#022: Email Pitching 101 (Pandemic Edition)
“Habits + Deliberate Practice = Mastery” — James Clear
Most recording artists have hopes and dreams of landing big synch placements, records deals, live shows/tours, brand partnerships and beyond. The easiest deals to land are when the music supervisor, record label, promoter or brand reach out to the artist seeking a partnership. But in all other cases, the original inception of a future deal will likely begin with a pitch. More specifically, a pitch via email. This has been true since email became a primary form of communication in the 1990s, but this is even more relevant in 2020 with many meetings, networking events, award shows and other large gatherings cancelled due to the pandemic. If an email pitch is your first impression to get in the door, it better be a good one. Follow the below tips and you will improve your chances of garnering a response and eventually closing the deal:
Keep the pitch short and focus on what the other party cares about. The goal of the pitch isn’t simply to make your client look impressive or to add as much detail as possible. Ask yourself, what does the other party care about? Ensure that answer is your primary focus and for the first email, keep the pitch to 4-5 sentences maximum.
Find a way in. Do everything in your power to prevent sending completely ‘cold’ email pitches. Find someone in your network who can introduce you to a contact or can at least provide a name of someone who works there. Having a co-sign right out the gate and/or throwing out a name the person knows well will help you appear credible and worthy for the contact to respond.
Research. Regardless of obtaining an introduction or having to send a ‘cold’ email, research, research… and then research some more. Find as much information as you can on the person via Google search, their social media accounts, LinkedIn, articles and beyond. There have been countless times that this has led me to find a way to bond with the contact (i.e. realizing that we went to the same college, that we’re originally from the same city, are fans of the same sports team or have a friend in common).
Create a subject line that stands out. The email pitch is your first impression with a contact, but the subject line is the first impression of the email pitch. Make sure that the subject line catches their eye, summarizes the pitch and stand out. When appropriate and when used tastefully, emojis are one way to achieve this.
Address the contact by their name. Don’t use “hey”, “yo” or “what’s up?”. Personalize the pitch and address it directly to the person. If you are using copy/paste to pitch to many people, be very careful to not leave someone else’s name in the pitch.
Don’t attach anything. It’s not the worst thing in the world to attached a one-sheet or EPK. The problem is that doing so increases the likelihood that the email ends up in the person’s spam folder and it might overwhelm them with too much information. It’s best to save the attachments for the second email.
Get a call or in-person meeting. The goal isn’t simply to get a response. The goal should be to land a call or in-person meeting with the contact. This will be the way to develop a relationship with the contact and elevate conversations to (hopefully) land a deal. The email pitch is simply the vehicle to get there. Keep this in mind at all times.
Following up and being persistent. If no response comes back, sending one follow up note is smart. Sometimes emails sneak through the cracks or are opened, but the contact gets busy and forgets to respond. But don’t follow up 24 hours after the original pitch. People are busy and this is just too soon. It drives me crazy. I would suggest sending one follow up email 4 to 7 days after the original email was sent. If still no response, then leave it be. Live to fight another day and try them again when the next big song is released or career milestone is reached. There will be a lot of ‘no’s’ or no responses when pitching an emerging artist, so the persistence to continue pitching to find those supporters is key. But too much persistence towards one contact (i.e. 5+ follow up notes) is a good way to get blocked or put on their ‘filter’ list.
The goal of a quality email pitch is to increase the odds of receiving a response and landing an initial meeting, but the reality is that the artist’s leverage and many other factors will contribute to this outcome. Scooter Braun pitching a Justin Bieber collaboration is inherently going to lead to a different response rate than an upcoming artist/manager partnership, regardless of the quality of the email pitch or content. With more success and leverage comes a higher response rate. However, a top-notch email pitch will always put your client in the best position for success and will ensure that even if the current pitch doesn’t land, that you leave the door open for a future partnership.
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JAY’S SONGS OF THE WEEK:
ROSIE - “Never the 1”
Busta Rhymes - “Look Over Your Shoulder” (ft. Kendrick Lamar)
glaive - “touché”
Jordan Mitchell - “Famous”
