You overthink Subscribers, and I will provide you with my data to prove it. My Podcast does very well, and so does my newsletter. I gained over 500 subscribers in under half a year, with an average open rate of 25% and a delivery rate of around 80%.
Opening Rate: The percentage of subscribers who opened your content.
Delivery Rate: The percentage of subscribers who got your content.
My 80% delivery rate means that 20% of my Subscribers never get the chance to read the article. While the 25% opening rate means that a quarter of my subscribers decided to read what I send them. The majority or 55% of people choose not to interact.
However, I don't get 125 views in the first week, but rather 4 to 5 times that. What does this mean? Let's put the data into context!
Understanding Subscribers Metrics
20% of my subscribers are never reached. This is not unusual. Some emails are filtered out by spam filters or get buried in promotions or social tabs. The same is true for notifications—nothing to worry about here.
Open rates of 25% are very normal. The industry average open rates range from 20% to 30% — depending on the niche and the quality of the email list. There is nothing to worry about here, either. (Your active subscriber base is larger than your opening rate! You do not reach the same 20-30% with each email.)
75% of views are from non-subscribers. This is also normal and important! These come from searches, social media, organic discovery on Substack, or mouth-to-mouth recommendations! It means my content has reached beyond my email list, and this is the source of opportunity and new Subscribers! Perfect!
Conclusion: Most of my readers won’t be subscribers.
How to think about Subscribers
Now, it might be easy to think that subscribers are not important, but they are for a couple of reasons:
Find your fans! ❤️ Some of your subscribers will love and push you. These drive a large part of the 75% non-subscribers to you. Focus on them.
Subscribers are not your fans (yet!). Someone subscribes to you to initiate a relationship. If they don't open your content or even unsubscribe, that is not a failure on your side. It just wasn't meant to be.
You do not want to go viral. In the worst case, people subscribe to your deep, philosophical, poetic newsletter because you posted a note with a supremely funny dad joke. This will fill your mailing list with people who do not fit your content. These people will be disappointed, and you will be disappointed when they unsubscribe. Your email list will be diluted, which will harm your monetization potential.
Churn is normal. Friends come and go, and so do subscribers.
Strategic Takeaways
Make your best content free. It's the best reason for the 75% to subscribe!
Find engagement outside of Substack! People new to Substack don't already have paid subscriptions and the pool is bigger.
Keep your expectations in check. Compare yourself with industry standards. An opening rate of 80% would be awesome, but is unrealistic as you grow.
Keep subscriber interaction up! This builds fans. Fans restack, share, and recommend. Fans are your backbone!
Stay on topic! Avoid mixing different subjects into the same mailing list. Your open rates will decrease, and people will unsubscribe.
Conclusion
Your subscribers will be a smaller part of your readership the more you grow, and over time, most people will come and go. So don't overvalue this number and or even be heart broken even when people unsubscribe. At the same time, focus on building a core audience of fans who will support you, and together, you will go far. Consider a stable open rate between 20 to 30% as your goal instead.
Did I get something wrong, or you don’t get something? Ask in the comment!
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What I do when I don’t do this
Giving Poets a Voice: Sylvia Kalina - Saccharum
Join me in this insightful conversation with Sylvia Kalina, co-founder of Saccharum, a Substack publication dedicated to spoken-word poetry, soundscapes, and collaborative creativity. Sylvia shares what motivates her poetic journey, the power of community and collaboration, and exciting new projects in the poetry community.
This makes sense and I know not mixing subjects is good advice but can’t follow it. I also have had a career writing different types of novels and might have developed more of a following if I stuck to one but that just isn’t me.