Small Business Savvy | Web Design, Systems, and Marketing

168. Stop Obsessing Over Vanity Metrics and Start Tracking What Pays the Bills

• Kristen Doyle, TPT seller, SEO coach, and web designer

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0:00 | 12:52

I’m all for data-driven decisions, but tracking every download and view? Hard pass. In this episode, I’m breaking down why digital product sellers and service providers don’t need to obsess over endless content stats and what to focus on instead to actually move the needle. We’ll explore the difference between vanity metrics and meaningful engagement, the handful of numbers I track (surprise: not subscriber count), and how simplifying led me to better sales. Plus, you’ll walk away with one simple action step to identify the only metric that matters most for your business right now. If you’re ready to ditch the spreadsheet overload and make real connections with your audience, this one’s for you!

00:42 – The real purpose your content serves if you’re selling digital products or services

03:33 – Key engagement metrics to track for digital sellers, and why quality beats quantity

06:38 – The truth behind vanity metrics and what actually grows your business

08:53 – A simple action step: Pick one engagement metric to track this month

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Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode168 

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Kristen Doyle:

Hey there. Can I be super honest with you about something today? I am not one of those people who just loves tracking metrics and logging numbers and spreadsheets every week. Now I know, if you've known me for a long time, you know that I am a huge fan of making data driven decisions in our business. But when it comes to tracking the actual metrics, I have so much else to do that feels more important, and let's just be real, more fun. I am busy creating content, working with clients, selling products. There is just a lot going on. So here's what I have learned. If you're selling digital products or services, when it comes to your content metrics, you don't need to obsess over all the metrics and details like content creators who make money from ads or from sponsorships do. See, your content has a different purpose. It is there to grow your audience, to establish your expertise, and eventually to sell your offers. So when it comes to content metrics, we don't necessarily need to track as much as we need to track on our product metrics. So today I'm sharing exactly which data points I do pay attention to, how I track them without spending tons of time on spreadsheets, and why engagement matters so much more than views. This is especially for you if you are one of those people who loves data but just doesn't have time to track it constantly. Are you a digital product or course creator, selling on platforms like Teachers Pay Teachers, Etsy, or your own website? Ready to grow your business, but not into the kind of constant hustle that leads straight to burnout? Then you're in the right place. Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'm Kristen Doyle, and I'm here to give you no-fluff tools and strategies that move the needle for your business without burning you out in the process—things like SEO, no stress marketing, email list building, automations, and so much more. Let's get started, y'all. So let's talk first about the difference between engagement and views. See, views are important when you're first getting started creating content, because it kind of is one of the only ways we can tell if it's even making a difference. Is anyone even seeing the content that I'm putting out there? But once you are settled into a good content creation rhythm, you know kind of what your audience generally likes. You know how to get content out there and make sure people are, you know, able to see it. Once you get into that rhythm, then the views become a lot less important than the engagement on the content. See, I would rather have one view of this video and have that person actually engage with it. Maybe they comment on the video, or they reply to the email and ask me a follow up question, or send a DM, maybe they eventually become a client. I would rather have one person view my content and have them actually engage with it than have 100 views, but no one does anything. When it comes to tracking the engagement on your content, think about different metrics, not views, but things like, how many people are commenting on your content, if you're posting on a platform that encourages comments? How many people are clicking links? Are you getting sales of the products that you're talking about? Are people replying to your email or asking you questions about the content? Those are the metrics that will tell you two things. One, is your content making a difference for the people in your audience, whether you're impacting their lives, their businesses, their jobs, whatever it is that you're trying to help them with, and it's the kind of engagement metrics that will make a difference in your bank account. When it comes to tracking these things, I keep things pretty loose and easy because I know that the platforms I use are gathering that data for me. So for example, I use Buzzsprout to host my podcast. It's a great podcast hosting platform, and they have an app that I have added to my phone over the last, maybe about the last year, is when I have had that on my phone. And because I have it on my phone and I have notifications turned on, I get a weekly notification with how my podcast is doing this week. That will tell me total downloads and how each episode has performed this week, which is really nice, because I can see