[50] What To Include In The First Email - Booking Gigs

Over the last few weeks we’ve been focusing on booking gigs using emails.

The numbers from 2019 were overwhelming in favor of sending email instead of calling.

Venues and music promoters don’t want you calling them.

Think about it… do you answer unknown numbers? Absolutely, not.

So, now that we know we should be reaching out to clubs using emails let’s dive into what your first email should look like.

The first thing we need to understand is that we are “cold” emailing the venues.

If you don’t know them then they are a stranger.

That means, you never want to send too much information right out of the gate.

If you think about the sales process, it requires a lot of trust these days.

To sell something, they say, you need at least 21 touch points.

That is, they need to see or hear, directly or indirectly, something about you before they’re sold.

Thankfully, we don’t need that many touch points when booking gigs with email.

What we need is to get a basic conversation started.

So, first things first in booking gigs using email.

1. Never Include Any Attachments or Media

In other words, your first email should only contain text. No video links, no audio links, no attachments of videos or audio or set lists or an EPK. Nothing but text.

2. Keep The Email Very Short

Imagine getting a page long email from a stranger, would you delete immediately or take your precious time to read the entire email. Rarely would anyone read it. Keep the email at a maximum of 3 sentences. I personally only use 2 sentences.

3. Always Include A Call To Action (CTA)

You always need to include a CTA. Without it, the recipient doesn’t have any direction or push to do anything. A great CTA should be a simple question such as “Any interest in new bands?”.

This simple question gets responses because it’s an easy question and from a psychological perspective the venue contact wants to cross the email off his list. It’s an easy to-do item for them.

If you want to succeed, never quit!