Most growth advice focuses on volume. Get more subscribers, post more often, be everywhere at once.

But sustainable growth focuses on value . Better content, better subscribers, better relationships.

Better engagement led to more trust. More trust led to more sales. More sales meant I could focus on quality instead of quantity.

I stopped promoting my newsletter in random places where I might get a lot of signups and started focusing on attracting people who would actually read and value what I write.

I stopped trying to write content that would appeal to everyone and started writing specifically for the people who were already engaging with my newsletters.

When I shifted my focus to engagement rate, everything changed.

If your engagement rate is going down, you have a content problem or you're attracting the wrong subscribers. Even if your total count is growing.

Here's why this number tells you everything you need to know:

If your engagement rate is going up, your content is getting better and your audience is becoming more valuable. Even if your total subscriber count stays flat.

The metric that actually matters is what I call your "engagement rate" — what percentage of your subscribers are actually reading your newsletters.

total subscribers are what I call a "vanity metric." It makes you feel good but tells you almost nothing about the health of your newsletter.