On my very first day at my very first job out of college I was thrown into a marketing meeting. The higher-ups wanted everyone’s opinion on a new piece of marketing collateral.

These were gorgeous pieces of marketing — beautifully designed brochures printed in full color on rich papers.

But as they searched for staff input I became completely lost when they kept referencing the Seebee. It was “Seebee this” and “Seebee that.” Being shy, new on the job and new to the area, there was no way I was going to ask for an explanation. Surely there would be plenty of other opportunities for humiliation as I rode out the learning curve of my new position.

So I stayed mute through the meeting and they missed out on the insights my fresh-from-college genius could provide.

Back at my desk, I unpacked some letterhead and realized Seebee was not some local breed of insects. The truth was, I worked for Seebee. Or rather, I worked for the College of Business and Economics, kicked around the office as CBE.

To everyone who’d been around the block, CBE was synonymous with our department. To me, the newcomer, it was confusing and nonsensical. So I did the most logical thing and mentally checked out.

In the world of email – checking out translates into unsubscribe or mark as spam.

You know who you are, but no one else does

When you are building your email list and gathering subscribers you have to be [Read more...]