Filmmaking & Videography Music Industry / For Artists

Whether you’re a freelancer, small business owner, content creator or are self-employed, writing email pitches is a skill that you need to master. Hustling for opportunities is more important than ever in light of the Coronavirus pandemic, and capturing people’s attention and promoting yourself is top priority. Not to worry, we’re here to give you some top tips for writing email pitches. Lets get started!

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What Are Email Pitches?

Email pitches are, simply, communication that you send in order to promote a product, or to highlight and share your services in the hope of receiving business.

Some examples of email pitches could be:

  • Asking for reviews for your company / work
  • Promoting a service or product
  • Spreading awareness of your company / work
  • Inquiring about vacancies (not specific job applications)
  • Any introduction or promotion you send to a prospective client or collaborator

Writing Great Email Pitches: Our Top Tips

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1. Find A Contact

Sometimes, cold emailing is unavoidable. If you can’t find a mutual friend or contact to introduce you, then cold emailing it is! In this case, try to make an introduction before jumping into any heavy selling or promotion.

If you can find a way to be introduced (or a direct contact email), that’s great! Using a direct person/email address rather than a general email ‘info@’ type address is always the best way to go. Finding the right person will make you look more professional, stop you being passed around different people, and will raise your chances of getting a response.

2. Follow The Rules

If a company or contact sets out guidelines – follow them! It may be tempting to try to skirt the rules and choose a different approach to stand out, but this will make you look unprofessional, selfish and ignorant. Your submission will almost definitely be ignored, and you may be blocked from sending future pitches.

A lot of companies will have clear rules for different types of inquiries, online forms and guidelines for pitching. Pay particular attention to what they ask for, including the length, the medium you need to use to submit and the closing date for submissions.

3. Consider Your Timing

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If you are submitting work or sending email inquiries to popular companies or sites, be aware of your timing. There is a big difference between sending an email at 4pm on a Friday as opposed to 8am on a Wednesday. The Friday email will most likely not be opened, and may get buried with further emails over the weekend.

A good tip is to aim for 8-10am in the local time of the person you’re emailing. Avoid Mondays as not to overwhelm or blend into tons of emails. Statistically speaking, emailing Tuesday to Thursday will be your best chance at being seen.

4. Use Personalization

It’s tempting to save yourself time by firing off the same email to hundreds of emails in the hope that some stick. However, it should be a quality game as opposed to a quantity game.

Take time to personalize the email, and don’t overlook the importance of this step. Address the contact by name, and triple check the spelling of their name. Then, briefly introduce yourself in a warm and approachable manner. Quickly identify who you are, and what you want / what you have to offer. Don’t overstep or try too hard, but if you can somehow show that you know about the company/contact and have done your research, it will go a long way.

5. Do Your Research

Showing that you have knowledge of the person or place you are pitching to is another important step. Make sure that you are pitching to somewhere that is in the right area. If you’re an artist asking for music reviews for a folk song, for example… don’t email a reviewer that only covers electronic music.

Mentioning something they have previously published / some of their work and linking it back to what you have to offer is a great way of showing that you’ve done your research. Don’t just pitch blindly – do your research and create a shortlist of the most relevant to send an email pitch to.

7. Sell Yourself

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You are (in most cases) essentially blindly approaching somebody and trying to offer something to them that they didn’t ask for. Therefore, you need to show that what you have to say / offer has value, and is something that will benefit them.

Firstly, what is an issue that you are solving or a question that you are answering for this person? What are you selling, exactly – yourself as a person, your insights, your skills or a product/service? Perhaps a combination? It’s important to define this beforehand so that you can be clear, direct and persuasive.

If your service/business/skills have something over your competitors, then highlight this briefly. What makes you different, and why should this person choose you? Remember to keep it succinct, and try not to ramble!

8. Email Aesthetics

Most companies or contacts will receive lots of email pitches, and want to be able to instantly recognize what you are asking for. Therefore, the layout and digital aesthetic of your email makes a difference, too.

Make sure it is well spaced, with enough paragraph breaks, easy to read, grammatically correct and that different paragraphs are themed and not frenetic/going back to earlier thoughts every two seconds. Try to keep the email as short as possible to keep the reader’s attention, but with enough information and warmth that the person will take the time to interact with you.

9. Important Information To Include

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Don’t forget to include any relevant information they need to know, such as:

  • Background / who you are
  • What you are offering plus your idea and values
  • Advantages of working with yourself vs competitors
  • Turnaround time (for freelancers)
  • Your fee / cost (if applicable at this time, this can wait until later in a lot of cases)
  • A sample of your work (maybe hyperlink a word to the web address / document to avoid looking too spam-like)
  • Double check you have covered the what, why, when, how and who.

10. Don’t Forget To Follow Up

Just because you haven’t heard back, it doesn’t mean that you’ve been rejected. Sometimes emails go unnoticed, or people forget to respond even though they are genuinely interested. Sometimes people need some breathing space and then a prompt to get in touch. Therefore, it’s important to send a follow-up email.

Don’t chase immediately, but don’t leave it so long that you are essentially re-pitching again. Anywhere between a week to 10 days is the best amount of time to wait, and again, keep your follow-up friendly, succinct and sent at a thoughtful hour.

How Audiosocket Can Help

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This article is all about reaching out as a freelancer or small business owner in order to generate awareness. If you’re an indie filmmaker, content creator, or small business owner creating content for your business, you will need some music. That’s where we can help!

If you are looking for authentic, top-quality music for your project, why not check out Audiosocket? Your content deserves the best, so sign up today and access 85,000+ songs to bring your vision to life! You can access Audiosocket’s music catalog for just $15 a month as a Personal creator. Not only that, but this allows you to license an unlimited number of tracks at no additional cost. Talk about win-win!



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