This newsletter sucks

Hey Greenblasters.

First off, I’m sorry for missing last week without telling you. I was on vacation:

But, enough excuses and cute pics.

In today’s Greenblast, we’re talking about…

The Greenblast.

Mainly:

Why are the NUMBERS of this newsletter so BAD?

Check it out:

Since I launched this newsletter, I’ve:

• failed to surpass 600 subscribers (despite starting above 600 and losing a bunch)

• had an Open Rate (i.e. how many of you are opening the email) of under 45% (not bad, but not great). AND it’s decreasing recently

• And had a Click Rate (how many people click on the links I put) of under 5%, which is also decreasing

And here’s the problem:

I can’t even ask YOU what I’m doing wrong. Even though I wanna know.

Here’s why:

The people who reply are likely the people who like what I’m doing already.

(By the way, your messages keep me going, so thank you. You know who you are.)

Those of you who are subscribed to this but generally don’t respond, either won’t see this message or have too much going on to reply (which I totally get).

And so, I find myself in a positive feedback loop, where all the messages I get are encouraging, but all the numbers suggest I’m not doing anything all that helpful or entertaining with this newsletter.

And now we come to the main problem:

I’ve built this newsletter around MYSELF.

For those of you interested, this is what a newsletter SHOULD be:

(according to Justin Welsh, who has quite a successful one):

“It can be used to share updates about your business, announce new products or services, provide valuable content to your audience, and establish yourself as an expert in your field. Furthermore, a well-crafted newsletter can help you build trust with your audience, increase brand awareness, and drive traffic to your website or online store.”

This is a lot of business jargon, but “brand awareness”, “trust” and “driving traffic” are ultimately the aims of most marketing efforts, which includes a newsletter.

And by the numbers, the Greenblast just ISN’T doing that.

BUT:

Even though I sound sad and defeated, here’s what gives me hope:

The few messages I DO receive are of such a beautiful nature, in terms of the emotional impact my stupid little email seems to have.

And this reminds me of my own thesis, about validation vs connection, from my Speaker’s Slam speech a while back:

“Validation is a drug, but connection is medicine.”

That’s what I hold onto, when I feel like my career isn’t big enough, I don’t have enough awards or big clients, and my marketing numbers are low.

The messages I get from people telling me how my work has impacted them, and how me telling my story resonates with them, makes me feel like what I’m doing has inherent value.

So I’ll continue to type away, and send silly little GIFs (or it is pronounced “JIF”?) to you guys, until no more nice messages come in.

Even if I miss a week.

That’s my promise to you.

I really hope this inspires you if you also feel like your numbers, whatever those may be for you, are low.

THAT’S IT for this week!

Please, if you have a moment, reply by telling me:

WHAT VALUE DO YOU GET FROM THIS, AND WHAT COULD I DO BETTER??

Thanks so much. Love you all.

Greenblast out 🚀