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Unlocking Business Success by Harnessing Quality Data
The Problem with Vanity Metrics
Vanity metrics are the numbers that look impressive on paper but don't necessarily translate into business success. These include subscriber counts, follower numbers, and even certain web traffic statistics. While it's easy to get caught up in these figures, Amy emphasizes that they often feed our ego rather than our growth.
Why Vanity Metrics Mislead
Vanity metrics can create a false sense of achievement. You might grow your email list to 10,000 subscribers or gain thousands of followers on social media, but if these numbers don’t reflect engagement or conversions, they're practically useless. At worst, they can misguide your business strategies and lead you down unproductive paths.
Ego as the Biggest Overhead
Entrepreneurs are often hesitant to trim these inflated numbers because they represent hard work and effort. Removing inactive subscribers feels like taking a step backward. However, as Amy points out, ego is the biggest overhead for any business. To move forward effectively, we need to adopt a mindset that honors quality over quantity.
Cleaning Up Your Email List
One of the most actionable steps Amy suggests is regularly cleaning up your email list. This doesn't have to be a time-consuming task but should become a regular part of your business maintenance routine.
Why It Matters
Inactive subscribers skew your open rates and engagement metrics. These inaccurate figures make it difficult to understand your audience genuinely and can mislead your marketing strategies. Removing these inactive subscribers ensures that the data you’re analyzing reflects genuine interest, making it easier to craft content and campaigns that resonate with your engaged audience.
Steps to Clean Your List
Segment Inactive Subscribers:
Identify subscribers who haven’t engaged with your emails in the last six months.
Send Re-engagement Campaigns:
Create a series of emails aimed at re-engaging these inactive subscribers. If there is still no interaction, it’s time to say goodbye.
Automate the Process:
Use automation tools to periodically cleanse your email list, keeping it fresh and engaged.
Decoding Social Media Metrics
Social media is another area where vanity metrics are rampant. Amy dives into the value of meaningful engagement over sheer follower numbers.
Identifying Fake Followers
Larger social media accounts often have a significant number of fake or bot followers, which skews engagement metrics. An account with 10,000 followers getting only a handful of likes or comments on posts should raise a red flag.
Tools for Cleansing
Regularly examine your social media followers, particularly new ones. Use tools that can help identify and remove bots and inactive accounts. This simple habit ensures that your engagement rate—likes, shares, comments—is a more accurate representation of your actual reach.
Prioritizing Engagement Over Numbers
The ultimate goal is to communicate effectively with an audience that values what you have to offer. This means shifting the focus from quantity to quality.
Quality Engagement
The best way to measure this is by tracking engagement metrics which include likes, shares, comments, and other forms of interaction. These metrics show active interest and can guide you in tailoring your content strategy to meet your audience's needs.
Action Creates Momentum
Removing inactive subscribers and fake followers may seem counterintuitive initially, but it creates a more accurate picture of your audience. Amy underscores the importance of getting into action as a way to build momentum.
Set Small, Achievable Goals
Start with small, achievable tasks. Clean up a portion of your email list, remove a few fake followers, and watch your engagement metrics. This initial action will create momentum, leading to more insightful data, which in turn will drive better business decisions.
Conclusion
By focusing on quality data and overcoming the vanity metrics trap, you enable your business to grow sustainably. Regularly cleaning your email list and social media followers ensures you’re working with accurate data, leading to better engagement and higher conversion rates. The next time you feel your ego getting in the way, remember Amy's valuable advice: what truly counts is meaningful engagement that translates into business success.
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Transcript for Episode 387. The Mistake You're Making When Leveraging Your Data
Amy [00:00:54]:
It's absolutely fine. But remember, awareness is the very first step to change. So what is it? It's really forgetting to look at the quality of the data that you have. Yes, you may be tracking your data, but are you looking at quality data? Are you taking the time to go into your email list and regularly clean out inactive subscribers? It doesn't take that long. And if this is something that bothers you, it's time to take another look at why. Why does this bother you? And most of the time, it comes down to ego. Ego is our biggest overhead. I believe it was Chris Harder that said that, and it's true.
