This post may be e-mailed twenty'leven times

The local chapter of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International really wants me to attend their “Mining for Virtual Gold on the Internet” presentation next week. I mean really.

Like “seven e-mails in the last two weeks about it” really.

There are also many, many photographers’ and illustrators’ reps who want us to know all about their clients. I know this because Jessica and I each get five or six e-mails every day from them.

Or used to. Whether it’s the HSMAI or a rep, a constant barrage of e-mails from the same people is only going to get me to opt out.

Many of the photographer and illustrator e-mails came to me via AdBase, a service that sells e-mail addresses. I can’t see that it’s useful, because they sell your name over and over and over to all kinds of people and you just get swamped with all sorts of often-irrelevant e-mails. I mean really. We’re a small agency in Bethesda, Maryland. How critical is it that I see the annual report work a shooter in Texas did recently? Besides I know how to contact a rep.

I finally contacted AdBase and unsubscribed to the whole damn thing. It just got to be too much. That defeats the purpose for everybody. Not only am I out in the cold as far as getting information from them is concerned, but also, they no longer have my ear. Or my eyes. Or whatever. I can’t really unsubscribe to the HSMAI list, because I want to know what’s going on. I just don’t want to know about it three times a week. I wish there was a “tell me once or twice and then leave me alone” option, but no such luck.

E-mail is a great marketing tool. We use it. In our case, we send out about one, single-page e-mail a month. Ideally, it’s one that people can read and absorb quickly and click through for more information if they want it. I wish more of our clients made better use of it. So I’m not saying you shouldn’t use it. You should. All I’m just saying is people, please ― show some restraint.

No matter how informative, witty, brilliant, controversial or freaking funny we may be, nobody wants to hear from us all the time. Even my sister doesn’t want to hear from me that much.