Emails and lists- how to use these to market your handmade, crafts, artwork

As I began my holiday marketing campaign this year, I decided to try a few new avenues for marketing- you probably have received all the same advertisements and junk mail that I have for "marketing services", "viral marketing", etc. etc. Well, I decided to actually check out what some of these are- and I think I have a better understanding now of what these terms mean, and how we can actually use