#digitalcleanse Archives - Angela Crocker

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!

Take off the Invisibility Cloak

03.30.2016 by Angela Crocker // Leave a Comment

Digital Cleanse Day 30:

Take Off the Invisibility Cloak

The invisibility cloak is one of my favorite parts of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Unfortunately, an invisibility cloak won’t serve you well in a digital cleanse. To truly take control of your data and have technology work for you, you’ve got to be able to see at a glance what’s available to you.

If you’ve applied the advice in the digital cleanse you have a single email archive, only the apps you need, an organized photo library and one cloud to store it all on. The last step is to make sure its all visible. Don’t bury your access points in folders within folders. Make them as close to top level as possible. Similarly, unpack your apps so you can see them on your desktop, home screen or dock.

Your technology should be equally accessible. Don’t tuck it all away in a drawer or box. Have it out where you can get at it. What are you using on a regular basis? Think about your dedicated devices and how you use them. I embrace the idea of giving each item a specific home. If I’m not using my iPad, it’s on my nightstand when I’m at home or in my purse when I’m out and about. I always know where to find it.

I suggest you start an “old technology” box as you rediscover gadgets and gizmos around your home or office. I was amazed at what I found. It was a technological archeological dig. I uncovered:

My trusty PalmPilot Treo, my last Palm mobile before I switched to iPhone.
A BlueAnt bluetooth speaker
A four-port USB 2.0 hub
A Veo SD Camera
Two Light Wedge book lights
A Digital Tag namebadge
A LiveAction Mic
Two magnetic mobile phone camera lenses
A Cinemin Swivel projector bought on impulse at the Las Vegas airport
And a couple dozen miscellaneous cables that might be useful one day

Some items, I’ll use again. Most will be sold or given away. A side benefit of the digital cleanse was a little office decluttering.

What you can’t see is easily forgotten. So take off the invisibility cloak and live your digital life.

That’s a wrap on the 30 day #digitalcleanse. For links to the complete Digital Cleanse series, click here.Join me at Social Media Camp where I’ll be debuting my Digital Cleanse presentation. Hope to see you then!

Pursue Your Passions with Abandon

03.29.2016 by Angela Crocker // Leave a Comment

Digital Cleanse Day 29:

Pursue Your Passions with Abandon

My advice to pursue your passions is another, deeper layer of your digital cleanse. Too much of our digital lives is stuck in what our jobs require or things we feel obligated to do online. I want to encourage you to pursue your passions at every opportunity. If it’s something you love, then you’ll always have energy for it. Do you know what your passions are?

If you really have a passion for what you do, the chances are that you’ll be able to survive.” ~ Robin Williams quoted in Hello Canada!

Passions can take many forms. To give you an idea, I’ve opened my Facebook feed to see what my friends are passionate about:

Soap making
Spring skiing
Tiny homes
Disneyland
Breastfeeding
Wine slushies
Choral music
Star Wars

Some of these are brands with loyal followings. Others, I would call social movements. Still others are just for fun. What thrills you? What fuels your curiosity? What energizes and rejuvenates you? Whatever your answer, you’ll have found your passions.

Ideally your passions become your vocation but we’re not all so lucky! Instead, fuel your soul with the things you love. You’ll be amazed at how much energy you find to devote to them.

More on the 30 day #digitalcleanse tomorrow. Hope to see you then!

(If you missed yesterday’s installment, take a couple extra minutes to explore Take a Digital Vacation. For links to the complete Digital Cleanse series, click here.)