if suddenly an older episode is getting lots of downloads, or maybe an episode has continued to get downloads week after week for a month or more. That helps me to see on a weekly basis how my content is doing on my podcast. Before I had the app I would, let's be honest, forget to check for weeks, maybe months, and I would really just rely on the monthly update that my podcast manager does for me. So it's really nice to have something that is proactively sending me that notification so I don't forget to look at it. And then I do a kind of a quarterly deeper dive into the podcast metrics. I look for things like the consumption rate, that's how far you guys are listening to the episodes. Episodes where, you know, most people drop off at 20% of the episode, or whatever, that might tell me this isn't a great topic for my audience, or that the content itself is just too long, and you guys don't want to listen that long. But then I look at the other end of things, where episodes have, people are listening 80, 85% sometimes those are the ones where I know, okay, this is the perfect length and the content is super relevant. People are really interested in this. And that one is really important to me, because it helps me understand if the content I'm creating is resonating with you guys. And that is so much more important than just how many people have downloaded the episode. Another thing I have learned over time is that quality is so much more important than quantity. I know how fun it is to chase those big numbers, those big milestone kind of numbers. I remember how it felt when I hit 100,000 downloads of this podcast. It was amazing. It happened so much faster than I thought it would, and then when I hit 200,000, it just feels so good. But what I have learned is that those numbers are vanity metrics. Another one that I kind of chased for a while was 25,000 email subscribers. But I learned that those are garbage numbers. They don't really matter, because what really matters, let's talk about my email list specifically. When I hit that 25,000 email subscribers, I looked at my list, and it turns out, yeah, I hit a big number, but how many of them were actually active? What were my open rates like? What were my click rates like? Are people replying? And none of those numbers were good, because I had just grown a huge list, but they weren't the right list. They weren't engaged with my content. All the views, all the subscribers in the world do not fill your bank account, unless, of course, the caveat is, if you are building your business based on sponsorship and ads. That's a whole different story. But I think most of you guys are in the product or service business, which means what fills your bank account is connecting with the right people, not building a giant list or getting vanity numbers of views or downloads every week. So when I went through that email list and cleaned it out, I cut it to half of what it was, and guess what. I am getting more sales now. I am getting better open and click rates. People are replying to my content. My email list is performing so much better at 12,000 people than it was at 25. When you start focusing on making a difference for people, the money will come, because they go hand in hand. When you are really connecting with your audience, when you are putting out quality content, when you are prioritizing building those relationships, making sure you're creating the right type of content for people, then the sales naturally flow from that, because you are building those relationships where people want to buy things from you. So here is what I want you to do. I want you to pick a platform that you focus on this week, and really think through it and identify what your biggest, most important engagement metric is for that platform. Is it email replies? Is it YouTube video comments? Is it clicks or sales? Track just that one number for the next month and see how your content is doing. Don't try to create anything super fancy. You can drop this into a super simple Google Sheet, or even just write it down on a post it note somewhere. Don't create extra work until you really need to. But pick that one metric that you're going to track over the next month, and then see what it teaches you about the kind of content that resonates with your people. And if your content is not resonating, maybe it teaches you, you need to try something different. For email marketing, stop chasing those big subscriber numbers and instead track how many people are opening, clicking and replying to your emails. In fact, even those open rates can be a little inflated right now because of email filters and scanners and things like that. So really focus more on those replies and clicks and sales that you're getting from your content. So yes, if you are just getting started putting out content, you do need to look at those big numbers, like views and things to make sure that your content is getting out there a little bit. But when it comes to where you really should focus your energy, focus it on those engagement and relationship building metrics, really tracking if you are making a difference through your content for your people, because that is what really matters. It's what helps you make a difference in their lives, and it is what fills your bank account. It's what helps you sell your services, your products, your offers, and pays your bills. So your action step, like I said, for this week, is pick that one engagement metric to track, whether it's comments, email replies, sales, whatever it is, pick the one that matters the most for your business right now and start paying attention just to that one and what it can tell you to do to make your content even better. I'll talk to you soon.