Emailing music bloggers, music venues to book gigs, and other industry people like press outlets and record label execs is just downright frustrating for a lot of indie musicians. More often than not, you put all this time into your emails, and then when you hit the send button, you never even get a response.

There are a lot of factors that go into whether or not your emails get opened, read, or responded to, and unfortunately, a lot of them are out of your control. But today, we’ll go through a few things you can do to increase the chance your email will get noticed and taken seriously.

The key to writing effective emails is to touch on the points specific to the recipient. If you want to get a response, you need to know what the person on the other end is looking for and write an email that peaks their interest.

So how do you write emails that get responses from music bloggers, press outlets, and record label executives? Take a look at the tips below.

Keep it Short

Most people that you’re going to want to reach out to are short on time, so be respectful of this. It’s important that your email is as short and as easy to read as possible.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s often more difficult to edit your message down into something really concise. As musicians, we have a tendency to want to tell our whole story, but that can make your emails very hard to read and very difficult to understand the purpose of the email.

With this is mind, when emailing music bloggers and other industry people, it’s best to write your emails in steps. First, write down the purpose of your email. Do you want to get a blogger to review your album? Or get a local news outlet to cover your upcoming tour?

Once you have that, take a first-pass and write down everything that immediately comes to mind. Then, do a series of cuts. For each sentence, ask yourself, “Is this really important to the person I’m emailing? Does it support the purpose of this email?” If the answer to either of those questions is “No,” cut it out.

Writing short emails will take more time, but it’s respectful to your busy recipient. Remember, the average human attention span is just 8 seconds, so try and keep your emails under 5 sentences.

Write better emails that get noticed with these 10 email templates:

Use a Website or EPK for Supplemental Information

Continuing on a similar point, if you feel like you absolutely need to include some additional information about your band, you can add it to the email without clouding or confusing your message by linking to your website or EPK.

If you’re emailing music bloggers to review your new album, rather than telling them about your band’s formation history and where you’re from, link to a page with this information in case the blogger wants to learn more (like a bio or an EPK), and get straight into the details about your new album.

Including too much background information is a sign of inexperience and dilutes your email’s message. It can easily turn people off, resulting in fewer responses to your emails.

Make Use of White Space

Not only do emails need to be short, but they must also be very easy to read.

Most people don’t read entire paragraphs – they scan them to pick out important points.

To ensure your recipient is getting all of the information you want them to get from your email, space things out so the email is easy to skim. Here are some tips:

•      Write short, 1-2 sentence paragraphs.
•      Make use of white space.
•      Make use of bullet points and numbered lists.

Write Compelling Subject Lines

Of course, the first step in getting a response is to get your email opened and read, and that means you need to have a great subject line.

Here are some things to keep in mind when constructing a compelling subject line:

•      Keep it short.
•      Include the recipient’s name, if possible.
•      Hint at what’s inside.
•      DON’T USE ALL CAPS or overuse exclamation points!!!!

Use the Recipient’s Name in the Email

If you’re emailing music bloggers, rather than opening your email with “Hi [Music blog name]” you want to include the recipient’s name directly.

This simple addition shows that you put in the extra effort to actually do the research and will set you apart from the vast majority of emails that hit the inboxes of music bloggers. 

Failing to include the recipient’s name can make it feel like the email was sent automatically (even if it was not). Remember, there’s a real person on the other end of every email you send.

Getting your music featured on blogs is one of the best ways to promote your music. Hopefully these tips have given you some ideas that will help you get noticed by music bloggers.

As you can see, getting your music covered on blogs and other news outlets isn’t all about luck. There are easy tweaks and strategies you can use to get your emails read and taken seriously. If you want more up-to-date and practical indie musician success strategies, check out the full online course. Or sign up to get the Hack the Music Business ebook for free.