Do you worry when you get unsubscribes from your newsletter?
On 25th May 2018, new legislation comes into force ensuring that businesses behave responsibly with people’s data.
One aspect of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) regs switches the emphasis so subscribers must agree to be on a mailing list and be able to easily unsubscribe, rather than unsubscribes alone being enough.
It’s, of course, more complex than that, but you get the gist of it.
If you’ve not heard those initials ‘GDPR’ in the past few months, firstly, where have you been? and secondly, don’t panic!
Why?
The reason I’m not panicking is because I’m actually quite excited about it. I know, I’m a freak, right?
When I first started sending out a monthly newsletter, I set up Mailchimp to notify me instantly of any unsubscribes.
Whenever one pinged up in my inbox, I’d drop everything to find out who had ‘betrayed me’ (I feel foolish admitting that now!)
Rejection Hurts
In the early days of your business, you’re so sensitive to anything you can consider as a mishap. Or worse still, a failure, or rejection.
It all feels so personal and raw.
You’ve worked so hard. Shed many a drop of blood, sweat and tears, only to get that horrible rejection email glaring at you from your inbox.
When I clicked through, however, most of the time it was someone I’d not heard from since that initial sign up and had hardly opened the messages, let alone followed any action steps in them.
It Takes Time
After a time, it dawns on you. Not everyone is right for you and vice versa and that’s absolutely fine.
Why waste time communicating with someone who doesn’t want to hear what you have to say?
Surely, it’s better to focus your energies on the people that do want to hear from you and are interested in being in the conversation?
Quality over quantity, every time.
Moving Forward with purpose
This is why I’m excited about GDPR. Finally, I can spring clean my list and only spend my time and energy on the people I can help, those that like my blogs, like my style and like hearing from me.
Now doesn’t that feel so much better?
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