Have You Been Deleted?

Early this year I started advising my subscribers that I’d be moving the newsletter to a new email provider and that the “from” would change from one of my personal email addresses (comcast) to one associated with the site, lindeegembroidery.com and that it was important to “whitelist” this new email address so as not to miss any new emails.

The result was I received a flurry of replies with “whitelist” or “keep me subscribed.” Not terribly beneficial other than to make me feel warm and fuzzy that people still wanted to hear from me!

WHAT IS WHITELISTING?

“Whitelisting” is a process of telling your email program that a particular sender is “safe.” 

Different email programs handle this differently but generally it’s found in the settings. If you can’t find it in your email program, just ask Google “how to whitelist” and you’re bound to find your email app with step-by-steps.

WHY HAVEN’T YOU GOTTEN ANY NEWSLETTERS?

Newsletters are still being sent from the new system and I’ve noticed a significant drop in opens (50% since before the move) and I get people emailing me and asking why they haven’t gotten one.

Chances are you haven’t whitelisted lindeegembroidery.com and/or your email system or ISP is blocking those messages or funneling them into your spam/junk folder. 

GMail has also “helpfully” created folders and does some presorting for you so my messages may be going there instead of your main email section.

HAVE YOU BEEN DELETED?

When I migrated the list from the old system, I only moved those who were still subscribed. I also cleaned the list of obviously bad emails like “gmail.cmo” and the like. MailChimp as further sanitized the list of emails that bounce.

If you were receiving emails from the old system, then you were moved to the new system. And if you haven’t gotten any thing recently, check your spam and junk folders first. Then make sure you’ve whitelisted the domain. 

You can also veirfy your settings via the newsletter subscribe form.

Also, most email systems let you create “rules” where emails can go.

I personally set rules for newsletters and things I want to see to come directly into my inbox and not some folder.

Things I may need to see at some point but aren’t important to read regularyly (registration notices from the site, for example) are funneled into their own folder so as not to clutter up my inbox.

Try creating a rule for “LindeeG Embroidery” and see if that helps.

YOUR EMAIL APP MAY HAVE DECIDED MY MESSAGES ARE SPAM

If you consistently fail to open messages from a certain sender, your email system may decide you don’t want to see them and start filtering them as spam. 

Periodically check your spam/junk folders. I’m always finding something in there that shouldn’t be – and usually too late!

THE BIG QUESTION: WILL YOU BE UNSUBSCRIBED?

Since I can see who hasn’t opened ANY messages since the new system went into effect, I do know who you are!

And because I have to pay for all people who are still subscribed whether they open any emails or not, I will soon be unsubscribing anyone who came over with that list who hasn’t opened any messages in the last 3 months. 

In other words, the more subscribers I have on the list whether active or not, the more I have to pay and I’m reaching a critical big jump in costs. It’s therefore a good time to do a little spring cleaning on the list and do some mass unsubscribing.

WHY DIDN’T I TELL YOU THAT YOU ARE IN DANGER OF BECOMING UNSUBSCRIBED?

Well that’s rather difficult if you aren’t opening my emails or aren’t geting them in the first place isn’t it?

WHAT IF YOU DO GET UNSUBSCRIBED?

Unsubscribed people are still on the list and you can reactivate your status if you wish to start receiving newsletters and updates again.

If you choose not to resubscribe, then you’ll definitely get no more newsletter type notifications from me even if you’ve whitelisted this domain.

I do realize that “life happens” and sometimes we just don’t go any further than reading the subject line. 

I also understand that hobbies can wax and wane and we may lose interest in certain topics. Plus, I know that I get WAY too much email to read all of but I still want to stay subscribed to keep in touch when I do want to get back to it.

WHAT IF YOU DON’T RESUBSCRIBE?

Well, I’m sorry to see you go but if you weren’t reading the messages anyway then I’m glad not to clutter up your inbox. Clutter is unhealthy whether it’s physical or digital. 

You can always come back to the site and see what’s going on although I tend to announce specials and freebies in newsletters only and not in blog posts.

You’ll still get messages from the shop when you place orders. That’s an entirely different system. 

HOW TO UPDATE YOUR PREFERENCES

There’s a form on this very page you can use to sign up or modify your newsletter preferences. On a larger screen it’s in the sidebar but it might be below on smaller screens.

If you’re logged into this site and you’ve used the same email for the newsletter, the newsletter form will tell you if you’re a subscriber. However, it won’t tell you if you are a subscribed subscriber or an unsubscribed one. I know, bummer right?

If you aren’t getting emails, whether your status is subscribed or unsubscribed and you do want to get them, then just click on the Update Preferences (you’ll need to fill in the your email and first and last name first).

MailChimp, the email provider for the newsletter, will send you an email with a link to update your account. You can update your email, name, and subscriber status. You can do this whenever you want to change your email or update any info.

Yes, it sounds like a hassle to have to get an email but it’s more secure and someone else can’t sign you up for something you may not want.

Back in the mid 90s some “friend” signed me up for so many things that I had to delete my email account and create a different one to finally recover from the mess! Extra steps these days prevent (or at least reduce) that kind of sabotage.