contact emails

I spent a good part of yesterday being a "good business-savvy" singer and composing emails to contacts about my upcoming performance.
Of course, it's always easy to keep in touch with the singers-- a mass email to one summer group here, a mass email to another summer group there, reminders of funny things that happened over the summer, and OH, btw- yes, I'm in this show in two weeks.

It's a whole different ballgame when you're emailing the coaches, directors, teachers, agents, conductors from those programs, and from any point in your career.

I have a few lists on my computer (either in old emails, or in actual word documents), of the names, emails, how I know them, how much contact I've had with them.

But it never fails- every time I am writing one of these emails I wonder how professional or unprofessional it is to "mass" email. I'm not talking about putting every person I know in one email. I'm talking about putting all the coaches/directors/conductors from ONE program on a mass email.

In the past I've done both a cut and paste job and made it personal, and I've also emailed a mass group. Sometimes I start with a mass group and then if they write back, I'll of course respond personally.

I haven't decided what to do this time.

And then there is the question of what really to say---because I know that 99.9 percent of them (minus one agent) will NOT come to the performance since
a. they do not live anywhere near here
b. they teach/coach/direct/conduct elsewhere
c. I'm not in NY where you can just get to the performance on a whim of the evening.

And THEY know that I know that, and therefore this "invitation" is just a "catch up"/connection email...and while I'm extremely good at the catch-up/keep in touch/news/press emails, and I know they can never hurt, I still think carefully about how to word these things and hope that they are always appropriate.