My newsletter is my bread and butter, and it’s ok to take a look at it to see what’s working and what’s not. I saw this post from Josh Spector about auditing newsletters and I want to take a spin of this but do it my way. I will break down my newsletter and how it looks then tell you how I plan on doing my audit so that you can audit your own newsletter.
My Hello Kita Newsletter comes out every Tuesday. The first thing I audited was the time it came out. So I was like clockwork, coming out at 9 am but one day I slipped up and put 5:30 am (it was a mistake at first), and I had more opens. I then thought hmm, maybe 9 am isn’t the ideal time, and I need to move my newsletter up some so people can see it with their other emails in the morning. I did try it at 2 pm, and it didn’t land as well, so morning seems to be the sweet spot for me. So audit your time and see what times you get the most opens.
Next Audit the look. I bought a template off of Creative Market (just put in the search Flodesk templates) to freshen up my newsletter last year. I love it, but I think I want to change it up. I like change. People get accustomed to the same ole same ole all the time and they crave something new and exciting. I think I will change up for the Fall/Winter and change the outline of the newsletter. I usually start with my blog posts, then I go into my chat session, I share a link from my shirt website, then I end with a question and ask people to respond back to me. That respond back to me section is important to me because I get to see who actually read because they not only answer the question I ask but they talk about other things within the newsletter.
Let’s talk about the followers. When I first moved to Flodesk, I had about 600 people signed up for my newsletter. I have been periodically going through my newsletter and removing people who don’t read it (I can tell the open rates from my end). I will delete them. As of now, I am down to 462 subscribers, and that is good. I get about a 70% open rate. I do know sometimes my stuff goes to spam, but that open rate lets me know folks love me. Get rid of folks on your newsletter who don’t read it.
Now the next thing I need to do is figure out if I want a popup on my website or not. I hate popups but I want more people to read my newsletter. I am in a debate with myself on how I want to do this but I want to get the word out about my newsletter to more people. I don’t know how yet, but we are working on it.
Next, audit your tone. Are you trying to sell sell sell or do you want someone to want to open your newsletter without being sold to? I like my newsletter to sound like I’m talking to a trusted friend. A way for you to get to know me in a more personal way. I don’t gatekeep but I always advise people to sign up for my newsletter to get the info that I give on business and life.
Affiliate linking is big for me because the bulk of my money from that comes from my newsletter (the rest from blog posts) so I want to do a better job of making sure I bring my audience products that make sense and that are needed especially when money is tight. I want to hone in more on what is a need vs just random spending. So I want to audit that a bit better.
Last but not least, I want to audit how I show up. I want to be consistent. I miss a week or two, and folks are like where is the newsletter and sometimes I just don’t feel like writing one, but I have to also know that sometimes people need that laugh from me, that idea from me, that link from me, and I have to show up. If I don’t show up for them, at least I need to show up for me and do something that I committed to years ago when I asked you for your email.
So please make sure you join in every Tuesday for the laughs, the ideas, the quotes, the tea, and me.
