Last week a few people unsubscribed from these emails.

My first reaction?

That familiar sting we all feel when someone opts out.

I immediately dove into my latest messages, hunting for what I’d done wrong. Didn’t seem like I’d changed too much.

Now, I’m looking at this week’s analytics.

Open rates are up.

Of course they are. 🤦‍♂️ The people who unsubscribed weren’t reading anyway.

Even after 30 years in marketing, I had let myself forget the most fundamental truth about email engagement:

The only metric that truly matters is whether people are opening and reading.

Those who don’t engage are NOT your audience — they’re just numbers artificially deflating your key metrics.

It’s like developing products.

You can’t be everything to everyone either. The moment you try, you risk losing the folks who matter most.

Action for today: Look at your own engagement metrics. Like it was for me, it’s sometimes hard to be objective about your own stats. Are you hanging onto subscribers, customers, or social followers who aren’t truly your audience? What might happen if you focused solely on delighting the ones who are?

P.S. If my emails aren’t hitting the mark for YOU, I absolutely want you to unsubscribe. But first, please tap that reply arrow and tell me what you really were hoping for when you signed up. Your feedback helps shape what I do next, and avoid attracting readers who aren’t going to be the right fit.

Want to dive deeper into finding and delighting YOUR ideal audience? My team of product strategy experts at Graphos Product can help map the path forward.