Amy [00:01:47]:
We don't like to remove subscribers from our email list because we worked so hard to get that number built up. But what happens is we're getting skewed data. If we're not taking the time to regularly clean the list, we're not getting quality data as to what truly is that open rate? Because if someone hasn't opened an email from you in the last six months, chances are they're not really interested in what you have to offer. And that's okay. Businesses close down all the time. People pivot, people shift, and they might just not be interested in what you offer. And maybe they're one of those people that have 10,000 emails in their inbox and they're just like, you know what? I don't have the time for this right now. And that's okay.
Amy [00:02:43]:
But when you take the time to clean your list, you really see, okay, who's actually interested in what I am offering? You get a much clearer picture of the data. What is resonating with people? What are people opening? What are people clicking on? That data right there is pure gold. And when you leverage it and leverage it Strategically, you see results in your business. So the first step is making sure you take the time to clean your email list. And then the other place I really see a lot of skewed data coming out of is social media. And social media is a whole nother beast. Right. This is something that I really dive into inside of Metrics Mastery, talking about those vanity metrics.
Amy [00:03:37]:
Which metrics you need to be tracking because you can really use them to grow your business, and which ones are just kind of those shiny objects? They're like the glitter of metrics. They're nice and sparkly and shiny. And yes, it's fun to see. Wow, look at all these followers that I have. But how many of those are bots? How many of those are inactive accounts? And you can really see this in action when you go and look at some of these bigger accounts. It's really obvious in accounts that have anywhere from 10,000 followers on up. Go in and get curious, because you can go and see who's following them 99% of the time. There's a ton of bots and fake accounts.
Amy [00:04:25]:
And you know how to spot them. It's so easy. It's one of those things that you open it up and you're like, really? These are the people that are following this account. This is what is triggering that comparison mode. This is what's making me spiral out of control because I don't have 10,000 followers. It's a vanity metric. What we really want to look at is that engagement. Who's actually engaging with our content, because again, those are our warmer leads.
Amy [00:04:55]:
It doesn't matter what that number of followers is. It's again, your ego. Your ego getting in the way. But when you get curious and start digging through the context behind the data, you realize, ooh, gosh, they're only getting two to three likes on their post, yet they have 10,000 subscribers or 10,000 followers. Like, there's a disconnect there. But when you take the time to go through and just do this, you know, once a week or even, you know, as you're going through your day, when you get on social media to see who started following you, if it's a bot account, just remove it. It's okay. Your worth has nothing to do with that number.
Amy [00:05:42]:
I know so many business owners that have less than a thousand followers yet are making multiple six figures a year. Social media is just a piece of the puzzle. But when we have that quality data, we get a better perspective as to what is that engagement rate. Are those people that are in my audience, qualified buyers, we want to be speaking to that one person. It does you no good if you are shouting into the abyss to people that do not care about what you are bringing to the table. But when you position yourself in front of the right people that have the need for what you offer, gosh, right there, that's the solution. But again, it is the ego. You have to be willing to check your ego and realize that doesn't matter.
Amy [00:06:43]:
Those followers don't matter. What matters is that you're talking to the one person, the one person that needs what you offer. And doing those two things, really taking the time to clear out those inactive subscribers from social media and from your email list, it will help you improve the quality of your data. Now don't overcomplicate this. Remember, simple is sustainable and I don't want you to sit in analysis paralysis. Get into action. Take that one step step forward. Because action creates momentum, momentum creates results.
Amy [00:07:33]:
And when you get into action, you have so much data that you can use to propel yourself forward. It is easier than you think. You do not have to be a numbers person, but this is the missing piece to business success. So this week I want you to take the time to clear out those lists. Clear out all those inactive accounts, check your ego at the door and then watch. Watch your engagement rate. Watch your open rate. I guarantee they will increase.
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