Worship clicks, not readers
The top question I get asked about Go Devon! How many subscribers do you have?
I've been away a while. About two years in fact, as I dealt with something called Long Covid. (I've got other names for it, but not that I could publish).
I won't bore you with details, but if you know anyone still laid low, and I know there are millions, they might like to read my recovery story.
If you choose to stay on this list, you'll find a reborn newsletter.
In two years I've noticed shorter attention spans, fuller inboxes, and dwindling online traffic.
It's become clear that to be successful (by which I mean selling something) as an email marketer or newsletter creator, you will need to even more than ever, seriously engage your audience.
How you do that, with examples from my personal experience, is what Champion Newsletters will be about.
Shorter, too.
This week...
Worship clicks, not readers
The top question I get asked about Go Devon! newsletter.
How many subscribers have you got?
Answer: 3,234.
Everyone likes to know, but honestly it’s the wrong question, whether you're a prospective advertiser or you're selling your own products.
You should be much more interested in clicks.
So far this year, Go Devon! readers have clicked 5,591 times from 39,856 newsletters.
Rewind a couple of decades to when I worked in newspapers, and no one had a blind clue how many people actually read the millions of words we churned out year after year, let alone which individual articles or adverts got attention and how much.
Today, with technology, nearly everything about a newsletter is measurable, one of the main reasons I love them.
I can test the “pulse” of my audience any time after I send an email, no guesswork needed. And, crucially, I can immediately respond to the things they like and don't like. You need to be paying attention of course.
Clicks are king. They prove engagement, define real reader interest and crucially, buying intent. If a click converts that’s measurable too.
In my humble but considered opinion, this is just one of any reasons why newsletters are and will continue to be the place to be.
Worship clicks, not readers.
Yours in newsletters,
Andy Griffiths