Email

Q:

What are the do’s and don’ts of cold emailing or DM’ing potential clients and reps?

A:

1. Contact the correct people who are looking for your type of work; don’t waste their time.

2. Use their name (and spell it correctly). 

3. Keep it short. 

4. If you are copying and pasting, make sure it doesn’t look reused or obviously generic. 

5. Sound human; imagine if you were receiving this email or dm. 

6. If you’re asking for something, limit it to one clear request. 

7. Ask a simple question that’s easy to respond to so we don’t have to overthink how to answer.

Q:

If you had to name one of the most thoughtless or foolish ways to offend a client, what would it be? 

A:

One of the surefire ways to turn off a client is to misspell their name or call them the wrong name. How many seconds would it take to check their name before clicking “send?”

What makes an email PROMO work? Ask yourself if your images resemble others or if they stand out as uniquely yours. Impact, originality with a unique twist. A hook to inform in a new way! 

Q:

I’ve been thinking of reaching out to agencies, both local and international, to get represented. Do you have any tips on how to do this? I don’t want to make a bad first impression with a terribly worded email. 

A:

Good point! Don’t overthink the wording. If you are already represented and looking for a change, you can be honest about that. If you have never been repped and are newer to the business, keep it short because reps understand what you’re asking. It’s not always easy for us to say no, so consider emailing a thoughtful question or something relatable to start building a relationship, rather than putting pressure on a yes/no response. Reps know what you’re saying and, if we’re interested, we’ll continue the conversation.  We are happy to see a quick rundown of your situation, giving us a sense of the kind and confident person you are, but the more you say to us, the more we don’t read what you are saying. Make it easy for a rep who gets many of these emails a day. 

Q:

What is the importance of a “one-sheet” attachment promo in an email sent to a potential client? How many images? And should this promo include any descriptive text about the images, background/bio, pitch, etc., or should all of the text be in the body of the email?

A:

When saying hello in an email, it can be good to have a fast visual sampling that looks like it belongs in that email. The key to a one-sheet promo is that it’s a quick, relatable read of a small number of images only, and does not need that extra step of being clicked to open. 

Q:

When sending cold emails, is it better to include attached imagery, only links, or both? 

A:

I suspect (and have no actual proof), but my inclination is usually to send a link rather than images via email. I may be one of the few agents in the business to say this. Still, I suspect emailing our larger corporate clients’ image attachments will attract more firewall-stopping activity, preventing them from receiving our emails. What is your experience with this?

Q:

Are email promos worth the financial investment these days?

A:

Yes, I still think we should be sending mass emails because it’s one marketing effort we can control. It’s worth the price.

Q:

What do we do with our email promo “clicked” lists?

A:

To know who CLICKS from our email promo to our website supplies valuable feedback shaping our marketing direction. Analyzing this relevant resource can be what you need to know. 

1. Put them on a hotlist and use every method to follow up with them, including following and engaging on IG. 
2. Look up all the others at that agency or company to get them on your lists. If your work is applicable to one person at that place, it’s likely true for the other creatives and producers as well. 
3. If one of your top dream list clients didn’t have any clicks, you know you have some changes to make. 
4. Compare the marketplace segments clicking percentages to see which category of clients your work is attracting vs. which types are not being drawn in. 
5. When you get an unusual amount of clicks or lack of clicks from one email, use that to analyze what was different, like your subject line, the time or the day of the week, working changes or design. 

Q:

If I email my website or image links to clients who don’t know me, should they be specific to a project or the home page of my website? 

A:

Always do what will help a client save time. Think FAST as the goal: what will help them see what you prefer them to see? Choose one image, one project, or your website landing page, depending on what they look for. If you are expecting potential clients to click through, it’s a lose-lose situation. 

Q:

When approaching a potential client directly for the first time, do you find it’s best to send one email to multiple contacts you may have or send individual emails separately to each person?

A:

Since we’re all overloaded with spam, make your outreach as personal as possible. Sound like you are speaking directly to them by using their name (spelled correctly) and mentioning anything you may have in common. 

Do your research on LinkedIn and social media to find some quick points of interest you can touch on. Those are the emails I bet you’d want to respond to yourself.