What you don’t want to do at this point is bombard them
with information and I would suggest no showreel at this
point as well. It’s just a general welcome, letting them know
where you had their email address from “Hi John, my name’s
Rich, Jane suggested I contact you regarding voice work” etc.
A great way to get a response is to ask a question, and what
better question to end your short and snappy email with
than “I wandered if I may send you my showreel for your
reference?” this is the engaging part, if you were to just send
the email with no question then you would potentially get no response.
It gives the potential client the option to engage in
business with you and strike up a working relationship. If you
get that response then great, this is where you show them
your shop window and let them know the door is open
(alright Rich calm down on the metaphors!!) so what’s next?
The response email arrives “Hi there, thanks for getting in
touch, great to hear from you and yes, sure, please do send
me your showreel”. Again, you don’t want to respond leaving your life story so, short, snappy, and get straight to the point.
Include details like, you are based at
your own studio with ISDN, source connect etc and you can
turn around MP3s same day or include your availability.
Include some sort of offer like, you can provide a few
auditions for their clients to choose from and try to
accommodate some of their needs from the off, after all you
may end up working with these people for years to come.
Negotiating rates at this point is subjective, you don’t want to
pigeon hole yourself and so perhaps say your rates apply on a
job by job basis but you work to equity rates for radio work
etc. As long as this email contains just the right amount of
information to get across what you can offer, along with your
showreel, then you’re ready to go.
If you don’t get a response from the second email I would
just take it as they have all your details on file now and they
will contact, you when something suitable arises. In regard to
making contact with them a second time, perhaps leave it a
month or two and make contact to let them know you’re
around or if you have a new showreel etc. I wouldn’t add
them to a weekly availability email at this point, maybe once you have worked together and they have said it’s ok. The
above is not from the bible and some people may have
alternative ways but it’s something I have crafted since my
first email as a freelancer when I sent the same email out to
300 contacts with absolutely no effort or thought into what I
was doing.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,
sometimes the work just isn’t there! so don’t get
downhearted if it doesn’t work. The above method has
proved to work for me on a lot of occasions and I have
managed to form working relationships through just a few
emails.