Employers today often look askance at unsolicited employment inquiries. They figure that anyone worth employing would expect to be pursued, rather than being the pursuer. Consequently, the mass mailing of cover letters and résumés to potential employers will yield disappointing results. Done right, however, selective mailings can be an effective way to mine for openings. To increase your chance of success, follow these four steps:

Personalize your letter or email message to distinguish your correspondence from the masses. Before you send your message, try to learn more about each recipient. Better yet, locate someone who actually knows the employer and will let you use his or her name in introduction. (When sending email, put that person's name right in the subject line, for example, "Referral from Jane Doe.") Then, open your communication with a reference to your referral, or by mentioning something personal about the recipient, for example, his or her latest accomplishment or promotion.

Follow up every written communication with a telephone call a few days later. Don't expect your contacts to telephone you; this happens rarely. And don't mail so many messages at once that, even if you are diligent, it will take you weeks to reach everyone on the list. Networking expert Cynthia Chin-Lee, author of It's Who You Know, says that you don't want to wait so long that the person could have read your letter and forgotten about it. Equally important, don't wait so long that you've lost interest, or convinced yourself that if the recipients were interested they would have contacted you by now.

Make an effort to meet the friendly voices you hear through your phoning, even if the contacts make it clear they are not hiring. Turn those strangers into colleagues--and potential referral sources--by inviting them to coffee or lunch.

Most importantly, persist. If you proceed with the notion that your mail campaign will take at least as much time and effort--and require as much strategic planning--as completing any challenging project, you'll soon be employed.