15: The Pros & Cons of Subscribing to Email Lists

A sit down with Kristy Krugh, a professional digital marketer who explains to us the pros and cons of subscribing to email lists. If your goal is to have inbox zero and have the most organized inbox ever, this episode is for you. This is a great episode to listen to before decluttering and going on an unsubscribing frenzy.

In this episode we talk about:

• The pros and cons of unsubscribing to email lists
• Fully understand what happens when you subscribe and unsubscribe so you can make educated decision over your inbox
• Avoid getting spam emails and protect you privacy when subscribing to email lists
• Best practices for managing and organizing a large number of email subscriptions

Where to find Kristy Krugh online: 

Web: https://www.wickedtacticalmarketing.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristy-krugh-chief-marketing-ninja/

Shop: https://itswickedtactical.com/killer-social-profile-copy-kit

The Organized & Productive podcast is brought to you by The Organized Flamingo and hosted by Stephanie Y. Deininger! For those of you who love the thought of organizing & being more productive, but don’t know where to start or constantly up against hurdles that don’t let you advance the way you want to, this podcast is for you!

Connect with Stephanie

https://www.instagram.com/theorganizedflamingo/

Review the transcript:

Stephanie
Hello friends welcome to another episode of the organized and productive Podcast. Today we are talking about the pros and cons of subscribing to email lists. So if you're tired of constantly seeing spam emails, and a huge number of unread messages in your inbox, this episode is for you. But before I introduce our guests for today, I want to talk about what this episode is not for. This particular episode is not about the tactical how to step by step of organizing your inbox, we have a different episode for that. We also have our decluttering organized guides, which can take you through step by step if you're looking to organize your inbox in a nice pretty manner, especially if you're aiming for inbox zero. So we do have solutions for that. But this particular episode is more about like very specifically talking about the behind the scenes as to why you are getting all of these emails from companies. What happened to begin with, like how did you end up in that email system for these companies and maybe your favorite creator. Because at the Organize Flamingo, we believe that a smart consumer and shopper will make better decisions on their organizing and productivity systems in the long run. So we want to give you the behind the scenes first, over why you're even in this system so that you can go ahead and make decisions based off of that our email inbox is supposed to serve as a tool for receiving and sending messages, right. And the problem arises when important messages from family, school doctors, etc. They get mixed up in the clutter, causing overwhelming confusion, because then you can't actually find the messages that are important. So what I thought we should do is have a conversation separate from the step one, step two, this is how you should organize your inbox or tip top 1010 tips on how to organize your inbox with these tools, we should have a separate conversation that talks about how you ended up in these email systems where you're getting all of these emails to begin with, because an educated consumer and shopper is going to be able to make educated decisions based on what they know. And if you don't even know how you got into the system, then you will come back to the same clutter over and over again in your inbox. And I'm trying to help you avoid that. So today we have a digital marketing expert Christie crew, who is the Chief Marketing ninja over at Wicked tactical marketing. She's also the owner, she's so smart and Ken is going to help us understand why marketing teams why companies are sending you these messages to begin with. So she's going to shed a light on why you receive unwanted emails and how to manage them effectively and efficiently. It's not always about companies trying to sell you something or cluttering your inbox. That's not what their goal is all the time. I mean, sometimes yes, some of them aren't just through spam, but let's gain a marketer's perspective and become an informed consumer, shall we? Let's get started. Welcome to the organized and productive podcast with the organized Flamingo. I am your host, Stephanie, a professional organizer and productivity expert, ready to explore the right organizing and productivity solutions for you. Yeah, well then let's go. Hello, Christy, it is so good to have you on today. I'm so excited about this conversation, because I've been teasing this for a really long time. So this is one of those conversations that I feel like I needed to benefit from as well selfishly a little bit, but that a lot of our listeners have been waiting for because email is just such an important part of our communication system nowadays, but it's becoming overwhelming. So I am so excited about this conversation to meet you, and to have you here. So as always, everyone, we just start with the conversation here and we just dive in. And let's get to it. So let's start with the title of the conversation is all about the pros and cons of subscribing to email lists. Let's just start with a one on one PST, let us know what does it mean to give a company or your favorite personality, your email list or your private information where they will be communicating with you.

Kristy Krugh
First of all, thank you for having me and I'm Deke out on email as well and organization. So I'm really excited about this conversation. So there are particularly in the US there are can spam laws is literally the set of laws that governs email marketing. And in order for someone to use your contact details and reach out to you either via SMS, text message marketing or email. They have to have your expressed permission to do so and a lot of Companies will take a purchase that you make as expressed permission. And sometimes that that works, sometimes it doesn't, technically, but basically, any time you put your email address out there, or your phone number out there to a business entity, you can pretty well expect that they are going to attempt to communicate with you via email, and they do have the right to do that.

