Let’s do something different and dive into the mailbag for this week’s blog.
If you read what gets published here every Monday, you know that at the end your feedback is always invited through a variety of channels. However, for this post I won’t be referencing something written to me about a blog that has been published on this site. Instead, I know there is a teaching moment in pulling out other emails that I have received soliciting airplay or something similar.
By presenting you with these examples you can learn from others’ mistakes.
And of course, as was the case in last week’s “Anatomy of a (Missed) Interview Booking,” the names are being withheld to maintain anonymity.
In the first example, an artist wrote to me and said, “I am a fan of your show, Now Hear This Entertainment.” That had my attention until they said, “I’d love for you to listen to, and potentially play our new track (title withheld for privacy) on your show.” Hmmm. If you were truly a fan of NHTE, you would know that it’s an interview style podcast and you would be talking about wanting to get interviewed rather than your new song getting played. This sounds to me like someone who bought an email list and/or is contacting radio stations blindly, seeking airplay. The implication is that they didn’t take the time out to actually check out what “Now Hear This Entertainment” is, but rather, figured that if they wrote that they’re a big fan, I would listen to the song. However, as the saying goes, I was born at night, but not last night.
Moving on, email #2 came from an artist who wanted people to check out their new song, providing a Dropbox link to such. Mind you, while it’s always widely suggested that you don’t send an attachment to someone you don’t know (since it’s always widely suggested you don’t open an attachment from someone you don’t know), it’s also not advisable to send someone a zip file, which is exactly what I was able to see that I was going to encounter if I followed the Dropbox link in the email from this artist. Still being open-minded, however, I figured I would at least look at their website and social media to learn more about who they are. Except that there were no links – at all – in their email to any social media, and when I replied to kindly suggest they include such and that by having written from a Gmail account rather than having a branded email address that would’ve tipped me off to their Web address, the response I got back said that they didn’t even have a website.
Not good, kids. Not good.
It’s 2020. It’s a given that as an artist (who’s contacting people asking to have their music listened to) you’re going to have a website and more than just a Twitter account (which is the extent of the social media I was pointed to in the response).
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The third and final message I’ve chosen to pull out of my inbox was from someone whose email to me began with, “Bruce – Is there a reason you don’t have a podcast?” I wrote back and said that I typically don’t respond to these types of solicitations, but had to let this person know that I was insulted to get an email that starts off that way, seeing as how I’ve released a new episode (of “Now Hear This Entertainment”) on-time, every week since February 2014, not to mention having done a bi-weekly podcast for podcasters and streamers from August 2017 to February 2019, and, being a national speaker with podcasting as one of my major topics.
Do your homework, people. Please. Know who you are writing to and do your research first before you hit ‘Send.’
In a year when countless people have had to stay indoors and work from home, it’s understandable that artists especially have had to rely on using email to try to connect with people electronically to get more exposure for themselves and what they’re creating. However, those that are going about it through attempts like those described above are going to really hate 2020 for the lack of results that those efforts will produce.
Put in the time. Do the work. You’ll get out of it exactly what you put into it.
Tell me about your successful email outreach. Tweet to me via @NHT_tweets, or, share it on Facebook or LinkedIn, or even write to me through email. Need help with promoting yourself? Take advantage of my years of experience and let's have a private, one-on-one video consultation to get you on the road to success.