November 11, 2025 • 14 mins
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I’m all for data-driven decisions, but tracking every download and view? Hard pass. In this episode, I’m breaking down why digital product sellers and service providers don’t need to obsess over endless content stats and what to focus on instead to actually move the needle. We’ll explore the difference between vanity metrics and meaningful engagement, the handful of numbers I track (surprise: not subscriber count), and how simplifying led me to better sales. Plus, you’ll walk away with one simple action step to identify the only metric that matters most for your business right now. If you’re ready to ditch the spreadsheet overload and make real connections with your audience, this one’s for you!
00:42 – The real purpose your content serves if you’re selling digital products or services
03:33 – Key engagement metrics to track for digital sellers, and why quality beats quantity
06:38 – The truth behind vanity metrics and what actually grows your business
08:53 – A simple action step: Pick one engagement metric to track this month
Links & Resources:
- Watch this episode on YouTube
- Follow me on Instagram @kristendoyle.co
- Check out my Everything Page: a one-stop shop for savvy selling!
- The Savvy Seller Collective
- Join my private Facebook community: Savvy Teacher Sellers
- More resources for growing your TPT business
- Rate & review The Savvy Teacher Seller on Apple Podcasts
Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode168
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen Doyle (00:00):
Hey there. Can I be super honest with you about
something today? I am not one ofthose people who just loves
tracking metrics and loggingnumbers and spreadsheets every
week. Now I know, if you'veknown me for a long time, you
know that I am a huge fan ofmaking data driven decisions in
(00:22):
our business. But when it comesto tracking the actual metrics,
I have so much else to do thatfeels more important, and let's
just be real, more fun. I ambusy creating content, working
with clients, selling products.
There is just a lot going on.
So here's what I have learned.
If you're selling digitalproducts or services, when it
(00:45):
comes to your content metrics,you don't need to obsess over
all the metrics and details likecontent creators who make money
from ads or from sponsorshipsdo. See, your content has a
different purpose. It is thereto grow your audience, to
establish your expertise, andeventually to sell your offers.
(01:08):
So when it comes to contentmetrics, we don't necessarily
need to track as much as we needto track on our product metrics.
So today I'm sharing exactlywhich data points I do pay
attention to, how I track themwithout spending tons of time on
(01:29):
spreadsheets, and why engagementmatters so much more than views.
This is especially for you ifyou are one of those people who
loves data but just doesn't havetime to track it constantly.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like Teachers PayTeachers, Etsy, or your own
(01:49):
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place. Welcome toThe Savvy Seller. I'm Kristen
Doyle, and I'm here to give youno-fluff tools and strategies
that move the needle for yourbusiness without burning you out
in the process—things like SEO,no stress marketing, email list
(02:14):
building, automations, and somuch more. Let's get started,
y'all.
So let's talk first about thedifference between engagement
and views. See, views areimportant when you're first
getting started creatingcontent, because it kind of is
(02:34):
one of the only ways we can tellif it's even making a
difference. Is anyone evenseeing the content that I'm
putting out there? But once youare settled into a good content
creation rhythm, you know kindof what your audience generally
likes. You know how to getcontent out there and make sure
people are, you know, able tosee it. Once you get into that
(02:57):
rhythm, then the views become alot less important than the
engagement on the content.
See, I would rather have oneview of this video and have that
person actually engage with it.
Maybe they comment on the video,or they reply to the email and
ask me a follow up question, orsend a DM, maybe they eventually
(03:21):
become a client. I would ratherhave one person view my content
and have them actually engagewith it than have 100 views, but
no one does anything.
When it comes to tracking theengagement on your content,
think about different metrics,not views, but things like, how
many people are commenting onyour content, if you're posting
(03:43):
on a platform that encouragescomments? How many people are
clicking links? Are you gettingsales of the products that
you're talking about? Are peoplereplying to your email or asking
you questions about the content?
Those are the metrics that willtell you two things. One, is
your content making a differencefor the people in your audience,
(04:03):
whether you're impacting theirlives, their businesses, their
jobs, whatever it is that you'retrying to help them with, and
it's the kind of engagementmetrics that will make a
difference in your bank account.
