Newsletter performance report

Purpose

A sponsor or client wants to know whether a newsletter is working, and they want to trust the numbers. A raw export does not do that. This skill builds a report that states what each figure means, shows the growth and the readers who engage, and stays accurate when it is refreshed.

When to use

• A sponsor or client needs a regular report on a newsletter.
• A newsletter owner wants a clearer view of their own performance.
• A reporting process is being automated and the narrative risks drifting from the numbers.

Route elsewhere when:

• The question is what to write in the next issue. Use newsletter-issue-formats.
• The question is the welcome sequence. Use newsletter-subscriber-onboarding.
• The question is the sponsor offer itself. Use cold-offer-architect.

Inputs

• Subscriber counts by date, with new subscribers and unsubscribes.
• For each issue: sends or deliveries, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes.
• Audience segments, if the publication holds them.
• The list of readers who clicked, for the engaged-reader export.
• The previous period's report, for comparison.

The click-rate trap

Platforms often report a click rate whose denominator is opens, not deliveries. A low open rate then makes click rate look high, and the figure is misread. Always:

• state the denominator beside every rate,
• show the click rate on deliveries as well as on opens if the platform allows,
• never compare a click rate on opens with one on deliveries.

Procedure

1. Build the audience growth view. Show subscriber count, net growth, and new subscribers by month, with unsubscribes shown beside them.
2. Build the per-issue view. For each issue: deliveries, opens, clicks, unsubscribes, with each rate's denominator stated.
3. Build the segment view, if segments exist. Show engagement by segment, with the minimum volume the team accepts before judging a segment.
4. Write the month-over-month synopsis. Three to five sentences: what grew, what fell, and the one thing to watch. Draft it from the figures, not from memory.
5. Produce the engaged-reader export, listing readers who clicked in the period, for the owner's own use. Check the export against the privacy rules that apply to the list.
6. Add the per-issue measures that matter to the sponsor, such as clicks on the sponsored item, set out separately from newsletter-wide figures.
7. Set up the refresh. Regenerate the narrative from the figures each time the report runs. Do not edit the narrative by hand between runs, because it drifts from the numbers.

Output

• The report, with the growth view, the per-issue view, the segment view, and the synopsis.
• Every rate shown with its denominator.
• The engaged-reader export, for the owner.
• The refresh plan, with the rule that narrative is regenerated from the figures.

Quality bar

Every rate states its denominator. No click rate on opens is compared with one on deliveries. The synopsis is drafted from the current figures. The engaged-reader export respects the list's privacy rules. Watch for a click rate presented without its denominator, a narrative left over from a previous period, and segments judged on a handful of readers.