Stephanie
Okay, so now that we got that, the what it is, I think a lot of people have questions or so many questions about this, but I asked the community what their common questions were, and one of them was okay, so I get it, I, I subscribe to something I give them permission, either by a purchase, or I clicked yes. Or whatever, give them my information, is this forever? Is this going to be a forever thing? Am I now in this system, forever time until I decide not to and then unsubscribe, which we will talk about, but does this mean it's a forever.

Kristy Krugh
So in terms of your data BD company lock your data, if you unsubscribe. So for example, you know, you hit the unsubscribe button, and you never hear from that retailer, again, you will have your contact details still have to be stored in their database. Sometimes the system if you purchase from them again, will actually renew your permissions. Technically, that shouldn't happen. But there are systems that just don't keep track of that. The other thing that folks should know is that this is not a foolproof system. So if you unsubscribe and I get this, I'm actually kind of merciless when it comes to my inbox. And when I unsubscribe to something, if I get an email from that retailer, or you know, business, again, six months down the line, you can tell they're like doing a new campaign or something, and they just pulled their entire database, that's actually illegal, but it does happen. And the best thing you can do is to report the email as spam before you unsubscribe again. And that will get them kind of dinged within the email system, and also potentially prevent them from being able to give kind of an another layer of protection for your inbox against that particular sender. But yes, it's very possible that somebody you give your email address to will keep it, it's also possible that they will sell it.

Stephanie
Yes. And that's actually how we got to this conversation, not the selling but just the the overwhelm from the community from people who want to get more organized, like, Hey, I keep on subscribing. I keep deleting, and they just keep coming back. Or I just want to delete them all, is that the right thing to do? And so this is how this conversation really started, right? Like when I reached out to Christie because I was like, Okay, let's give some people information, knowledgeable information from a professional that understands the back end that so that our listeners can make decisions based on facts and not just emotional, getting rid of decluttering. And then not understanding the repercussions of it like the pros and the cons. So you mentioned unsubscribing and what it means to unsubscribe to unsubscribe, you're trying to get out of the system and get no more communications from that company, person personality. What are some of the cons of doing that? Like? Let's talk about actually pros and cons. Let's talk about the pros first. Okay, the listener right now is feeling overwhelmed with their inbox, they're ready to unsubscribe, let's do it. Let's give them a little bit of like, Hey, okay, these are some of the pros, they consideration. These are some of the cons take consideration, they make a decision based on this. So let's give them some pros and cons.

Kristy Krugh
So I mean, who doesn't want Inbox Zero? I feel is there a bigger pro than Inbox Zero, you know, is that so exciting? I do think that kind of in the in the sub pro category, you could make it so that your primary inbox is zero, but that some of these emails could be going into a specific folder. Maybe you have a professional development folder or a recipes folder and you want to go in once a week. Look at them decide what you want to keep and get rid of but your main inbox is still you know is still clean. So there there is a pro to staying subscribed if the information is really relevant to you and exciting for you. And or, again, if we're talking about a retailer or somebody that you shop with frequently, you love a deal. Then there are ways to to still stay subscribed, but make things a little more organized.

Stephanie
So let's talk about some of these funnels that companies have with email. And the reason I want to talk about it is because I want to equipped our listeners with, with the tools so that they can make decisions one way or another. So some of these pros and cons. So I know some of the pros, yes, Inbox Zero and all that good stuff. But if you don't read or open some of these messages, some of these companies, right, have advanced funnels or ways to start filtering you as the consumer to a different category, like, okay, Stephanie is no longer opening our emails, so we're not going to send them the VIP emails anymore, or the whatever. Like if, if I was a consumer, you know what, however you feel about marketing good, bad or ugly, I think there is some good about the marketing world. So marketers are trying their hardest to give you what you need, or want and are looking for. And so you as a consumer want, you do want to make sure that you tell the company Hey, I still I like you. I'm just I'm not interested right now. So what are some ways that people can can find that happy medium, where I'm overwhelmed right now? It's not that I don't like you, or the company, or the influencer or the personality? It's just that it's me. It's not you. It's me, not you. How can they merge that? Like, can they put the can they give, you know, maybe to email? I know, a lot of people have to like two emails once one is for their, for more of their, you know, coupons, or personalities and things like that. And then they have like their serious email address. Some people have their inboxes. So you talked so earlier, you talked about that? Like, let's talk about that a little bit? Like how can people tell the company, hey, I'm interesting, just not right now. So they're not totally off the list. They're not missing out over good deals, or communications from their favorite companies. But they don't want, they just don't want to feel overwhelmed anymore.

