Warm email introductions are one of the most powerful ways to expand your network and land some incredible opportunities in your music or entertainment industry career. But are you doing them the right way? In this post, we’ll give you some tips to help increase the chances of making a meaningful connection, avoid awkward situations, and look super professional while either asking for an introduction or making one.
The forwardable email
If you’ve already got decent email intro etiquette (getting consent from both parties before making the introduction), you’re about to add a new tool to your arsenal: the forwardable email.
There are two major benefits to this approach:
- The person asking for an introduction will get the chance to write, in their own words, whatever they want to the person they want to be introduced to.
- As the person making the introduction, you won’t spend time writing a long email describing both people being introduced, listing their accolades, and so on.
Let’s say your friend, a composer, wants to be introduced to your agent. What they should do is send you an email that’s ready to pass along directly to your agent. This email should have a clear purpose and include any/all details needed for your agent to act upon and help out your friend.
Here’s an example of what this might look like:
Now all you have to do is hit “forward” in your mail client, address it to your agent, and add a quick note to the top:
This is perfect for your agent: it has all the information they could need, the subject has your friend’s name in it, and what their request is. Speaking of your agent replying…
Don’t get caught in the middle of a conversation
If your agent is an email pro, they will add your friend to the recipient list and drag your email address to the BCC field when they reply. They might write something like this:
Thanks for the intro, Sam! (Moving you to bcc)
Hi Composer Jones,
…
This avoids situations where the two people you connected are having a full-on conversation over 20 emails and keep including you. Putting you in the BCC field lets you know that your agent replied to your friend, and the rest is between them.
Summing things up
To recap:
- Ask the person wanting an introduction to send you a forwardable email with a clear ask. Inform them on how to do that, if they’re not familiar with this format. Send them a link to this post!
- Forward their email to the person they’d like to be connected with.
- Move ahead with your busy day and feel good about creating a new connection!
