Mailing lists and dung beetles

Getting on top of mailling lists

Do you know who’s on your mailing list?

When I set up my business a couple of years back, I made the mistake of adding just about everyone I met to my mailing list. When introduced to new people at networks and other meetings I’d always ask if they’d like to receive my newsletter and they all said yes. Well they would wouldn’t they?

I also collected a huge pile of business cards from people who were keen to share their details with me but little did they know they’d join my list too!

So I found myself with a huge number of people on my mailing list and, to be honest, many weren’t really interested in my business or what I had to say (I know, I can see you’re surprised). Needless to say, the numbers reading my email campaigns weren’t great.

So where do the dung beetles come in? Well, most dung beetles are particular about the poo they’ll eat. For most dung beetles, not just any poo will do. Many dung beetles specialise on the dung of particular animals, or types of animals, and simply will not touch the poo of other species. Know where I’m going with this?

Now I know we’re all particular about what we read and find useful (much like the dung beetle and their poo). If like me you’re inundated with emails and newsletters, I think you’ll see where I’m coming from.

So I think we all need to be a little less precious about our mailings and accept that some people just aren’t that interested or, worse, find them very annoying.

For my part, I’m now building my opt-in email list from scratch so that I can send my new HR Essentials Bulletin to people who’ll find it interesting and useful. I’d like people to sign up, but not out of politeness … only if they really want to. You can sign up here.

To give you a flavour, the bulletin will include tips, ideas and advice to:

• Help you build a great company culture
• Grow your business
• Get the most from your staff
• Enable you to deal with tricky employment issues
• And avoid costly mistakes

The content is aimed at business executives, owners, HR professionals and managers with responsibility for people. It won’t be sent too often, not weekly and not always monthly, only when there’s something worth sharing.

I hope like-minded people will come on board, and if you decide later that you’d prefer not to receive my mailings, you can always unsubscribe from the list. I won’t be offended – I’ll just know you prefer a different kind of poo.