Kristy Krugh
The ability to do that is really rooted in how the company is managing their email marketing system. So the most sophisticated email marketing system that you'll see is, if you have ever gone to sign up for for something, and it's not, they don't just ask you for your email address. They say, you know, let's say it's a clothing retailer, because that's just a really easy thing to talk about. So they'll say, are you looking for women's men's kids, you know, vacation, where you know what they'll ask you, when you sign up? What is it that you want to hear about? That's an indication that the company is using segmentation and what you just spoke about the idea that, hey, I want to hear about certain things, or I want to hear about certain things at certain times. But I don't want to hear about these other things. That is the the technical term for that is actually segmentation. It's really advantageous for companies to use segmentation because they're open and click rates are obviously a lot higher, when they're reaching out to people with the information they asked to hear about, right. It's like, you know, if you've got a kiddo in school, in sixth grade, you don't want to be hearing about what's going on in the high school. Right? It just makes sense. So a company you'll know if at the beginning, when you go to sign up, if they ask you some questions about what you want to hear about, that's a company that you may be able to, to negotiate with, in terms of, hey, you know, I only want to hear about this or or that topic, because they clearly have some type of segment segmentation or tagging system. The other thing for folks to note, and this is what you're identifying is really kind of, I feel like we're going into the into the cons section here, right? The con of unsubscribing is that for many companies, you are unsubscribing from every piece of email they may ever send you. So that's really something to think about. And I have a really good example of this with one of my clients, and they, their company name is called cascade relays. And they are a very fun company. So they are a company that that organizes and puts on Team relay races, like 10, KS, five K's like three day events, and they do those I'm in the Pacific Northwest. So they do those here. And they have about 30,000 people on their email list. And when I first started working with them if somebody unsubscribed it was their only option was simply to say I don't want to hear from you, which also meant they would not get any of the race communications for any of the races they signed up for work. So a really smart company is going to have the option of you getting, you know, for example, emails related to your purchase, not transactional emails, but other, you know, other things, maybe support emails, or, you know, have you started your course yet that you bought those types of emails, versus a real marketing email, which is really trying to sell you something. So when you get an email, and you we all do that auto scroll right, right down to the bottom to the unsubscribe section, there is often a link that actually is next to the unsubscribe, that's says, update preferences. And I feel like now that I'm saying that everybody's like, Oh, I've totally seen that. And so when you click on that, occasionally, and I just did an audit for another perspective client and clicked on that button, and I got every group they've ever made of people, so they have not used that properly. But for a company that's using it, right, like cascade relays, you click on the update preferences button, and it will say, I want only information related to the race I'm registered for, I would like information on cascade lakes relay, I would like information on the St. Patty's Day dash all of their different events. So folks can can select any of those. And that then helps the company to to be able to really target those folks and not send them correspondences they don't want and make sure they get the things they do want. So that was a long answer to that question. But

Stephanie
not at all it was, I learned something new. Yes. And I know, we also have a lot of companies like small companies and big companies that listen to our podcasts. So this actually, you know, I know this is more for the everyday person to get more organized and productive. But I think this is also good to note for the you companies that are communicating with your community, just know that give them options, you know, give them a little bit of options, so that they don't feel overwhelmed as a so back to as the regular regular person, like myself. Also know that most inboxes now, our smart inboxes, like the Googles, like the anything that XYZ you want to talk about, they do have options for you to mute people, users people's emails, that you're just not in the mood to listen to right now, or to read or to open, or whatever it may be. So just know that you do also have those options, you know, to just put them in a different inbox in a different category. So that if you're not ready to tell the company, you want to unsubscribe or you're not ready to communicate with them, but it's more of a you, you can also take that step. Okay, so let's talk about if you want to, if you want to unsubscribe or change change settings for like, all at once, somebody's listening, and they're like, Okay, my problem is, I have so many emails, I have 14,000 emails, I'm about to just delete them all. Unsubscribe, can I just unsubscribe from everything? Is that an option for someone? Can they go somewhere, to unsubscribe to everything?

Kristy Krugh
So I actually don't know the answer to that question. So I have used a an, it's an app based program called Chuck. And it actually has a little I don't know if you've heard of it, it has a little I think a chipmunk as the mascot or whatever. And, and that will allow you to basically merge all of your inboxes and be able to search by certain retailers to delete them. And then I think there is probably also an unsubscribe, that's kind of a newer, a newer tech feature. But you know, doing it as things come in, but the reality is, the good news is of those 14,000 emails, you probably have hundreds of emails from the same businesses. Right? So really, I think in terms of how we're talking about folks already being overwhelmed, right? Like, you don't have to my advice would be you don't have to take next weekend, you know, indoors at your phone or your computer to do all of this right to get everything done right now. But if you're mindful of this, as emails are coming in, and you unsubscribe, you're really actually taking care of hundreds of emails, right? Because now you're never going to hear from those folks again. And you could always just search and then delete, you know, just out of your general inbox. Anybody you don't want to hear from again, and like I said, you can unsubscribe and then really if you did not provide your contact details and I as a small business owner, I get the solicitations are Unbelievable. The cold emailing, not quite as bad as cold DMing. But it's pretty nice right up there. The those unsolicited emails I get are just crazy. So you I always unsubscribe if it's available. But before I do that I reported as spam, which is just if only if it really is spam. If you know you provided your information to this individual or business, you really shouldn't report it as spam. Because that really, it has really severe consequences for the business.

