I get tons of them, at least 50 a day, especially on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays—it’s an insane amount. The problem is that I open and read 90 percent of my e-mails on a Blackberry so if you are sending me images in an e-mail, chances are I won’t see them.
The best e-mails are very focused, event-driven announcements about a show or a new book that’s coming, things of that nature. Keep in mind that creatives are not constantly looking for photographers, we’re doing our other job too.
— JWT Art Buyer Shawn Smith
via Jasmine DeFoore
10 Comments
The e-mail promo backlash is upon us. I subscribe to Adbase and if you go on that database, it’s amazing how many peeps we photogs want to reach “don’t like e-mail promotions”. 50% at least. Direct mail making a comeback?
I was at a recent meeting with a bunch of art buyers they where all saying how the get flooded with spam from photog all the time but don’t get much mail any more. That’s when I decided to do more mail moving forward. I still email but it’s real direct and focused. I wonder how the adbase email look in mobile world. Maybe adbase needs to think about that. I use adbase for names and stuff but do most emailing through my regular email.
The basic message is ‘Don’t find us, we’ll find you’:
http://www.first-stop.org/
@Blaine, This looks interesting. Have you tried it? If so, how have the results been?
@Blaine,
hey look, it’s a website to post pictures on with a link back to yours. How novel !
There must be several blog posts a month announcing how much buyers hate email promos, are totally flooded with them, and they aren’t effective. Isn’t that like announcing the :30 spot is dead? That hasn’t stopped the ad world, though, has it?
Commercial Artists need to realize email is NOT the only way to reach Creatives. Yes Creatives get a lot of email but that just means you need to make yours stand out. Email should be very targeted and always followed up with a direct mail, then a personal contact (aka. old school communications – the telephone). With a world so focused on social media it is greatly appreciated when a Creative can put a voice to the images that they receive. It also shows diligence in the artists ability to carry out a production.
I hear this often, yet when I call and speak to creatives I nine out of ten times hear, send me a link.
Like Heather, I try to mix mine up with mailers, drop-offs, phone calls, emails, and (big gasp here) hand written notes.
The best way is to mail comp cards they still work.
Let’s face it… you can’t win. I hear “I hate physical promos, send email” and “I hate email promos, send physical promos”. People like different things… So you’re going to annoy the people who hate email promos with your email promos and you’re going to to annoy the people who hate physical promos with your physical promos… are we supposed to do nothing?
What’s the saying… 90% of your advertising doesn’t work, you just don’t know which 90%.
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