The allure of empathy for some is an equally powerful deterrent for others.
While I haven’t made a point to look at the MailChimp statistics with any regularity, I’m forced to see the number of subscribers before sending each email. This morning I noticed an unexpected drop and decided to do a bit of exploration into the data.
From 2/16 to 2/24, the list’s subscriber count and open rate remained unusually steady. The number of subscribers fluctuated no more than four per day and the open rate was consistently 10-12% regardless of the email’s topic. The latter of which is surprising considering the discussions spanned democratic social platforms, collaborative competition, customer experience design, and personal branding.
Over the last four days the subscriber count has dipped more dramatically with each email, scaling somewhat progressively from three to eight unsubscribes with the open rate dipping from 10.6% to 8.7%. It’s not a bother, but rather a curiosity.
When I started this experiment my goal was quite literally…
( I didn’t actually miss two days, but may have forgotten to check in )
As I’ve eluded to before, the list had been a source of angst. It was something I’d worked to build and never made the investment to leverage. I figured the best way to overcome a fears is to face them head on and thus the daily email series was born.
The goal wasn’t audience development or customer acquisition, but rather creative release. As I prepare to re-launch Ghost Influence with a more cohesive web presence, these emails are being uploaded as articles. It’s becoming ever more obvious that your prompts, whether a wave of colorful conversations or no response at all, have pushed me to create more “content” in 40 days than I have, of any form, throughout my entire adult life (roughly 40K words including non-email content).
Prompting this email, yesterday’s ‘Geography of Genius’ (which was for all intensive purposes an unaffiliated book review), received a few illuminating unsubscribes:
The ‘no longer interested’ response is something I understand as a daily email is nothing less than intense. The ‘spammy content’ one is a bit perplexing considering that in 40 emails I haven’t attempted to sell anything. The final response prompted the furrowing of my brow and was followed by a hearty chuckle.
Not everyone wants to go deep.
With their parting words consisting of just six characters, it was obvious that this person (who’s name I don’t know) isn’t in my minority. Some people are compelled by the opportunity for an emotional connection with a brand while others are repelled by the notion — they just want a transactional relationship. If Tinder has taught me anything it’s that everyone has different objectives at different times in their lives.
If you’re trying to appeal to everyone, you’ll end up appealing to no one.
The relevance of the notion ‘do as you love and you will find those that love as you do’ extends far beyond the realm of dating for which it was intended. The web is awash with self-proclaimed experts blindly serving advice proclamations, but there is only one thing that you (or your brand) should do — you.
History, in every capacity, favors the bold.
Be bold this week. Whether your chosen medium is a marketing email, outreach to a potential business partner, or making a pass at the cutest girl in the cafe — be bold.
As Steve Jobs once said, “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”
What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?