Essential Guidelines for Writing a Friendly Promo Letter

Include a direct download link. Journalists are quite busy working 24/7 and cannot immediately stream everything you sent. However, it is advisable to include a stream link below a download link, because some journalists like to take a quick spin to see if the release is interesting for them.

Make it exclusive and send your promo material well before the publishing date so that a journalist could have plenty of time to listen to your record and to prepare a proper review. Usually, if you are an upcoming artist it is a very bad idea to send your promo material first to well-known magazines and after some time send it to smaller ones, which do not have such a large audience. It does not look very respectable.

Do not include tons of links, just the essential one or two. This should help you to pass through the spam filters and to stay coherent, more readable, accessible and friendly.

Double check if all the links work properly. In this case, both sides will avoid silly misunderstandings that ‘broken’ links usually cause.

Double check your grammar. If you are not a native English speaker, do not hesitate to consult with your friends/colleagues when writing a promo letter. There is no need to rush ;)

Make it personal, do not forget to say “Hi” and “Goodbye”. This is one of the most important parts, because you would love to build an ongoing relationship, not only to show yourself as a selfish bastard. Right?

Try to avoid HTML letters, because they are hardly readable and usually go straight to spam. Moreover, do not forget that many journalists use their smartphones to read their letters, so why not to save their bandwidth?

Do not send your promo letter twice, if you do not get a quick reply. In many cases any type of forcing could turn to everlasting silence.

Write your promo letter in a few concise sentences explaining who you are, what you are doing and what you are offering. Include all the additional (e.g. biography, reviews, links etc.) information in the PDF file.

Try to avoid big PR companies when sending your promo material to non-commercial e-zines. Believe us, commercial and non-commercial magazines are two completely different worlds.

If you are a label owner and send a regular newsletter, do not forget to ask if a recipient wants to get your promo material.

Always be ready to provide a journalist with additional information if he asks and try not to delay. Do not hesitate to ask him/her if they need anything else. Politeness and great socializing skills will open many doors.

Try not to use URL shortening services (e.g. bitly.com) to trick journalists. By doing so you increasingly reduce the fact that a journalist will click on your link. If you do not trust the magazine, do not send them anything at all.

If you are selling your record, it is advisable to send a physical copy to your beloved magazine or even ask a journalist if he/she would love to get a copy. Especially if the magazine is ad free. Treat this as an investment.

Try to avoid weird text-formatting techniques. Do not forget that there are many different email-reading systems and not everywhere your email looks fancy. Moreover, a heavily formatted promo letter could easily be treated as a spam message.

Think twice before sending your promo material. Ask yourself such simple questions as “does this really fit into the overall magazine concept?” and “did I include all the information a journalist might need?”. Do not forget that your email address could easily be put into spam list if the letter is not purposeful.

Why not suggest something exclusive for a journalist who will cover your work? For example, an exclusive stream of one track or even the whole album on a magazine or an exclusive commentary about your record might be a good example. There are lots of ways to gain journalist’s attention. Just think about it!