When it comes to tracking thesethings, I keep things pretty
loose and easy because I knowthat the platforms I use are
(04:27):
gathering that data for me. Sofor example, I use Buzzsprout to
host my podcast. It's a greatpodcast hosting platform, and
they have an app that I haveadded to my phone over the last,
maybe about the last year, iswhen I have had that on my
phone. And because I have it onmy phone and I have
notifications turned on, I get aweekly notification with how my
(04:50):
podcast is doing this week. Thatwill tell me total downloads and
how each episode has performedthis week, which is really nice,
because I can see if suddenly anolder episode is getting lots of
downloads, or maybe an episodehas continued to get downloads
week after week for a month ormore. That helps me to see on a
(05:11):
weekly basis how my content isdoing on my podcast.
Before I had the app I would,let's be honest, forget to check
for weeks, maybe months, and Iwould really just rely on the
monthly update that my podcastmanager does for me. So it's
really nice to have somethingthat is proactively sending me
(05:32):
that notification so I don'tforget to look at it.
And then I do a kind of aquarterly deeper dive into the
podcast metrics. I look forthings like the consumption
rate, that's how far you guysare listening to the episodes.
Episodes where, you know, mostpeople drop off at 20% of the
(05:53):
episode, or whatever, that mighttell me this isn't a great topic
for my audience, or that thecontent itself is just too long,
and you guys don't want tolisten that long.
But then I look at the other endof things, where episodes have,
people are listening 80, 85%sometimes those are the ones
where I know, okay, this is theperfect length and the content
is super relevant. People arereally interested in this. And
(06:14):
that one is really important tome, because it helps me
understand if the content I'mcreating is resonating with you
guys. And that is so much moreimportant than just how many
people have downloaded theepisode.
(08:44):
Another thing I have learnedover time is that quality is so
much more important thanquantity. I know how fun it is
to chase those big numbers,those big milestone kind of
numbers. I remember how it feltwhen I hit 100,000 downloads of
this podcast. It was amazing. Ithappened so much faster than I
thought it would, and then whenI hit 200,000, it just feels so
(09:10):
good. But what I have learned isthat those numbers are vanity
metrics.
Another one that I kind ofchased for a while was 25,000
email subscribers. But I learnedthat those are garbage numbers.
They don't really matter,because what really matters,
let's talk about my email listspecifically. When I hit that
(09:30):
25,000 email subscribers, Ilooked at my list, and it turns
out, yeah, I hit a big number,but how many of them were
actually active? What were myopen rates like? What were my
click rates like? Are peoplereplying? And none of those
numbers were good, because I hadjust grown a huge list, but they
weren't the right list. Theyweren't engaged with my content.
(09:53):
All the views, all thesubscribers in the world do not
fill your bank account, unless,of course, the caveat is, if you
are building your business basedon sponsorship and ads. That's a
whole different story. But Ithink most of you guys are in
the product or service business,which means what fills your bank
account is connecting with theright people, not building a
(10:16):
giant list or getting vanitynumbers of views or downloads
every week.
So when I went through thatemail list and cleaned it out, I
cut it to half of what it was,and guess what. I am getting
more sales now. I am gettingbetter open and click rates.
People are replying to mycontent. My email list is
(10:38):
performing so much better at12,000 people than it was at 25.
When you start focusing onmaking a difference for people,
the money will come, becausethey go hand in hand. When you
are really connecting with youraudience, when you are putting
out quality content, when youare prioritizing building those
(10:59):
relationships, making sureyou're creating the right type
of content for people, then thesales naturally flow from that,
because you are building thoserelationships where people want
to buy things from you.
So here is what I want you todo. I want you to pick a
platform that you focus on thisweek, and really think through
(11:19):
it and identify what yourbiggest, most important
engagement metric is for thatplatform. Is it email replies?
Is it YouTube video comments? Isit clicks or sales? Track just
that one number for the nextmonth and see how your content
is doing. Don't try to createanything super fancy. You can
(11:41):
drop this into a super simpleGoogle Sheet, or even just write
it down on a post it notesomewhere. Don't create extra
work until you really need to.
But pick that one metric thatyou're going to track over the
next month, and then see what itteaches you about the kind of
content that resonates with yourpeople. And if your content is
not resonating, maybe it teachesyou, you need to try something
(12:02):
different. For email marketing,stop chasing those big
subscriber numbers and insteadtrack how many people are
opening, clicking and replyingto your emails. In fact, even
those open rates can be a littleinflated right now because of
email filters and scanners andthings like that. So really
focus more on those replies andclicks and sales that you're
(12:25):
getting from your content.
