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Don’t tar all mail with the same brush!
Have you ever
checked your e-mail inbox to find some
messages from people you don’t know? Of course, we all have. Mail that comes mysteriously to you is a quite a common phenomenon, and is almost as old as the Internet itself. Most of us simply call it junk mail. While this is largely true, You can’t always dismiss all that sort of mail as rubbish, because sometimes one could find something worthwhile buried in, just like a jewel in the midst of a trash heap. Internet marketers have always put e-mail to good use, for it is really a modern marvel that carries messages swiftly and almost freely to their destination with a simple click, but be ware and aware! E-mailing techniques have been evolving rapidly in the fast moving environment of the Internet, yet many still use crude methods, spamming and plain brute force to get a message across. Art communities, however weary, of such tactics, are often faced with the dilemma of high cost when trying to reach new audience, so some tend to spam and subsequently get very little benefit back of any bulk e-mail, simply because it is untargeted and it serves no purpose at all to direct all that effort towards a random section of the Internet users who may or may not read such e-mail let alone act positively upon it. Also that kind of mail infuriate people so the reaction is sometimes not very nice. There is a better way. First let me distinguish between two modes of e-mail.
Spam is a
continuous unsolicited hammering of the
recipients with all kinds of mail often sent by those unscrupulous operators who acquire their mailing lists
rather through dubious
methods, it makes no difference
where all that mail ends, they just keep on pumping it out. The other type of e-mail, however unsolicited still, is more directed towards a selected audience that relates directly to your field or activity and absolutely must have the option of removal if requested. I often get mail from various artists and art organisations, totally unsolicited mind you, yet I don’t mind one bit, for how else would anyone contact me and others relatively quickly and cheaply? but spam, I hate and I detest, and you should too. Targeted e-mail offers a way to address a reasonably large group of people relating to your area of endeavour in a very practical way, unsolicited as it may be, but not very unreasonable if used sparingly. The moral of the story is, to get your art opt-in mailing list started, or if you want to address a specific sector with a specific message, don’t rely on silly methods that might backfire, and when you get a targeted e-mail, from a stranger, be practical and focused and approach it with an open mind! |