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Creative Director Tries To Bully Photographers Into Not Emailing Him – Post from APhototEditor

Below is an interesting developement in the Email promo debate, read about it on www.aphotoeditor.com

I have never been a big fan of doing email blasts through services such as AdBase or Agency Access, but I know it still has it’s place in the business.  It just seems really impersonal to me, and creatives are overwhelmed with this kind of thing so it must be really hard to break through the clutter.  And I know that the mails are not always appreciated, which definitely gives me mixed feelings.  I don’t really like to get spam either.  Of course, a personal email to those people you really want to work with will have much more of an impact…. but what working photographer has time to do that!

My agency does email blasts, and I have attached the stats from my last campaign below. Surprisingly, the results are very consistent no matter what the subject matter of the email is.  They seem to average about 10,000 to 15,000 emails sent with about 12 to 19 percent of them actually opened.  I assume the rest go straight into the receivers SPAM folder.  From there about 3 to 5 percent of receivers actually click through to the website, and generally about 0.15 percent of people unsubscribe from the mails.  I can also look at a list of who exactly clicked through on the mails, which is a good resource for clients that actually take some interest in the work.  But it tells you something that at least 80% of the emails go straight into a SPAM folder!

See Original Post at APhotoEditor

From APhotoEditor:

A new site that’s sure to get photographers riled up sprang up last week called “Stop Photospam.” Creative Director Calle Sjoenell from BBH New York is using the site in an attempt to stop photographers and agents from spamming his and his colleagues email. In the first posting on the blog he states:

I have tried everything since I started at Fallon Minneapolis in 2006. I open my new email account and found photographers mailing me without my consent. Since spamming is illegal in Sweden. I got really upset and have tried to fight it ever since. I’ve, been unsubscribing, mailing, even calling them. But the flood continues. I get btw 10-15 every day. This is how we stop it. Join, retweet, spread!

Then on the main page he’s got a list of Art Directors and Creative Directors at major agencies who all claim they will never use a spam photographer and then go on to “declare never to use any of the following spam photographers” with a list that they claim to all be spammers. To add someone to the list it looks like all you have to do is forward the mass marketing email (spam?) and you’re on it.