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These Metrics Don’t Lie
Sometimes, we all need a little dopamine hit. A viral reel can feel intoxicating, as can the follower boost that comes after the fact. But if those new followers aren’t turning into customers, well, what’s the point?
This week, we’re breaking down the difference between awareness, engagement, and how to tell if your early-stage marketing is moving in the right direction.
LET’S GO →
Strategy Spotlight
Is Anybody Out There?!
The Vanity Metric Problem
Most founders track the metrics that feel good: total followers, total website visits, total email subscribers. These numbers are easy to find, easy to report in a slide deck, and almost completely useless for making marketing decisions.
A follower count tells you how many people have clicked a button, but it tells you nothing about whether those people are your ideal customer or whether any of them will ever buy anything.
The metrics that actually matter at the awareness and engagement stages are the ones that tell you whether the right people are finding you.
Awareness Metrics Worth Tracking
Instead of total followers, track follower growth rate: new followers divided by total followers. A small account growing at 5% per week is healthier than a large account growing at 0.1%.
Instead of total website visits, track branded vs. non-branded search in Google Search Console. If everyone who finds you is already searching for your name, your awareness marketing isn't working yet. Non-branded search traffic means strangers are finding you through content, and that's the signal you want to see growing.
Engagement Metrics Worth Tracking
For email, open rate matters less than click-through rate. Someone who opens but never clicks is giving you polite attention, but someone who clicks is telling you something actually caught their interest.
Continuing Education
Everything we read and loved this week.
Action of the Week
Open your analytics platform and find the one metric at the awareness stage and the one metric at the engagement stage that you aren't currently tracking. Set up tracking for both before the end of the week.
Until next time!
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