Well, that was a newsletter fiasco I would rather not repeat!
After messing up with new styles and RSS feeds and getting it all wrong, I (quite understandably) had a few unsubscribes. I totally get that a few people were fed up with having a number of jumbled up emails hit their inbox.
Why I was glad to lose subscribers
So what did I do? I could have gone and cried in a darkened room, but instead I realised a couple of lessons. Firstly, stop striving for perfection. There was nothing wrong with my previous layout but I was trying to achieve something better once again. What I should have done was leave this until I had the time to put to getting it right and not trying to fit it into an already stretched schedule.
Secondly, the people who unsubscribed were not my ideal client. Particularly the one who sent me a quite cutting comment. Yes, they really felt the need to do so! They pointed out my ineffectiveness and their irritation at getting less than satisfactory content.
This could have upset me, but instead I realised I was lucky to have had the chance to filter them out of my email list. I doubt these people would have ever bought from me and if they had, I suspect they would have been moaners and whingers. If they are that intolerant of a couple of emails that did not quite live up to expectation and were wholly unable to accept an apology, then they really are not the sort of people I want to do business with.
We all make mistakes
We all make mistakes. And if we don’t, as was said to me many moons ago, we are not trying hard enough.
[Tweet “If we don’t make mistakes, we are not trying hard enough”]So the people I want to work with are those of you that have stuck with me and in particular, the lovely kind people who took the time out to message me and tell me not to worry and how much you enjoy reading my newsletters each time they are sent. You are fabulous people and you make what I do worthwhile.
So if you ever mess up, apologise for your mistake and move on. Those that stick with you are worth your efforts, and those that don’t, just aren’t worth your time or trouble.