The importance of meeting expectations
And why I failed.
Considering I’ve critiqued my friends and former colleagues previously in this space (sorry again!) it’s time to hold myself accountable.
At various points in this Substack I’ve mentioned the goal of shaping audience habit. The more you can drill into your audience’s collective brain that they can expect X at Y time, the more likely they are to seek it out on that same schedule. Call it appointment viewing, call it habit, call it a Pavlovian response, but at 1 p.m. on Sundays in the fall, I’m sitting down to watch NFL football. Or on Monday at 8 a.m., I’m loading Wordle. That’s part of my routine.
What this means is that I’m deep down the proverbial audience funnel for those products. I’m as engaged as you can be. That’s the goal when you’re creating anything. Maximum, repeated engagement.
I missed Monday’s newsletter. You may have (hopefully?) noticed. I had a post ready to go but I started the day by flying with my family and then spent the rest of it visiting my parents (and then watching the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team ungracefully bow out of Copa America). The point is, by saying I’m going to post three times a week, and then falling short of that, I have failed to deliver to my audience. Moreover, the repeated instances of posting after my self-mandated deadline of 8:45 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays also mucks with audience expectations.
I want to provide my audience with something to read before they start their work day. When I post later in the day, I may miss my one shot to get someone’s time and attention.
The metrics bear this out. The posts I’ve scheduled for 8:45 a.m. almost always have a higher open rate and readership than those posted later in the day. This makes sense at a number of levels. First, I’ve set an expectation of delivering at a certain time, and second, I selected that time because I wanted to make it easier for the audience to consume the writing in a window that is (usually) uncluttered by work/childcare/other responsibilities. I want to make it easy on the audience to consume my product. When I don’t do that, the numbers show I pay a price. It’s a lesson worth learning and, in my case, remembering.
All of that said, allow me to set expectations for the next two weeks. I’m on vacation and will be spending this time sleeping, sweating and searching for wayward tee shots in various golf course hazards. I’ll also be scouring for more material when this resumes on July 17. Until then!
Hi, I’m Mike. I’m a former editor for The Washington Post and ESPN. In 2024 I founded and now operate Launcher, LLC, a digital media consultancy operating out of Arlington, Va. Want to work together? Reach out on LinkedIn.