Soliciting work, do’s and don’ts?

[Chris Ratledge]

To give a little more specificity to what I’m preposing, here are some more details.

As of now I have a single-page’s worth of material. I plan to create a PDF of this and attach it to the email, as opposed to it being the body of the email itself. The materials contain the following:

– Name & Contact information
– Brief introduction stating DIT and DAT service available, including locations available and my money-saving “hook” in boldface.

– Following section is divided into my Day rates w/kit fees, and pricing for above mentioned money-saver.
– Another section just below with ancillary services also listed.

…This is where it can get potentially hairy. In the next section I detail a great many things. As I said my experience has been that a lot of producers and production co’s don’t really understand the difference between a DIT, a DAT, when you need one and why, and what I include per my stated rates reflective to these, so it is outlined in my contact as “Service Details”

– Brief Explanation of DAT services performed.
– Brief explanation of DIT services performed.
– Brief description of typical included equipment and items used under each scenario.
– Brief mention of other higher-end equipment available upon request but not included in rates
– Details of my “hook’s” technical specifications in contrast to common practices.

Final section is “footnote” area, where I detail what stated day rates represent, (number of hours, etc.) details on my product’s pricing, and other details for ancillary products and services mentioned.

So hopefully my concern for this all feeling a bit too verbose can be understood. Based on this, what would you say I could eliminate? It feels like I could leave some of the footnote details off this one, but there’s not much I see in the way of repetitive information whatsoever.

I agree this has been a pretty good thread, thanks for your participation.

[Grinner Hester]

I like to see capabilities and rates. I also like to see personality in the email. Templated resumes get deleted here. If someone wastes my time telling me their objective, I lose all intrest. I know their objective. They sent me an email looking for a gig.

[Patrick Ortman]

As someone who gets about 10-12 of these kinds of emails every week from prospective freelancers, I would not rely on a PDF to sell you. I’d make sure the email itself had the meat of what you’re selling (you!), and a call to action and link to your portfolio site. Sure, include the PDF if you want to, but don’t rely on it. I rarely click on PDFs, but I’ll read some text and click to watch a reel or something on the web.

I’m also of the opinion that it’s not so bad to have prospective clients asking you for your rates. I do believe that doing this gives you the opportunity to build a relationship with these prospects. Plus, unless you’re really specialized, there’s different rates for different types of jobs- for instance, my favorite sound guy in LA charges me one rate for a very small local TV spot, and another to a primetime cable network show that shall remain unnamed.

Patrick

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http://www.patrickortman.com
Web and Video Design

[Chris Ratledge]

Thanks to all who participated in this thread. Here’s what I eventually decided to do.

I felt there was just TOO MUCH text and info to send as an email or attachment, so Instead of attaching a PDF to an email, I simply stated a bullet-point list in the body of the email what kind of info is available on my website, and invited the reader to visit and bookmark. (I modified my site to include the info from the PDF I created but never sent, it seemed better on display there)

I specifically mentioned in the very brief email that my site has a link to my online availability calendar I created, taking a suggestion from this thread, and also highlighted my money-saving feature, hopefully giving at least SOME incentive to visit the site.

I settled on not listing my rates directly in the email based on the mixed responses from this thread and through my own personal research, but they are only 2 clicks away at my website.

Thanks again everyone, hopefully others can get some good info from this thread over time.