Perfect Email Pitch for Indie.
When you send out emails to so many venues and nobody get back, it is really frustrating. It makes you wonder if you did even send those e-mails! It happens with all of us. So when you begin booking for the next tour, take a new route and get a little specific in your pitch. Let’s see how to go about it.
Let start with basics. A noticeable pitch must have these important elements in it-
A Professional Bio
I have written about the importance of a professional bio in my blog Tips and Tricks. If you don’t have a professional bio, don’t waste your time trying to book with establishments that probably have hundreds of requests in the pipeline. Know that a good professional bio, which is a specific type of bio, is much more important than you currently think. You can learn about it online. Once you have a professional bio ready, get some up-to-date images and videos and probably a link to your music. Once you have all of these ready, contact a company like HyperEffects to get a website for yourself or your band. These companies help you get a website to connect with your target audience efficiently. HyperEffects is one stop for your marketing and cyber development requirements. It helps you to create a website to display your talent or sell your indie music or indie art. When you have a website, make sure you add the link to it in your email to the venue.
Most venues get hundreds of emails for booking every month. Be short, straight and crisp; they don’t have time to read a book. Bio can be put in bold so it’s the first thing a booker reads.
Booking Date
Bookers are not going to tell you that they are available throughout the week, even if they are. Goes against their image. Nor are they going to go back and forth asking you about possible dates. So be specific about the date(s) that you are looking for. Tell them you’ll be coming through town on those dates and would like to get a performance while you’re there. It is always better to give them two dates. This will increase your chances of being booked; but do mention the dates that you prefer out of the two.
Generally, holiday season is a busy time for all the venues. Also, people are in a jolly mood and happy to spend during holidays. So, it will be beneficial for you to get dates during the holiday season from important venues. You will find happy crowd and selling merch will be very easy at a performance during the festive season. Some believe that summer is a good time for performances because a large group of people take vacation almost all of summer and also because summer has increased music events such as indie music festivals and summer concert series etc.
Links
It is not just important but crucial to add links in your email. Not just the link to your website, but also very important to send are direct links to video and audio clips so bookers don`t have to look around on your website to find whatever they want to know about you.
YouTube has proven to help many indie artists and is a great way for people to hear your music. Live video is an instant way for bookers to know if you have the skills they desire. Work out a way to record some live videos that express your skill and style. Record videos that show the diversity in your art and always have your best video first.
Facebook will hit a certain group of friends and is a great way to post invites to your events, images of your tour and videos of anything that you are doing on the tour. Your unofficial activities and chat on Facebook doesn’t just interest your fans, it interests the bookers too.
Use Instagram often. Music clips are a great way to create excitement and get views. It is also going to be a place that the bookers will try to find you and the more visible you are, the better for you.
A lot of bookers want to listen to your music on SoundCloud, so make sure that you have an active and updated account. Make sure your email to bookers has a link to all of the above, in addition to your website.
Please share your experiences about sending email to venues for booking and I will add them in my future blogs.