So yes, if you are just gettingstarted putting out content, you
do need to look at those bignumbers, like views and things
to make sure that your contentis getting out there a little
bit. But when it comes to whereyou really should focus your
energy, focus it on thoseengagement and relationship
building metrics, reallytracking if you are making a
(12:48):
difference through your contentfor your people, because that is
what really matters. It's whathelps you make a difference in
their lives, and it is whatfills your bank account. It's
what helps you sell yourservices, your products, your
offers, and pays your bills.
So your action step, like Isaid, for this week, is pick
that one engagement metric totrack, whether it's comments,
email replies, sales, whateverit is, pick the one that matters
(13:11):
the most for your business rightnow and start paying attention
just to that one and what it cantell you to do to make your
content even better. I'll talkto you soon.
Hey there. Can I be super honest with you about
something today? I am not one ofthose people who just loves
tracking metrics and loggingnumbers and spreadsheets every
week. Now I know, if you'veknown me for a long time, you
know that I am a huge fan ofmaking data driven decisions in
(00:22):
our business. But when it comesto tracking the actual metrics,
I have so much else to do thatfeels more important, and let's
just be real, more fun. I ambusy creating content, working
with clients, selling products.
There is just a lot going on.
So here's what I have learned.
If you're selling digitalproducts or services, when it
(00:45):
comes to your content metrics,you don't need to obsess over
all the metrics and details likecontent creators who make money
from ads or from sponsorshipsdo. See, your content has a
different purpose. It is thereto grow your audience, to
establish your expertise, andeventually to sell your offers.
(01:08):
So when it comes to contentmetrics, we don't necessarily
need to track as much as we needto track on our product metrics.
So today I'm sharing exactlywhich data points I do pay
attention to, how I track themwithout spending tons of time on
(01:29):
spreadsheets, and why engagementmatters so much more than views.
This is especially for you ifyou are one of those people who
loves data but just doesn't havetime to track it constantly.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like Teachers PayTeachers, Etsy, or your own
(01:49):
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place. Welcome toThe Savvy Seller. I'm Kristen
Doyle, and I'm here to give youno-fluff tools and strategies
that move the needle for yourbusiness without burning you out
in the process—things like SEO,no stress marketing, email list
(02:14):
building, automations, and somuch more. Let's get started,
y'all.
So let's talk first about thedifference between engagement
and views. See, views areimportant when you're first
getting started creatingcontent, because it kind of is
(02:34):
one of the only ways we can tellif it's even making a
difference. Is anyone evenseeing the content that I'm
putting out there? But once youare settled into a good content
creation rhythm, you know kindof what your audience generally
likes. You know how to getcontent out there and make sure
people are, you know, able tosee it. Once you get into that
(02:57):
rhythm, then the views become alot less important than the
engagement on the content.
See, I would rather have oneview of this video and have that
person actually engage with it.
Maybe they comment on the video,or they reply to the email and
ask me a follow up question, orsend a DM, maybe they eventually
(03:21):
become a client. I would ratherhave one person view my content
and have them actually engagewith it than have 100 views, but
no one does anything.
When it comes to tracking theengagement on your content,
think about different metrics,not views, but things like, how
many people are commenting onyour content, if you're posting
(03:43):
on a platform that encouragescomments? How many people are
clicking links? Are you gettingsales of the products that
you're talking about? Are peoplereplying to your email or asking
you questions about the content?
Those are the metrics that willtell you two things. One, is
your content making a differencefor the people in your audience,
(04:03):
whether you're impacting theirlives, their businesses, their
jobs, whatever it is that you'retrying to help them with, and
it's the kind of engagementmetrics that will make a
difference in your bank account.
When it comes to tracking thesethings, I keep things pretty
loose and easy because I knowthat the platforms I use are
(04:27):
gathering that data for me. Sofor example, I use Buzzsprout to
host my podcast. It's a greatpodcast hosting platform, and
they have an app that I haveadded to my phone over the last,
maybe about the last year, iswhen I have had that on my
phone. And because I have it onmy phone and I have
notifications turned on, I get aweekly notification with how my
(04:50):
podcast is doing this week. Thatwill tell me total downloads and
how each episode has performedthis week, which is really nice,
because I can see if suddenly anolder episode is getting lots of
downloads, or maybe an episodehas continued to get downloads
week after week for a month ormore. That helps me to see on a
(05:11):
weekly basis how my content isdoing on my podcast.
Before I had the app I would,let's be honest, forget to check
for weeks, maybe months, and Iwould really just rely on the
monthly update that my podcastmanager does for me. So it's
really nice to have somethingthat is proactively sending me
(05:32):
that notification so I don'tforget to look at it.
