The short answer is yes, if you know how to craft a well-written email. A lot of music professionals don’t have or want to take the time to switch from answering emails to checking out Youtube videos or a band website without good reason. That’s where writing a good email comes into play. Create an appealing email, and you will gain their attention much better than an email simply saying “please check our music out.”
Keep It Short and Sassy To The Point
The typical email account will receive dozens or even hundreds of emails a day. Fortunately our spam filters stop most of those, but for music professionals receiving a hundred or more valid emails a day it is still a lot to go through. Think of your own approach to reading through emails. Unless it is from someone you already know, chances are you won’t bother reading a long email. A good reference would be in the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, where Michael Cera’s character Scott gets quickly bored reading an important email due to how long it is taking to make a point. He then simply deletes it. While this is a Hollywood exaggeration, it is still close to how some people respond to reading emails.
You don’t have to keep the email within a certain length. After all this isn’t Twitter. But do try to minimize unnecessary information. This includes jokes that do not relate to and/or drive a point, and any fancy styling on the email. Type it in plain text and get to the main point of the email quickly so that they know why you are writing them in the first place. This will let your reader gauge how they should handle the email, whether it is keep reading, put aside and come back to it, or delete it. In the end just remember KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid!
Get Personal
Like in social media, even with email being personal with the target audience is the best way to go. After all, you hate getting those obvious “template driven” spam emails don’t you? Save that for your newsletters and write your networking-oriented emails with the individual reader in mind. So what about all the people whom you have not met or spoken with before? Well the first way is to use their name, which you should have or be able to find if you know who it is or what department you are emailing. If you don’t even know the name of the person you need to reach, then why are you even writing them an email to start with?
Once you know their name, it would be a good idea to learn even more about them. If you can show your target that they were important enough for you to invest time learning about them, they will more likely take your email seriously. Plus a little bit of indirect flattery doesn’t hurt. Another way to get “personal” is to see if you have anyone in your network already that knows this person. This is a good point to turn to the social media sites, especially LinkedIn when dealing with music professionals, and see if you share a mutual connection/acquaintance.
Your Purpose
Before you write a single letter of an email to anyone for business purposes, you must first be clear on what your purpose for the email is. Don’t pick something vague like “getting exposure,” “getting radio play,” or “getting a recording deal.” Be specific with your purpose since you are writing to a specific person. “I want to get my song Blah Blah played on your radio station WXYZ,” or “I would like to book a gig at your venue for a night in March.” Those are good and descriptive purposes.
Solve A Problem
This approach works well for any email, whether it is the first or fifteenth email with a contact. Find out a problem your target is having and offer something or some way to help with the problem. Even if it is not a major problem, offering your service/product in a way to solve a problem goes a long way with building rapport with people.
Be Direct and Ask/Offer
A great place to start with this is the subject line of the email. Say right away what you are after, whether it is for radio play, a gig, or an offer to write a guest post for their blog. Instead of waiting till the body of the email, make it clear in the subject line. Doing this will grab more attention from your reader than using something vague. Just make sure you are as specific as possible without making the subject too long.
Thank and Praise Them
I already mentioned how flattery can help. Well so can thanking the person for their time as well. Be courteous, respectful, and use warm language. Make sure you phrase your sentences in an inviting way. You want your email to be at least somewhat enjoyable to read, even though you may be asking for something.
Your Signature
Okay, this is where you can get a little more creative in regards to the formatting. Add some visual spice to it with a nice font perhaps. Don’t overdo it though. You can get a little more creative here but keep it to just text. Don’t add the little icons for your different social media pages. Save that signature for your newsletters to fans. Put your name, business name/position, phone number, and your website link.
For some more tips check out: 25 Tips for Perfecting Your E-mail Etiquette