Ouch, that hurt!

Last week I did some long overdue housekeeping on my Ezine subscriber list. I deleted all the 'unsubscribe' request records and the hard bounces. I knew that doing this would reduce the total number on my list, but it still hurt to hit the delete button.

On the plus side, it does mean that those people still on the list are definitely in my target market and are interested in receiving newsletters and other notices from me.

It's taken me many years to realise that people unsubscribing doesn't necessarily mean they don't like ME! During my 'housekeeping' I also removed the email addresses of people who I know have moved on to take up new positions. There were also some who work in larger corporations - they're definitely not in my target market!

What would have made it easier for me would have been to send a little note wishing them well in the future - after all, I have met nearly all of them personally, but it doesn't seem very business-like somehow. After all, they have just told me they don't want to hear from me by email anymore!

Every now and then I have a purge of all my newsletter subscriptions, just to not end up with an overflowing Inbox. I know that other people must go through the same exercise (in fact it's something I tell my workshop students to do!).

I'm currently doing a lot of experimenting with Email marketing and will be sharing the results.

Now, I just need to replace those unsubscribers .......