When you send out your first newsletter it’s pretty awesome, and maybe terrifying.
You’ll get a few email responses from folks who are happy to hear from you (hi dad!)- You’ll get a few people who unsubscribe because they hate you aren’t in a place where they need your information and that’s OK – you want readers who want to hear from you!
- You’ll probably get a few bounced emails – be careful, Mailchimp isn’t a huge fan if you get a bunch of these!
- You’ll get people who are ready to hire you because they forgot you offered your amazing services and they’re ready to buy!
- You’ll get people wanting to pitch you their service because they don’t have a newsletter and aren’t great at reading buying signals
Whatever it is, about a week after your first newsletter goes out these are the 3 newsletter response stats you should check out:
- Your Open Rate – just how many people are interested in reading your content? Remember – anything over 20% is good (yes, 70%-80% of the people you send to aren’t going to read it!) – if it’s lower then that, pay attention to time of day or frequency you’re sending out your newsletter
- Your Unsubscribe Rate – this settles down after the first few regularly scheduled newsletters, but good to keep an eye on it
- Website Clicks – it’s helpful to see who’s clicking on what on your website. If you want subscribers to read that whole article, you may find that including it in the newsletter gets a better response than “click here” to finish. BUT if you want them to click and play around on your website, then make sure your content is enticing enough so they do!
Questions? You know who to call.
Ha! I’ve had that ‘they hate me’ feeling when people unsubscribe! Thank you for letting me know that I’m not the only person to have that cross their mind.
We all do! A client earlier this week was more upset about the nominal unsubscribes than her amazing open rate. It’s easy to do – but trust that the right folks are listening!