And then I do a kind of aquarterly deeper dive into the
podcast metrics. I look forthings like the consumption
rate, that's how far you guysare listening to the episodes.
Episodes where, you know, mostpeople drop off at 20% of the
(05:53):
episode, or whatever, that mighttell me this isn't a great topic
for my audience, or that thecontent itself is just too long,
and you guys don't want tolisten that long.
But then I look at the other endof things, where episodes have,
people are listening 80, 85%sometimes those are the ones
where I know, okay, this is theperfect length and the content
is super relevant. People arereally interested in this. And
(06:14):
that one is really important tome, because it helps me
understand if the content I'mcreating is resonating with you
guys. And that is so much moreimportant than just how many
people have downloaded theepisode.
(08:44):
Another thing I have learnedover time is that quality is so
much more important thanquantity. I know how fun it is
to chase those big numbers,those big milestone kind of
numbers. I remember how it feltwhen I hit 100,000 downloads of
this podcast. It was amazing. Ithappened so much faster than I
thought it would, and then whenI hit 200,000, it just feels so
(09:10):
good. But what I have learned isthat those numbers are vanity
metrics.
Another one that I kind ofchased for a while was 25,000
email subscribers. But I learnedthat those are garbage numbers.
They don't really matter,because what really matters,
let's talk about my email listspecifically. When I hit that
(09:30):
25,000 email subscribers, Ilooked at my list, and it turns
out, yeah, I hit a big number,but how many of them were
actually active? What were myopen rates like? What were my
click rates like? Are peoplereplying? And none of those
numbers were good, because I hadjust grown a huge list, but they
weren't the right list. Theyweren't engaged with my content.
(09:53):
All the views, all thesubscribers in the world do not
fill your bank account, unless,of course, the caveat is, if you
are building your business basedon sponsorship and ads. That's a
whole different story. But Ithink most of you guys are in
the product or service business,which means what fills your bank
account is connecting with theright people, not building a
(10:16):
giant list or getting vanitynumbers of views or downloads
every week.
So when I went through thatemail list and cleaned it out, I
cut it to half of what it was,and guess what. I am getting
more sales now. I am gettingbetter open and click rates.
People are replying to mycontent. My email list is
(10:38):
performing so much better at12,000 people than it was at 25.
When you start focusing onmaking a difference for people,
the money will come, becausethey go hand in hand. When you
are really connecting with youraudience, when you are putting
out quality content, when youare prioritizing building those
(10:59):
relationships, making sureyou're creating the right type
of content for people, then thesales naturally flow from that,
because you are building thoserelationships where people want
to buy things from you.
So here is what I want you todo. I want you to pick a
platform that you focus on thisweek, and really think through
(11:19):
it and identify what yourbiggest, most important
engagement metric is for thatplatform. Is it email replies?
Is it YouTube video comments? Isit clicks or sales? Track just
that one number for the nextmonth and see how your content
is doing. Don't try to createanything super fancy. You can
(11:41):
drop this into a super simpleGoogle Sheet, or even just write
it down on a post it notesomewhere. Don't create extra
work until you really need to.
But pick that one metric thatyou're going to track over the
next month, and then see what itteaches you about the kind of
content that resonates with yourpeople. And if your content is
not resonating, maybe it teachesyou, you need to try something
(12:02):
different. For email marketing,stop chasing those big
subscriber numbers and insteadtrack how many people are
opening, clicking and replyingto your emails. In fact, even
those open rates can be a littleinflated right now because of
email filters and scanners andthings like that. So really
focus more on those replies andclicks and sales that you're
(12:25):
getting from your content.
So yes, if you are just gettingstarted putting out content, you
do need to look at those bignumbers, like views and things
to make sure that your contentis getting out there a little
bit. But when it comes to whereyou really should focus your
energy, focus it on thoseengagement and relationship
building metrics, reallytracking if you are making a
(12:48):
difference through your contentfor your people, because that is
what really matters. It's whathelps you make a difference in
their lives, and it is whatfills your bank account. It's
what helps you sell yourservices, your products, your
offers, and pays your bills.
So your action step, like Isaid, for this week, is pick
that one engagement metric totrack, whether it's comments,
email replies, sales, whateverit is, pick the one that matters
(13:11):
the most for your business rightnow and start paying attention
just to that one and what it cantell you to do to make your
content even better. I'll talkto you soon.
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