Stephanie
Yeah, and that's what another reason I wanted to have this conversation because not all marketing is bad. It's a company trying to communicate and give you value. And hopefully they're doing it as best they can, that they don't want you to unsubscribe, they do, they want to meet as many of your expectations as they can. So you as a consumer, you as a shopper, just need to be smart about it and tell them what you need, what you're looking for. Because not everyone is out to, to, you know, not everybody's emailing you about sending them a million dollars or, you know, get rich, quick and 10 days, like not as I know, there's some spammy ones out there. But not all businesses are out to get you, they truly are just looking for the best way to give you value. So if you're feeling overwhelmed about your inbox, just know that there's tools out there to diminish that overwhelm. And it doesn't have to be all or nothing. You know, you don't have to penalize the company, they're just trying to do, hopefully, good with you and trying to give you some value. So Okay. All right. So as we start to unwind here, let's have some conversations. three or three last questions are What would you like people to take away from this whole conversation about the pros and cons of email, into unsubscribing, and things like that,

Kristy Krugh
I think, you know, the best way to manage your unsubscribing situation is to be thoughtful, you know, like, so many things with organization, you know, be thoughtful about what you're bringing in, particularly for folks who you know, are one of your obsessions is learning tools, I wouldn't really know anything about that, personally, to be able to bring that example of, you know, if you are just a an over consumer of paid courses, or lead magnets, you know, and freebies, you need to understand that you know, only 10% or less of people who buy a course that actually finish it. So this is something to really think about. If you're just willy nilly throwing your contact details out there, there might be an opportunity to, you know, use your gut a little bit better on the front end. And and I would say use your gut on the back end to you know, if you're just done hearing about something, you can always go back to a company and sign up again, or send them a specific email and say, Hey, do you have any options, to to segment me in this way, I have a, somebody who I follow, who just has the most amazing information, but I get really overwhelmed by the number of emails that I get when they're in a launch. And it's a program that's just like not right for me. So don't hesitate to maybe reach out if you're feeling really committed, but you're also a little annoying. So you know, a business would appreciate somebody actually reaching out and saying, Look, I don't want to unsubscribe, I don't want to put you in a situation where you can't contact me. But I really need to not be hearing about this anymore. Can you snooze me? You know, or can you segment me or tag me somehow in your systems that I don't hear about this. And the same thing happens with you know, we haven't talked at all about nonprofits. But for anybody that's actually my very in my past life. I was in nonprofit for 15 years in fundraising. And you know, you shouldn't feel badly about communicating about the type of communication you want, right? If you want to be an anonymous donor, you should be able to be an anonymous donor if you don't want mail from that you know, entity you should I'm dating myself now you should be able to say I don't want male right? So to just feel empowered to have a conversation, particularly if you just need a little fine tuning. But do know that it is possible that that business doesn't have that capability, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Stephanie
Absolutely. So good. Okay, all right. A question that we ask all of our guests What is your favorite magazine to read for either business and our pleasure? And why? Well I

Kristy Krugh
love clean eating magazine which has gone through like so many iterations but I just love Yeah, I love I'm I have a lot of Italian lineage and so following recipes is really challenging for me. So I appreciate their format for some reason, is very helpful. because

Stephanie
they do have a very, they do. They're very unique. You're right. They make it very easy to follow. Yeah, their digital side as well. So yes, yeah, yes. Okay. And lastly, and also, most importantly, where can people find you to learn more? I mean, I know you're more on the business side getting help with digital marketing and whatnot. But if there's listeners out there that have their own business, or would like to recommend you as somebody that can maybe help a business, get the hint, and work with email marketing, maybe like, Hey, I heard the conversation with Christie or read the organized Flamingo, and some of our tips you might want to take. So where do they find you?

Kristy Krugh
Where can we afford this podcast? So many places. So thank you so much for asking. So my, my name is Christy Crewe. And my last name is Kay RUGH. And so it's very easy to find on the web. My company name is wicked tactical marketing. And my website is wicked, tactical marketing.com. And you can find me under that name or my name on LinkedIn. That's the place I love to connect with other business owners and of course, you know, share all sorts of content about digital marketing.

Stephanie
Awesome. Well, thank you again, Christy, so much for joining us. And until next time, thank you. Thank you for listening to the organized and productive Podcast with your organized Flamingo. If you enjoyed today's episode, I would love it if you leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast player. It helps with letting people know that we're here. For full show notes and resources head on over to the organized flamingo.com/podcast Happy organizing.