The Digital Cleanse Archives

Black Friday Unsubscribe Bonanza

11.23.2017 by Angela Crocker // 3 Comments

Updated November 23, 2022

I love Black Friday. I use this marketing madness to declutter my email. It’s amazing how many email lists only reach out to sell me stuff on Black Friday.

Happy Email Relationships

Now, let’s be clear, I enjoy happy email relationships with numerous online retailers. Reitmans, LEGO, Tombow, Trinny London, and other retailers are all welcome in my inbox. I buy, use, and enthuse about their products. I welcome their emails because we have an ongoing relationship.

Similarly, I have happy email relationships with many professional colleagues and organizations. I look forward to hearing from Rebecca Coleman, Mike Vardy, Chris Brogan, and Vicki McLeod, as well as GetConnected and BC BookWorld.

Unhappy Email Relationships

Black Friday is when the unhappy email relationships appear. The spammy business lists are a good example. Retailers and other businesses that only email to sell you their latest offer. All sales all the time is not a good look!

There are also crowdfunders that have added me to lists based on my Kickstarter support. Some of those are happy email relationships. A few of the 94 campaigns I’ve supported have been disappointments. And it seems the disappointments are the companies I’m most likely to hear from on Black Friday. Sigh…

What treasures have popped up in your inbox this Black Friday? Any truly archaic contacts? Weirdly wonderful messages? Frustrating free-not-free content?

Unsubscribe Is the Solution

By law, every bulk email you receive should include an easy way to unsubscribe. A simple click is usually all that’s needed. And if you’ve read my book, Declutter Your Data, you know I’m a big fan of digital decluttering.

If I unsubscribe, please don’t take it personally. I may no longer be interested or I have been added unwillingly to your list. For some brands, I find it easier to keep up to date with your community via Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. As Sandra Yancey said about customers who aren’t meant to be, “bless and release”. There’s no point in forcing someone to stay on your email list if they aren’t interested.

I find it interesting that so many companies pay to keep names on a list. As a business owner, I would rather have a small list of quality contacts. Yes, I understand some email marketing campaigns are a numbers game. If 2% respond and your list is 1,000 strong, in theory, you’ll have even more success if your list is 10,000 strong. But I maintain that it depends on the quality of your list!

Black Friday Emails

In summary, I love Black Friday. It helps me declutter my email subscriptions, reduce my inbox overload, and saves the sender a few marketing pennies.

And, yes, I purchase a few Black Friday specials, Small Business Saturday items, and Cyber Monday deals. My bargain hunting ways are a different story…

P.S. Unsubscribe works any day of the year!

Delete Facebook memories?

11.21.2017 by Angela Crocker // Leave a Comment

Yesterday, a tough memory popped up on my Facebook profile. I shared a personal note with my loving inner circle from my Mum’s time in hospice four years ago. It’s a sweet memory because it documents a special time, one of my last happy times with my Mum. Yet, I had the instinct to delete it.

Facebook Made Me Cry

Every time I see this painful memory makes me cry. Ugly cry. The post in question doesn’t make my eyes misty. It rips the scab off a part of my heart and I grieve all over again. From one point of view, this is a good thing. Crying, while distressing, is good for us. We release hormones that make us feel better. We’re in touch with our emotions. And we appreciate the good things. And there are medical benefits, too.

To Delete or Not? That is the question.

On the flipside, I’ve been tempted to save myself the upset. I could easily delete the post thus ensuring it won’t pop up next year. But should I? As I’ve explored my digital cleanse, I’ve wrestled with the question of whether or not to delete old posts that make me sad, make me mad, or otherwise make an emotional storm. Should we delete Facebook memories?

I haven’t deleted any to date. I’ve been tempted for sure. Even with the tears, it strikes me that life isn’t all sunshine and roses. The perfect life so many of us put online isn’t the reality of our day to day lives, right? There’s the sad days when we cry and the tough days when we’re injured and the horrible days when we’ve been fired. Yet, the contrast between good and bad make us complete. Those challenging moments are a big part of what makes us human.

So, for now I keep my past intact just as I shared it in many posts over the last ten years or so. And on Nov 21 each year, I’ll have a cry and think of my Mum with love.

I Heard You but I Wasn’t Listening

04.25.2016 by Angela Crocker // Leave a Comment

Are you truly listening? The opening monologue of The Grand Budapest Hotel offers a truism writers must take to heart. Here’s the text from the opening of the film:

It is an extremely common mistake.

People think that a writer’s imagination is always at work, that he’s constantly inventing an endless supply of incidents and episodes, that he simply dreams up these stories out of thin air.

In point of fact, the opposite is true.

Once the public knows you’re a writer, they bring the characters and events to you, that is as long as you maintain your ability to look and to carefully listen, these stories will continue to seek you out over your lifetime.

To him who has often told the tales of others, many tales will be told.”

I couldn’t agree more. Inspiration is everywhere. You only have to keep your eyes open to see and take time to listen. Truly listen.

Too much is said that nobody pays any attention to. This era of social media is filled with people shouting just to hear the sound of their own voice. With all that static, its hard for the writer to tune into a particular voice.

I think its a two-sided problem. Writers have to be judicious in what they share. Does it matter? Is it factual? Is it kind? It is helpful? No more purposeless noise, please. At the same time, listeners have to truly listen. What was said? How is it relevant? Is this truly an inspiration? Am I better informed?

My Mum had a great apology that I’ve adopted as my own. She would say “I’m sorry. I heard you but I wasn’t listening.” What distracted parent (or writer) can’t relate to that?

I love that she owned up to the fact that sometimes she wasn’t really engaged in what I said. As a school teacher, her inner monologue would be filled with all sorts of problems and plans related to her classroom. Now that I, too, am a parent I better understand that tricky transition time when it can be a struggle to shift from work gear to parent gear. And sometimes the gear box is jammed!

I’m committed to listening. And I hope you are, too. With a bit of luck, stories will seek us both out for a lifetime.