Here’s a little secret about how to get media to open your emails that lead to them actually being read and replied to. Trust me, it’s not sending a blanket message you write one time that says everything you could ever say about your music or your band. Cold pitch emails are absolute crap and will get you nowhere. No my friend, you need to do something A LOT more specific.
Certain Specifics Are Essential
Most media people (or people in general) don’t open the majority of emails they get. Especially from people they don’t know or have ever talked with.
They either don’t have time, and/or they have so many things on their plate that opening every message from a band announcing their release would take an eternity.
How do you think that musicians or promoters get through to radio and media for feature?
Most people assume that they hire a publicist or PR firm to do this effectively. Sure, you can try that. Your average PR campaign runs at $5000 on the cheap side.
Blankets keep you warm in the winter and leave you cold in emailing
Many of these high ticket PR companies send one big blanket email out to a few thousand email addresses. The email might have some nice images embedded. They say a lot of nice things said about the band and even a few quotes or reviews.
These emails often don’t get a response. They don’t get opened much either.
Jowanna Lewis of RadioKSCR in LA
The BIG reason for that is a lack of specifics.
I get a TON of emails sent to me daily from strangers who all wanting their music featured. And they want to book an interview with me. The more music curators I talk with experience the same things I do.
Some of them reply and ask questions. Some just delete the blanket emails.
All of them want you to know some specific things before you message them. You must state specific things in your email to get it read and responded to.
Here’s what you need to know before sending a cold email to a music curator to pitch your music.
Why Not Every Music Curator Responds To Email Pitches
I’m an uncommon media curator. Meaning, I reply to people even if their email doesn’t say what it is that they want from me. Or if they mention my show’s name. Or even if they get my name right (some people somehow miss the D as my first initial).
My response always asks a question. Whether or not I am a good fit for them isn’t as important as them seeing how a change can bring about better results.
The first thing to be specific about is WHO you want to get in front of. Or better stated, WHO you want to contact.
This means that you’re contacting ONE person, not 10 or 100 people at a time.
One-person-connection is both a mindset shift in the way that you communicate, as well as a focus shift on reaching a particular person that you’ve identified as having your target audience.
Be specific about wanting to reach this person in 3 ways:
- Name their music platform in the subject line
- Address them by name in the opening of the email
- State the media platform name in the first paragraph
Talking to one person matters because the message is personal, targeted and meaningful to the individual you want to reach.
How do you feel when someone sends you a spam, blanket email?
Does it make you feel like they value you or want to connect with you at all? Or does it make you feel like you’re just a nameless, faceless number to them?
When you identify a certain person and platform that you want to reach, you create the conduits for connection.
Tap Into How You’re Wired To Make The Connection
We are naturally wired as humans to want to connect 1-1 with people.
Names matter when you’re contacting media professionals. As Dale Carnegie said,
“Names are the most important word in any language.” (How To Win Friends & Influence People)
Getting names right plays a vital role in getting the person to read your email, AND reply to you.
The reply is actually what you want. The reply is golden because it can lead to a conversation and potential collaboration.
Take action on this advice if you really want to experience change
Are you wondering how you can find the right people to get specific about? Where can you find the right media for your audience? There are a lot of questions that still need to be answered here for all of this to work right.
And as much as I’d love to give it to you in a single blog post, there’s more to this process than we have space for here.
Fortunately, there’s a book on how to do all this stuff that’s easy, fun, and builds awesome connections with real music pros to grow your music career!
It’s all in The DIY Musician’s Radio Handbook. Simple, easy-to-read, concise. And digital.
If you want more help in building relationships beyond music, reach out and we can talk. Until then, I believe in you!
You must be logged in to post a comment.