Friday, June 21, 2019

Report: Newsletter Feedback

I asked for feedback on my weekly newsletter. Thank you to those who responded.

It can be difficult to be a "content creator" in the modern world. At some level, you have to infer whether people enjoy something based on whether they're clicking, liking, following, buying, and so forth. But once in a while, you can ASK.

. . . and I got some good feedback in the comments.

First, an overview of the results. Click on the graphic to enlarge.


The first set of questions is: Do you read this section? Here are the responses for "Every Time" and "Often" combined:

- Intro/Notes from Karl = 98%

- Recent Blog Posts/Links = 71%

- Announcement Mini Classes = 62%

- Announce 5-week Classes = 60%

- SBT Community News = 63%

- Major Events for Karl = 69%

- Picture of the Week = 52%

- Events Calendar = 39%

So . . . a solid majority of respondents read at lease some of every section on a regular basis - except the calendar. Perhaps, I thought, I should drop the calendar.

Next up, I asked whether you think we should KEEP each section.



Here are the responses for "Absolutely Yes" and "Yes" combined:

- Intro/Notes from Karl = 96%

- Recent Blog Posts/Links = 88%

- Announcement Mini Classes = 80%

- Announce 5-week Classes = 78%

- SBT Community News = 89%

- Major Events for Karl = 81%

- Picture of the Week = 54%

- Events Calendar = 71%

Well, I guess we keep the calendar after all.

-- -- --

I Know It's Long . . . But I think it's a quick read. I hope no one actually prints it out because, with the calendar, it takes a decent size tree to print out the whole thing. BUT most people are probably only glancing at the calendar to see if there are items nearby or coming to their town. And it doesn't change that much.

One person suggested posting the Calendar on a web site and linking to it in the newsletter, but here's part of my secret sauce: I want this newsletter to have unique information you can't get anywhere else. That's why I write articles that never appear on my blogs or podcasts (99.9% of the time).

Several people commented that they are often busy on Monday morning, but they keep the newsletter around until they can get to it. I appreciate that!

Many people commented that they love the content and appreciate getting it on a regular basis. Thank you.

One person suggested combining my appearances with the general calendar. We'll have to see about that. I just created this section this year, so I was surprised to see that 81% said to keep it.

I am grateful that there were several comments like this:

"Thanks for consistently putting out a great, informative newsletter."

A few other interesting stats:

There are just under 10,000 people on this mailing list.

67% open this email on a desktop; 33% from a phone. I'll bet it seems longer on a phone. :-)

About 26% of those folks open the email every week. Of course, it's not always the same exact people every week.

And about 7% of those who open the email actually click to follow a link somewhere.

I know you get a boatload of email every week. I will continue to work hard to earn your readership.

Please feel free to send me any comments, questions, or feedback. Thank you.

- Karlp

:-)

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