My last post advised you how to manage your emails better, but you’ll find them much easier to manage if you make sure you’re only having to organise emails that you actually want!
How to manage newsletters
When I work with client’s email addresses I see that they have a lot of newsletters or Social Media updates popping into their account all day. This either distracts them or they just get deleted.
Unsubscribe?
I like to keep abreast of new developments myself so I subscribe to people that I feel give me valuable and relevant advice. The key word here relevant – if you constantly delete a newsletter halfway through reading it or even as soon as it arrives because you find it dull, unhelpful or constantly unrelated to your interests then unsubscribe!
Quite simple you’d think, but it’s amazing how many people delete a newsletter instead of taking less than 10 seconds to unsubscribe from it. It’s only going to appear again so it’s best to deal with it now. You may feel a bit guilty unsubscribing, but these people aren’t friends and they’re not going to track you down to demand why you’ve dumped them!
Select your receiving account and who you subscribe to
You should ensure that the newsletter is arriving in the correct email account – if you’ve set up a new email address solely for newsletters then take the time to change your subscription details as they come in to the old one. It can feel like a chore, but it doesn’t take long and once they’re all done you’ll be really happy you bothered.
I also review my newsletters frequently – there can be quite a few experts that write in your field of interest, so select the ones that you like the most instead of subscribing to all of them. If you’re not going to read them then they’re a waste of everyone’s time.
Newsletters shouldn’t just sit in your inbox once you’ve read them either. Either go to the
web page and clip them into Evernote ordelete them. It’s also good practice to have a website login and registration email folder which will spare you the hassle of the whole ‘forgotten your login details?’ rigmarole later.
I think the most important thing is to actually make the time to read them all. Not only do I get newsletters from the experts, I also get them from LinkedIn groups, the local chamber, my accounts people, my local freelancing and new media groups; which means I often get up to 12 newsletters a day! If I leave them for just a few days I know I’m more likely to just delete them, so sign up to as many newsletters as you can read whilst still having a life!
Summary:
* Only sign up to newsletters you find useful to your business.
* Unsubscribe from the ones you don’t.
* Don’t take on more newsletters than you can handle.
* Make time to actually read them!
* Do something with them once they’re read.
* Review and update who you subscribe to regularly.
You really have to be ruthless with emails or they’ll start to take over your working day – and who has the time for that?
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