How many people answer your inquiries? If the answer is not a lot, you might have some opportunity to make your pitch more effective. Whether you’re sending a booking pitch, hoping to get a feature, looking for a mentor, looking for sponsors, or just trying to connect with someone, any initial contact you make with someone is a pitch and you really need to put your best foot forward on it.
Why? Because the person you’re trying to engage with has about 20 other emails to sift through and their time is hard to come by. If you’re inquiry falls short of convincing them that they need to respond, it might get deleted or snoozed until never. Some possible reasons you might not get responses could be that you’re not properly making a request, or that your email is too long or too short, or that they meant to follow-up but forgot, or that they just aren’t feeling your energy. Yep, that’s a thing.
I’ve received a handful of inquiries from artists looking for I’m not sure what. My biggest pet peeve is that these artists might be great, but they failed to make an actionable request. I will receive emails with links a name and nothing else. They’ll maybe send a rocking bio, but no ‘How are you?’ or anything. They just expect me to….
Well, I’m not really sure what they expect because they’re not saying anything or asking anything. Therefore, I have no idea what they want or why they’re reaching out to me.
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I don’t have time to help them figure out what it is they want. If they’re sending me these kinds of messages, I would guess that these are the types of messages they’re sending to media representatives, bookers and talent buyers, industry professionals, and other gatekeepers.
Their messages look something like this:
—
The Red Lolipop Troup is the liveliest all-girl punk band in the US. We’ve recorded with Sting’s sound engineer and worked with his brother’s cousin’s manager.
We recorded at grammy winning No Holds Barred Studio who also engineered Lil Wayne’s second album and worked with Justin Timberlake’s producer.
Take a look at these links…
Link 1, Link 2, Link 3
—
That’s it! No contact information, no actual greeting, no actual inquiry. Just a lot of mumbo jumbo that means nothing to me. If you’re doing anything similar to this with your pitches and inquiries, you’re wasting your valuable time and the time of the poor soul you’re sending this message to.
Attn artists emailing me: I can’t read minds. Although I would like to, but I don’t know what you want unless you ask. What do you want, a feature, help writing your bio, crowdfunding help, etc? You’ll go a long way when you know what you want.
— The Crafty Musician (@IndieArtistsDIY) October 18, 2018
Here’s how to transform a dead-end pitch into something that will get you more responses.
Name Drop
The best name dropping you can do is using their name. Here’s a piece of truth you need to get really well: The sweetest name to a person is their own name. People love their own name and they love to hear their own name. I dare you to test this out in the real world. When speaking to someone, try adding their name into the conversation more often and see how much more response and attention you get. Use their name. It will get you more points with them than any other name.
[bctt tweet=”If you want to name drop, use the person’s name you’re speaking to. It will get you more points than any other name…” username=”IndieArtistsDIY”]
The second best name you can use is the name of a friend of theirs or someone in their network. But this works best only if you have permission from the other person to do so. Or else it can come back and bite you in the rear end. Someone used my name as a reference once without my knowledge and the person they were trying to namedrop me to called me up and asked if I referred them. I said no. I don’t have to tell you that it wasn’t a good look for that person.
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Engage in Flattery
Compliment them or thank them on something they’ve done that left a positive impact on you. This shows that you’ve been following them and paying attention, even if it’s just for a day. People crave praise and positive affirmations whether they are famous, rich, or a nobody. Break the ice with a flattering compliment. Doing this proves that you’re not just sending copy and pasted messages to random people. This proves that you actually put some thought into your dialogue with them in particular. It doesn’t take long to quickly skim through a few of their articles or services or products and identify something you like. Bringing this up in your inquiry to them will put you ahead of the rest of the emails they’ve gotten that week.
Briefly Introduce Yourself
Tell them who you are and why you’re contacting them. Just imagine if you were minding your own business and someone came up to you and just handed you a flyer without saying a word or acknowledging that you are a person. Wouldn’t that make you feel invisible in some way? Well, this same feeling can happen in cyberspace too. Without a proper acknowledgement or introduction, you run the risk of alienating the person you’re trying to engage. Don’t do that.
Be Concise
Consider the length of your message. If it’s too long, it probably won’t get read. If this is the first time you’re contacting the person, a few short sentences and some links should do the trick. But don’t be too concise to the point where you’re not giving enough information. Give them the information they will need to make the decision you’re hoping they will make. Not less, not more.
Make One Clear and Practical Request
Don’t leave the most important part of your inquiry out of your inquiry. You need to make an actual request! Ask for what you want and make it clear. Ask for only one thing if you can in order to make it easier for the person to say yes. You need to ask for what you want because how else will the person know? When people send me stuff without an actual request, I usually ignore and delete. Sometimes I’ll indulge if I have nothing else to do. For example, I wrote back a couple times and one of them asked me to figure out how I can help them. For reals? They sent me an open ended inquiry, and I even made time for them and they still couldn’t come up with a specific request? Please!
Here’s how to transform the email above into a more effective pitch. Let’s say they’re looking for a music magazine to feature their latest album.
——-
Hi Sadie,
I’m Rachel, lead singer for The Red Lolipop Troup, an all-girl punk band based in St. Louis. We really enjoyed your article in the last issue of Punk Music about music and the mind. It really spoke to us because we make it our mission to enlighten our audience about mental illness with our music too.
I’m reaching out to you because I was hoping you’d be interested in featuring our latest album in your Bands You Need to Know column. The album is a compilation of songs celebrating health and wellness. Here’s a link to a preview of the 14 track album: (link inserted here)
You can also find some of our live performance videos on our YouTube Page: (link inserted here)
(Include an inline picture in the body of the email.)
Do you have space to feature our album in any upcoming issues?
Thanks for your time Sadie and we look forward to hearing back.
Contact info below…
——-
This email gives the band the best chances of getting that feature. They introduced themselves quickly and clearly articulated what they are after. They demonstrated familiarity with the person they’re reaching out to. The email was quick and to the point. They started and ended the email with an actionable request. There’s no question who the band is, why they are contacting Sadie, nor is there a question about what they want. Everything is spelled out plainly.
That’s the secret to a winning pitch. Make it plain. Make it easy. This type of email is impressive because not many people know and understand email etiquette. When you do, you’ll stand out every time.
Some final thoughts on making requests…
- Be sure to check their website for specific instructions on how to make contact. Sometimes organizations and individuals will include instructions right down to what to put in the subject line when it comes to contacting them. Make sure you follow all of their rules.
- These tips will not guarantee you’ll get a response, but following these guidelines will make your email stand out and more than likely will put you ahead of everyone else. Don’t be afraid to follow-up if you don’t get a response. Follow-up every two weeks until you get a response. But make sure to be as polite as possible. You never know what the person is going through.
- If you have a bribe or something you can give them as a thank you to make your call-to-action more worthwhile, mention that too (as long as it’s legal).
Many artists are waiting for their big break, but in all honesty, you can give yourself a break. Start with cleaning up your pitch. Use these tips to transform your inquiry into a winning pitch, one that will give you the best chances of getting a response. You’ll start getting more positive responses, and you’ll level up.
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Good advice, Anitra, as always. It should help lots of people, experienced or otherwise, in making a more effective approach.
Thanks Astra!