The Importance of Following Up:

The Importance of Following Up:

Whether you are after a new promotion, looking to secure a new job, or simply trying to get someone to listen to your client’s newest project or album many times your requests will be sent over email or the phone.  For some people this is where the contact stops, they wait silently hoping that their one email, voicemail or phone call was enough to get what they wanted.  The truth is 99% of the time, it isn’t.  It may not be because you aren’t interesting or lack the “right stuff” to be remembered, but rather that you aren’t the only on trying to get the other person’s attention.  Because of this it is important to give the person you are trying to get a hold of sufficient time to receive your message, and then if you haven’t heard back from them follow up.

Below I am going to list a few tips I have picked up that may help you on the road to getting that job or big break for an artist that you are working with.  These aren’t secrets by any means, and you may very well know everything I am going to suggest, however just because you know what you should do doesn’t always mean you act on that knowledge, and I hope this can be a small mental check list to help you out next time you feel you may have been forgotten.

Getting Noticed:

1] Always make sure you have the most up to date contact information for the person or company you are trying to get a hold of. 

- This may seem like a no brainer, but often times companies change internet providers or any other various thing and contact info can change day to day.

2] Dig a little bit to find out if there is an actual PERSON you can contact and not just an info@company.com

-Many times I have gotten phone calls or emails weeks after I sent out a press release or email saying, “Yes we are interested in running a feature, sorry for the delay an intern is supposed to check that email daily, next time just email me directly at jim@company.com

3] Never send something with an attachment unless the other party is expecting it.

- People in the Music Industry get a lot of mail constantly and running out of inbox space is something that is very real and very obnoxious, often if they don’t know the email address and there is an attachment they will just delete it. 

4] Finally FOLLOW UP!

            -Following up is not something that is considered annoying by any means, sometimes you just     have to send a second email to get someone to remember your name or client.  I suggest 4-5 days after the first draft sending your first follow up email and if you still get no answer wait a week and send another.  Never follow up more than twice, at that time you can consider that the other person simply isn’t interested and you don’t want to run the risk of upsetting them.

5]Rejection is very real!

            -Get used to it, learn from it, and use it to motivate yourself!

Publicity and PR with Miranda of PMA.PR

I recently had the opportunity of sitting down and chatting with Miranda Lange over at PMA PR in Chicago, IL.  Miranda has been working in the music industry for nearly two decades and was more than willing to share her knowledge and expertise with me.

Publicity is something that I never intended on getting into, the opportunity just fell into my lap and after the first couple campaigns I realized it was something that I was not only passionate about, but actually rather good at.  With out any formal training in the area of publicity and PR I found myself getting a lot of exposure for clients that were virtually unknown even in their local areas.  Miranda got started almost the same way, she was working at an independent label when the publicity job opened up and was offered to her.  Without any training or knowledge of the industry she started doing what made the most sense and really creating her own style of PR which ended up being exactly what the label and her clients were looking for.

Publicity is a service, and that service is promoting someone else's product, you can't promise it is going to get much attention but you still have to push as much as possible to get the right people hearing and talking about it.  Miranda went through her normal day-to-day, and how she starts campaigns as well as how she ends them.  A lot of the information was helpful and even more was very positive reenforcement to the process I had already been taking with my own campaigns.  I learned more in the 50+ minute conversation with her than any book or class could hope to teach me.  Overall I feel very positive about my future in the music industry and my abilities to provide a very solid service to bands in the near future.

PMA//PR
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