5 Tips For Professional Emails

Every month I write an article on recording for the Envato AudioTuts+ website. It's actually a premium piece, meaning that you have to pay for it or subscribe to the site to read it. That said, Envato also has a wide variety of other types of similar sites that cover just about anything that's creative, as well as audio.

Adam Everett Miller writes on Aetuts+ and has put together a collection of tips about emailing clients called 5 Client Emailing Tips Worth Forwarding. Here are his tips, which I've changed slightly to pertain more to the music business:

1. The subject line shouldn’t be just “Hey”. What reason would anyone have for opening up an email with a subject line like that? With everyone getting tons of wanted and unwanted spam every day, you have to give someone a compelling reason to open that email. I know some people that spend more time on the subject line than on the entire email, but that may be a little extreme. Just putting a little thought into it goes a long way. You have to both tell a story and be provocative enough to make someone curious at the same time though. Want some good examples? Look at the titles of the bloggers that you follow.

2. Include your info in your signature. If people want to contact you, they shouldn't have to go through a game of hide-and-seek to find your info. The very minimum that you should include is your website, your email address, your Facebook page and Twitter address. Don't forget to include your YouTube channel either.

3. Use BCC when you send a mass email. People feel it's a violation of their trust if they see that their email is broadcasted to 50 other people on a list. At the very least, use a blind carbon copy, or BCC, which shields the email addresses for the other sendees. Even better, use an email service like iContact or Constant Contact when sending to a really large list.

4. Remember that emails are permanent. This has nothing to do with email etiquette or strategy and everything to do keeping from embarrassing yourself. Once you send an email, you have no chance of getting it back. If there's anything that you feel remotely uncomfortable about, don't send it.

5. Include a call-to-action. You're sending the email to either inform your fans or market to them. Readers are more inclined to act if you ask them to. Don't forget to include "Buy it here," "Order it now," "Click for more info," or even "Send me your comments," style links in the email.

These 5 steps are easy and can make a subtle, yet perceptible difference in your email presentation. Use them wisely.

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