Pitching

EDITORS SEE MANY MESSAGES A DAY. BE CONCISE. BE POLITE. FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER.

Pitch emails begin with a strong subject line, something eye- catching, but topic relevant. Then a short personal introduction, a few lines explaining the work, and a URL link back to the project on your website. Give details on where the project is set, what it’s about, how it’s different, and why the audience should care. Labeling the work as “unpublished” will make it more attractive - it’s exclusive, which means it’s valuable.

Work examples shouldn’t be attached or embedded in pitch emails, linking back to a portfolio is best practice - large attachments take time to load, won’t show captions, and there is a loss in control over how the work is viewed. As an added trick, using Mailtrack.io on outgoing emails will allow you to see who’s opened your message, and who’s clicked on your portfolio link.

Silence is normal, and most contacts won’t respond to the first message. Following up after one week is crucial, this is where most of my sales come from. A very short message, sent as a reply to the first, is all that’s necessary.

Cold email automation platforms like Mailchimp can be tempting, but I’ve found that my emails land in junk folders or they get labeled as spam.

Writing to each contact individually will allow you to tailor your message each time. It’ll slow you down too, helping you catch errors without burning thousands of contacts at once. Emailing manually I achieve around 50% open rate, versus around 10% with automation.