Why people stop reading your content
What to do when subscribers & followers just don't care anymore?
Technology companies are extremely data-driven.
One of the metrics they follow rigorously is customer churn.
Customer churn (or customer attrition) refers to the loss of customers or subscribers for any reason at all.
Customer churn is the number of users who stop using the app they downloaded, but can also refer to the people who stop reading the newsletter they subscribed to, or unfollow a content creator they once loved.
A low churn means you have:
An engaged audience that is likely to buy from you (even at a high price)
A strong marketing strategy that reaches and attracts your ideal clients
A solid business that’s ready to scale
Isn’t that what we all want?
So, how “low” is your churn? And what is “low” to begin with?
Let’s talk numbers.
The typical SaaS churn rate is about 5%. A good one is about 3%.
What about e-mail marketing? According to Mailchimp, “for every 100 hundred people you send an email to you should expect to have 2 or 3 unsubscribe from that email content.”
Mailchimp offers reliable data, but Substack is different in how it engages customers. For example, Substackers have 30–50% open rates, while Mailchimp quotes 17% average across industries.
Substack aren’t as clear (or maybe not as open?) with their unsubscribed data, but from what I could find, anything under 5% per month is reasonably good.
With Medium and social media, these numbers are even harder to track. For one thing, we see a lot of follow for follow there, which means many unfollows aren’t motivated by the lack of interest.
However, some are. Some people just don’t care about your content anymore.
So what happened?
And what can we do to keep the attention of our audience, and lower our unsubscribed or inactive users?
Let’s see.
Today’s newsletter is inspired by this detailed article on SAAS churn rates & possible counter strategies, written by copywriter Esther-Grace Okonkwo for the Copyhackers blog.
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Secret to Success: Keep your audience engaged
In this newsletter:
Why we lose people who seemed interested.
How to prevent high churn rates. For paid subscribers only.
The ultimate habit-forming factors so your audience uses your content/product regularly. For paid subscribers only.
3 more strategies to avoid unsubscribers. For paid subscribers only.
Why we lose people who seemed interested.
Here are the 7 reasons people give up on reading your content or paying for your product/membership.
Do you notice something interesting? Four out of those seven can be improved with better communication.
Attracting the wrong customers is usually a problem with the messaging.
Poor customer support means your audience feels “not taken care of.”
Poor onboarding means your audience doesn’t know how to use your content or product.
Customers not achieving their desired outcomes is a reflection of the quality, clarity and specificity of your content.
Future of SaaS reported that after onboarding, 78% of SaaS marketers said proactive and frequent communication was their top retention strategy.
Isn’t this true for content creators as well? Communication is everything in the online world.
How to communicate better as a content creator? Read on.
How to prevent high churn rates.
Let’s look at the 4 communication problems and tackle them, one by one.
Wrong message to begin with.
I, for one, am worried that I might be attracting the wrong type of audience for my newsletter with a bio that talks about money.
One-Person Business Success is not a money-first newsletter. I won’t give you hacks to make some money quickly.
I’ll help you build a real, value-driven, long-lasting, highly profitable business that you can run on your terms.
If you’re in this for a quick buck, this is the wrong newsletter.
So I’ve been thinking lately that I need to update my current bio which reads:
I’m still considering ways to rephrase this so it speaks about financial opportunities without hinting at quick money.
You get my point, don’t you? Could it be that you’re attracting the wrong kind of audience? People who aren’t interested in what you have to offer, but in something else?
Look at your bios, website, and existing content and think this through.
Poor customer support.
For content creators, this reflects how responsive we are. I’ve been more careful about responding to questions and comments lately, and it’s made a difference. I get more paid subscribers and more responses to my questions, whenever I ask them.
All of us need to get better at both starting conversations and leading them the right way.
Poor onboarding.
Many people see the welcome e-mail or the first video in their course as just a Hey, welcome.
A good welcome does so much more than that. It clarifies: