I'm uncomfortable emailing people I haven't talked to in years, like old clients from 25 years ago. Should I still add them to my list?

Yes, absolutely add them to your list even if you don’t plan to email them directly. You have multiple options for reaching these contacts. If you’re uncomfortable sending direct emails, you can use Facebook and Instagram ads instead, which is much less invasive. Upload your complete contact list to your Facebook Ads account—even without email addresses, Facebook can often match people using just their name and physical address. Then you can show these contacts ads on Facebook and Instagram. They might see your ad and think ‘I haven’t heard from them in years, wonder what they’re up to’ and click through. This approach lets you reconnect without the awkwardness of an out-of-the-blue email. You’re not emailing saying ‘I haven’t heard from you in 25 years, buy my art’—you’re simply making your work visible to people who already know you.

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Asked by an artist uncomfortable reaching out to old contacts · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2018-08-23