3 Lessons Learned Languishing in a Dungeon…

Hi ,

“Why isn’t Mark emailing me anymore?”

“Mark has gone pretty quiet. Is he OK?”

“I see Mark on social media but not in my inbox, what’s going on?”

These are a few questions I’ve been getting from people who used to get regular emails from me… that is before I ended up in an email dungeon.

Here’s what to look for:

● What happened
● How you can apply the lessons I learned to your business
● Where do we go from here

Lesson #1: Cheapest is NOT Best

As a Lean coach and entrepreneur, I work to continually improve my processes. It’s called Continuous Improvement for a reason. I found an email marketing platform (let’s call it Platform B), which was significantly less expensive than the one I was using (Platform A).

After some time, Platform B, with no more than shoddy evidence, accused me of being a spammer and downgraded me to a lower tier server which would have been more likely to get caught in spam filters. This put engagement with my list (including you) in jeopardy.

Like an indifferent but severe probation officer, Platform B told me that if I wanted to email my list through them, I’d have to get permission from every single one of you to stay on my list.

I was outraged that somebody, unjustifiably, was attempting to come between me and my audience. An audience I work hard to serve and maintain.

There are people out there who might vow to stop using Email Service Providers (ESPs) after experiencing something like this but I understood I had to practice what I preach, which is…

Lesson #2: Do not Overreact

Never overreact. The entire premise of my book, “Measures of Success,” is about not overreacting to “noise” in data. Overreacting generally leads you to make business-crippling decisions.

I recall a particularly introspective hospital director from California saying this after reading my book, “I have a heck of a lot of co-workers who overreact. Then again, I wonder about myself…”

Now, I’m in a situation where I had to wonder about myself! I stopped and took a good look at the quality of my emails and content. Were some of my audience members considering what I sent them—spam?

To get to the bottom of this mystery, I had to take a data-driven approach, which lead me to…

Lesson # 3: If you’re not getting down to root cause, you’re not problem solving.

After doing a bit of root cause analysis, I found the problem to be one (just one) of my subscribers, in confirming their subscription to my list, labeled that confirmation email as spam.

This one data point led the dour dungeon masters of Platform B to do what they did. Since then, I’ve moved to a different platform and done my due diligence to prevent anything from coming between me and my audience again.

I’m asking you to come with me.

“But Mark,” some might protest. “When things went wrong with Platform B, you said you wouldn’t email again?”

I did. But what I really should have done was give you the option to opt-out of my content instead of making the decision for you. Look, the business environment is becoming more complex, opaque, and chaotic—especially in the post-COVID times we live in.

Business leaders love the value I provide. Over and over again I have helped them find clarity in all the noise. That translates into improved efficiency, safety, and success.

If you’d rather pass, no hard feelings. I won’t be upset if you choose to unsubscribe and I won’t reach out this way again. If you want to continue benefiting from my knowledge and expertise, then just sit back and enjoy the show.

Best regards,
Mark Graban