Use these 4 best strategies to streamline follow up with gigs and media to reduce your frustration around call-backs and land great gigs and media coverage.
You’ve made your initial contact, sent your first email, letter, or complete packet. Now the next step is crucial and often the difference between throwing money or time out the window or getting what you want. You may think follow-up is not fun and often I hear artists say they made the call or sent the packet so they’re done. What was sent is so often forgotten and three months later they wonder why they haven’t heard back from the person, the label, the media contact or the venue booker.
So here are 4 best strategies to streamline follow-up with gigs and media when you hate doing follow-up:
- Start with SHORT lists of bookers, media or other industry professionals. Face it, there is no way you or anyone else can do adequate follow-up on a 400 piece mailing or emailing let alone a 4000 piece mailing or emailing and get the results you want.
Do your research first, then send to a targeted 5-10 prospective venue bookers, media or industry professional at one time. You are then able to track that submission and set strategic follow-up calls or emails for those few contacts. You’ll feel like you are accomplishing something rather than being overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of trying to follow-up on a huge list of contacts.
When you have success with those, start another short set of lists and do the same thing. You will be more productive, more efficient and begin to have positive results over a shorter span of time.
- Create a simple chart to record your follow-up connections and submissions that you can keep in a visible place where you’ll see it everyday. On it, indicate the contact name, emails, phone numbers, date sent, what you sent and the date and time you intend to re-contact them.
If you have a pop-up program in your calendar that opens first thing and gives you your callback list, great. If you have a program that tracks your follow-up for you, even better. (More about that below). Use what you are comfortable with. But, having this follow-up information buried in your computer, may be less helpful than having something printed and visible, that hits you immediately upon entering your work space.
- Use the Email Auto-Responder capabilities of your Email service or program. You could set up an email sequence to send follow-up emails automatically over a period of a week or many weeks. This is sometimes called a Legacy Series. It is automated to send once it is written and pre-scheduled. Set it and forget it. Let it be a consistent reminder of you, your offerings and your act and how you can be of service to them. A once a month email can keep you in the minds of your prospective bookers and you don’t have to think about it. (Again, more about this later).
But, if you are not there yet technically, then schedule your follow-up calls based on the method you sent your material or information.
For instance: If you sent a FedEx packet, call the next day to make sure it arrived. Then schedule a time to talk for a day or two later giving them a short time to review your information.
If sent by email, schedule a callback shortly after your initial email arrived or the next day. If sent by regular mail, then, give it a few days depending on the recipient’s location. The point is—YOU must call or reconnect in as short a time as possible to keep your contact aware of you as you demonstrate your professionalism. The more time that slips by, the more forgettable your initial contact, no matter how wonderful that contact might have been.
- DO NOT EXPECT THEM TO CALL YOU. It won’t happen often! Plan on being the one who initiates all follow-up contact. You are the one who is asking for something, it’s your business, you must be the one to follow-up.
Now, think of your most recent contacts to whom you sent something and make note of when you spoke to them or heard from them last. Are they due for a follow-up call? Do you think you’ve waited too long? Set up your list(s) and make contact this week.
Streamline your follow-up with Mago Talent.
I’ve recently had a chance to check out Michael Carducci’s Mago:Talent. He is a performer and programmer and he’s put together an excellent tool to automate and streamline follow-up. It has pre-written emails, automation and billing capabilities as well as ability to accept payment. It was created by a performer, for performers. I thought I would share this with you and you may check it out for yourself.
How are you dealing with your follow-ups to contacts? Have you ever tried any of the above? If yes, what were your results?
Leave me a comment below or on the Performingbiz Success Strategies Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/PerformingbizSuccessStrategies.
I can’t wait to hear about your success.
Thanks to Carol Ehrlich for this week’s Biz Booster graphic image, ” 4 Best Strategies To Streamline Follow Up.”
Now, Thanks to the Band Curfew from the UK for providing the Biz Booster theme Music, Future Dance. Check them out at www.curfew.co.uk
And for more career boosting tips, articles, books, resources, tele-seminars and online courses, visit me at Performingbiz.com
