The ONLY 3 Metrics You Need to Grow Your Online Business

How often do you find yourself looking at your content after you post to see if anyone liked or commented?

Constantly?

Metrics like Likes, Shares, and Comments are what are known as Vanity Metrics.

Sure, they make us feel good. But are they actually making us money in our businesses??

No.

While these metrics do play a role in seeing which type of content is performing better than others, the problem is our over-obsession with them, and the time wasted checking on it over and over again.

If we want to actually make money with our online businesses, there are only 3 key metrics that drive real revenue.

By paying attention to these 3 things, you'll be able to quickly assess the health of your business and know exactly what to focus on and when.

The 3 Key Metrics

#1: Traffic

The first key metric is traffic. 

How many monthly users are you getting on your blog, podcast, and YouTube channel? And how many of those viewers are moving to your website and seeing your opt in page? 

Blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos are far more “passive” than social media posts because they run 24/7 and are discoverable forever until you decide to take them down. But, if you have a good social media following that’s really engaged with you, you can use that as well.

Just remember: More traffic, that consists of your ideal audience, the better.

While metrics like views, subscribers, likes, and shares do matter, they alone won't produce as much income as getting email opt-ins. A good baseline for monthly traffic is 3,000 visitors. Anything more than that and you’re doing solid.

#2: Email Opt-ins

The second key metric is email opt-ins. 

What percentage of your traffic source(s) is converting into email subscribers? A good baseline for conversion rates is 2-5%, but you can obviously go higher. 

Email opt-ins are important because they allow you to build a relationship with your audience and market your products or services to them.

And the best part is… emails can be fully automated!

That’s exactly what I show you how to do in this guide.

#3: Sales from Opt-ins

The third and final key metric is sales from opt-ins. 

What percentage of people that opt-in to your email list actually buy your products or book a phone call with you? A good baseline for conversion rates is also 2-5%, but you can obviously go higher. 

Sales from opt-ins are important because they provide the revenue that fuels your automated online business.

Examples of How This Works

Let's take a look at two examples to see how these metrics work in real life.

Example #1 - Carly:

Carly gets 3,000 visitors per month to her website. Her opt-in rate is 3%, which means she gets 90 new email subscribers per month. 

Her sales conversion rate is 5% for a $47 product. This means she makes roughly 4 sales per month, which equals $212/month. 

But if she chose to sell a $97 product, she would make $437/month. 

Here’s where it gets interesting...

Carly could easily create a “second tier” for her product by just adding a couple of bonuses to her $47 product to make that $97 another option on her sales page.

Now, let’s say Carly’s traffic and sales conversion numbers stayed exactly the same, but she was able to jump her opt-in rate to 9%, she would make 13 sales per month off the same amount of traffic, which equals $611/month - either by making a better lead magnet or making her opt-in copy more intriguing.

Example #2 - Bob:

On the other hand, we have Bob, who gets 10,000 visitors per month to his website. 

His opt-in rate is 15%, which means he gets about 1,500 new email subscribers per month. 

His sales conversion rate is 3% for a $297 product, so he makes 45 sales per month, which equals $13,365/month. 

Now, if Bob either raised the price for his product or added a few bonuses like Carly making it a $397 product, that one change would make him $17,865/month! 

But if his traffic, opt in, and product stayed exactly the same and just his sales conversion rate bumped up to 5% (because he got better at copywriting), he would be making 75 sales per month off of his $297 product, which equals $22,275/month!

Can you see how a few small tweaks can make a massive difference in the health of your business?

What To Pay Attention To

To assess the health of your business, dive into your data by pulling up analytics for website traffic, opt-ins, and checkout pages. 

Write down your site traffic, opt-ins, and sales over the past 3 months and get it all in front of you. 

Determine which metric you need to work on the most. 

For example…

If you're barely getting traffic, focus on creating more quality content that your ideal audience is searching for. 

If you're getting traffic, but little to no opt-ins, look into your lead magnet offer or opt-in copy - is it compelling enough? 

If you're getting steady traffic and a 2-5%+ conversion rate for opt-ins but no sales, reassess your sales copy. 

Double down on the ONE metric that needs the most work and you will have a healthier — and wealthier — business.

Conclusion

By focusing on these three key metrics – traffic, email opt-ins, and sales from opt-ins – you can grow an automated online business that runs even when you're not working. 

Vanity metrics may feel good, but they don't provide the revenue that fuels your business.

Take the time to see where your business needs attention and double down on it so your online business can grow.