cold email
Cold emailing. It’s kind of like cold calling, but without the really scary part where you have to talk to a live person and get rejected. Sometimes over and over again. Hiding behind an email may feel safer, but it’s less likely to get a response, especially if it’s not done right.
I got a cold email today from a company that wanted me to hire them as a publicist. It started with “To whom it may concern”. Okay, already I’m going to delete it, but not before checking out their site. This is already more homework than they did on me. It just takes a few extra minutes to at least look through someone’s site before contacting them, especially when you’re asking someone to spend $5,000 a month.
If they had looked through my site they would have seen that I have quite a lot of PR already and just by Googling swiggies and publicity my Linked In info comes up on the first page along with the title of “publicist”.
My name is also there and could have been substituted for “To whom it may concern”. That would have gone a long way. I got a cold email from my current factory who addressed me by name and mentioned something about an article they saw me in. That’s another thing. Many times people have articles written about either them or their company and that can be a great ice breaker. But at least do the bare minimum.
I know time is valuable, which is why you shouldn’t waste it. The very best way to connect with people is face to face, but a call is the next best thing. At least they get to hear your voice and you can get your personality across. Once you’ve established contact through a phone call you can then send an email and/or snail mail. But make the connection first.
Also, different people want you to do even more homework before you call. A couple of times I’ve been reminded that I should be looking at the stock market numbers or reading the trades in their industry. That really is good advice. Just as a test for myself, the next time I’m going to immerse myself in information about the company before calling. I’ll let you know what happens.
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