- Published on
Ship fast and get freaking used to failing
- Authors
- Name
- Sandra Djajic
- @TakoTreba
Hello lovely people, we will start this one with one big bold statement.
"The more you fail, the higher the chance of success." I hate this line... The only time this line works is if you have already succeeded and you're sitting on a yacht, holding a drink, listening to ocean waves while your mother is writing a book called “How I Raised a Genius”. But when you're in the storm of failure, picking yourself up, finding motivation can be the hardest thing ever.
Okay, I sound too negative. But it's true. Failure is a mess, and going from one failure to another is an even bigger mess. Just believing that one day you will succeed is so freaking hard. So, someone tell me why and how we are doing this every day, over and over again.
Story time, a month ago, I decided to crack the code of email marketing. And I’m not talking about simple email automation and newsletters; I mean proper targeted outreach to customers and doing it all the way. One month and 50 emails later, and my mother hasn't started writing the book. The open rate and click-through rate were so bad. But then, with the 51st email, I hit the jackpot with one that got a 42% open rate, a 32% CTR, and a 9% conversion rate on the landing page. I mean, someone should give me an award.
But it got me thinking why did I decide to stick with this strategy after failure upon failure? Because of the lessons I learned. First, I learned which headlines worked best, which subject lines had the highest open rates, how to A/B test content, which buttons performed best, and what type of content resonated with the target audience. In a month, I learned so much. Failures are not great; they make us feel like crap. But one thing you can take from each failure is a lesson to fail just a bit less in the next project.
Just a quick note: I am writing this email in Finland. Summer is here, and I don't want to complain about the heat, but this time I am complaining about the bugs. It's so bad, and I am jealous that Sentry is only keeping bugs away from Klu code and not from me. Also seems like Marc is a big fan too.
Anyway, back to the theory of failure. We brought some exciting guests to the last episode of the Morning Maker Show: Marie and Marc Lou. Looking at these amazing people who have launched and tried multiple projects, they all said the same thing: failing means learning.
So, here's to failing fast, learning faster, and eventually succeeding. Keep pushing, keep trying, and one day, we'll all be sitting on that yacht while our mothers are having bestsellers all around the world.
Also, to prove my theory about failures, here's Nico smelling super expensive cheese. Not because he succeeded, but because he failed enough times.
