The Short And Sweet Pitch

In a former and far cooler life, I edited a semi-successful music blog. This soon led to an influx of pitches. The approaches that I instinctively preferred were the really short ones. Something like: “Hello Richard, here’s a song or album to consider: [link]. Let me know if you want images. Thanks.”

No lengthy bios to wade through, nor genre labelling (“Motown meets gypsy punk”) or flowery presumption of my listening experience (”you’ll envisage sun-kissed Mexican beach cantinas”). Just straight to the point — the reason for the email, and little else.

I was reminded of that by an overture sent to me last week by a new contact, Tom Smith at Luya. While longer than the sample one above, his pitch was still notably succinct by normal standards and admirably fluff-free. Outlining a hotel client, it had only two main paragraphs — totalling seven lines in a large-ish, jaunty font; Avenir, possibly — with some images attached alongside a longer information document. Bish, bash, bosh.

If feasible, this seems a good way to pitch. Tell me the client; tell me the main angle if there is one; provide a link to the website and photos. Most everything else can be relegated to a release below, or attached. That way, your email will appear more digestible.

It’s so tempting to add more, and more, and more detail because what if you omit the clinching bit of information? I do get it. But still I promise you that, at least when it comes to this particular recipient, the shorter your email equals the less likely I am to lazily skim or postpone (often indefinitely) reading it — hence why I replied to Tom there and then. It’ll be quicker for you to write, too.

So: go with your gut feeling in terms of what to include, and keep things easy-breezy. I bet you it pays off…