ve got fresh eyes, often belonging to people who already know and like you. 👋🏻 As time goes on, people may experience email fatigue; in other words they may feel like they’ve already absorbed your message, and it’s no longer worth it to them to read more.

This, of course, is a great reason to build your storytelling chops and really find your voice. Then they’ll want to read your emails no matter what’s in them. 🥳🥳

If you look into your stats you will see that some people almost always open your email, some people almost never do, and most are likely somewhere in the middle.

And here’s where I’m going to give you advice that you may find painful; but hear me out. 🎧

If there are people on your list who do not EVER open your emails, take them off your list. If they don’t read your message, they’re not going to buy from you. Let ‘em go.

Click rate

There are two types of click rates: the click-through rate and the click-to-open rate. The first counts the number of clicks as a percentage of how many people received the email. The second refers to the number of clicks as a percentage of people who opened the email. 🤔

More clicks is generally thought to express a higher engagement level; if people are opening your links you’ve got them interested in what you’re offering.

If no one is clicking then you may be highlighting stuff that’s not interesting to your audience. 🙀

You should be able to see a breakdown of which links got the most action, which can help with that analysis. 📊

Because - there are links and then there are links. The ones you really want people following are the ones that lead to offers, preferably paid offers.

So, if you’ve got a link to a tea-pouring contest that blew your mind and your readers don’t click on it, then maybe you’ve learned that only the most dedicated tea sports fans are going to go down that rabbit hole. ☕️

No big deal; you’re adding those links for zealots like yourself. They will appreciate them. 🙌

BUT. If you make an offer and nobody nibbles, then you might want to work on your marketing.

You may also see the total number of clicks, which to my mind is less interesting and often simply depends on how many links you’ve included to begin with.

Unsubscribes

Sad face. 💔

Except. I will continue to state that if someone is not into what you’re offering they’re better off far from your list!

Unread emails are more damaging to your business than unsubscribes. They can mess with your deliverability, they may cost you money, and they’re giving you false info about the actual size of your readership. 😬

Do not cry over these!

What can be helpful is to see trends in unsubscribes. Did a bunch of people dip from a single email? Maybe you expressed an unpopular opinion. That’s GOOD. It’s how you set yourself apart from the crowd.

On the other hand, maybe you inadvertently said something off-putting. Good to catch that now so you can avoid it in the future. 🫠

Do not try to be everything to everyone. It will make you crazy and it’s bad for business.

Replies

This is my favorite! And a super helpful barometer of how well you are engaging with your audience. If an email sent to 100 people garners 10 responses, you are dong something right.

If you're tracking this you can go back to the ones that have generated the most responses and see what made them so special.

This is also a feel-good metric. Which is wildly important if you're going to stick around for the long haul. On days when you're feeling like this is a lot of work for little reward, notice how many people were touched by something you wrote! You matter.

Okay! That’s your very basic analytics primer. I’ll do deeper dives into how to track and utilize your numbers in future emails - stay tuned!

xo, Julia

The Growth Report

Here's what I did to build my list this week:

• Linked to my lead magnet via social media
• Put signup links in my email signature - both business and personal email accounts
• Talked newsletters to EVERYONE. 🙂

​Todd Snyder knows that stats can make you crazy, and so does this email. Forward it to your favorite analyst.

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