This is just a thought. I recently tried to contact a voice over professional to ask her/him permission for something. I looked around her/his website but couldn’t find a way to contact him/her except via a contact form.
There is nothing strange about that… people hate to list their emails because they don’t want to get spammed so they use a contact form so that their email addresses are hidden. I do it myself on my website but since some people seem to dislike using the form system I decided to list my email but as a jpg image file so that the email harvesting bots (I always think of them as looking like the over-tentacled robots from the matrix.)
Anyway I fill out the form. I tell him/her I am only seeking permission for something or other and I send it off.
Nothing… no reply for a couple of days. then… Lo & Behold I am suddenly subscribed to that person’s email marketing list. I never asked to be subscribed and I figured maybe it was a mistake. I delete it. A few days later… still no reply to my question and I receive another email through their client newsletter system.
Thankfully there was an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email so I unsubscribed.
It’s been a few weeks now… almost a month… and that person has still not replied…
I believe that self marketing is a must in our industry… but has this person gone to far?
What do you do to market yourself… do you send out a newsletter to all the people you’ve done work with reminding them that you exist? and if so what do you put in it? your new clients… the latest projects… links to audio snippets?
Do you go too far… or not far enough?
Your thoughts please!
taji
In my humble opinion, the person in question is not minding his store. If you sent a message to him with a specific question, it would seem reasonable to have an answer withing a couple of business days. If you were an actual potential client, then the response should be even quicker.
As for having your return e-mail adress added to his marketing campaign, I’d say that it’s an automated program gone awry. The only people who should be on his ‘marketing’ address book are those with-whome he has actually done some work for.
No matter how busy one might be, responding to requests for information or specific questions should be done as if it were a lead to a significant client who will ultimately provide a lot of work.
There’s an old question about who should you be nice to as you work your business, any business. The answer is EVERYBODY. You never know if the next contact will lead to a large sale or series of sales events. It is a folly to think you can treat important requests with more respect than the ones who may just be a waste of time. You never go wrong being polite and respectful.
It is true that when a person runs their own business that they can run it anyway they like. If, however, you make yourself ‘inaccessable’ you may well be running your business into the ground.
Aside from that, I have no strong feelings on the subject