As a business owner for close to 30 years, early on I implemented a mailing list and adding folks to it as their contact info came my way – some were clients, some were not, so they obviously didn’t ask to be added, but…I wanted them as clients and figured if they didn’t want my mailings they’d let me know – some did but most didn’t.
I’m proud to say that this was a short lived experiment and I grimace still today thinking about how not loving (to my self and others) this was, because I struggled with the reasons I felt compelled to try it then, which should’ve been enough of a sign to just not do it to begin with. Being a young entrepreneur definitely meant I needed to get clear with my ethics, but the role models at the time weren’t exactly saints!
Nothing reminds me more of how egregious businesses can be than when my contact info gets added to a distribution list that I didn’t sign up for (and no, my doing business with you doesn’t automatically mean I want to receive communications from you!) and subsequently have to unsubscribe to when the inevitable onslaught of emails start filling my inbox. Yes, if you are a business operating individual reading this, it’s NOT OK to assume that a new customer wants to be your forever customer so either require them to check a box (which I’m happy to see more businesses doing, though it’s not a lot more) stating they don’t want to receive future communications or JUST DON’T ADD THEM TO YOUR EMAIL LIST.
That I even am writing this is a bit depressing but there will be depression sprinkles in this life. I’m ok with that because I’m motivated by them, oddly enough.
For quite some time now the only way clients or interested individuals hear from me is through my blog on my website and the subscription feature for it and some socials that my entries on the blog get crossposted to – Mail Chimp, you seem ok, I just really don’t want or need to have you on my task list at this point 😝
Because there’s more than enough to read/take advantage of/actually enjoy, emails filling our inboxes that are more important than the $5 off our next whatever mailing list message we didn’t sign up for and latest phishing scheme attempting to steal our identity than we’ll EVER need and loving my self means not being a part of that noise and disorder.
Grateful that I sorted myself out with all that many years ago, though my Mail Chimp database definitely needs cleaned up to be more accurate if I ever intend to use it again…
TimeSpaceOne 