When writing to someone, you want to catch them with a hook right away. Most people ignore something if the first sentence doesn’t capture them right away. The CEO of Chartbeat has stated that "a stunning 55% [of site visitors] spent fewer than 15 seconds actively on a page"! Writing an interesting an informative contact message is key for getting the attention of your audience.

Bad example:

Hello I’m BOON McImportantPerson I am the proud co-owner of Plucky Duck Productions. Our large and important sounding company has released an incredibly fun, action-packed game that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Our game is considered to be the best game by fellow youtubers such as yourself. If you are interested in finding out more information about our game please reply promptly within 72 business hours to receive YOUR FREE copy of the game. -Yours Truly BOON McGoingOutOfBuisness

Imagine how the youtuber feels:

I’m interested in growing my channel as big as possible. I have a deadline and a schedule to keep in order to make sure that my channel keeps growing and stays relevant. I get bombarded by 20 emails every single day and today I am contacted by this random person. He tells me about his achievements and his game, well yeah that’s cool but doesn’t he realize that when he talks down to me like this it makes me feel small and insignificant. I don’t care about you or your company, all I want is a short explanation of your game, a trailer, and a download link. He doesn’t tell me much about the game and it doesn’t sound like he’s ever even heard of me. In fact he uses nothing but filler buzzwords that I’ve heard every single day. Honestly, he makes it sound like he just mass emailed 200 other people including me. And what does he mean when he says reply back within 72 hours? Oh whatever I’ll skip to the other 19 emails I have.

It’s important to think about the narrative as you write your email. Make sure the other person is treated like a person and not a cog. This is your greatest asset as an indie developer, be intimate! Having a tone of appreciation and making the reader feel important will greatly improve your visibility.

Alright, now for a good real world example, here’s the email I sent to GameCubeDude200. I’m choosing this email as an example because it was the first one I ever sent (explanations in brackets):

Hey GameCubeDude200 I am a game dev with a game. [TITLE: Here I make sure to include their name. I make it a goal to use the name as much as possible without sounding annoying.] Hello GameCubeDude200 I am BOON, Pleasure to meet you dude! [Body: I use the word “dude” here because after watching GameCubeDude200’s videos I noticed that he used the term frequently. So in the same way you might copy the accent of a foreigner in order to have that person feel more comfortable, I repeat his words back to him. If a YouTuber is constantly talking about how a game makes them feel, then talk about the experiences they will soon undergo when giving your game a shot. When someone talks about how the game looks, start the email with screenshots and a trailer as soon as possible. Understand what senses the person prefers to experience the world and abide immediately to their senses] Duck Jam is a bunch of these 5 second micro games, with ducks. It has an emphasis on humor and randomness. In the same way how your viewers love seeing you on Reaction Monday, Duck Jam's humor and fast paced nature is made to create the best reactions shots out of you for your viewers to enjoy watching. [Explain your game in as few words as possible, identify your strongest hooks. That is the goal of the first two sentences. Next I studied the YouTuber and found out that his most successful videos were reaction videos he made to other YouTube videos. I started studying them to see what his niche was. I saw that people loved seeing his reactions, and usually the stronger the reaction the better the view total. This lead me to believe that if I talk to him about my game as a method of getting good reactions to his audience just like his “Reaction Monday” videos, he’d be more inclined to try out Duck Jam]. Download https://booon.itch.io/duck-jam [Make sure to include a download link or key.] I know you are very busy, thank you very much for taking the time to read this letter. Have a fantastic day GameCubeDude200 and thank you very much for making such great content. [For me personally I find that I attract a lot more flies with honey than vinegar, so here I’m always looking for things to be thankful for. I find that the more I do this, the more it makes the other person feel appreciated and will want to reciprocate that exact same appreciation to me. Don’t ever expect them to reciprocate though. Honestly I do it because it makes me feel good knowing that the other person’s is going to have a better day just by reading this small email.] With thanks, -BOON P.S. Undertale was my inspiration for getting into making games. Thanks for making sure the game stays relevant :D! [I honestly am a large Undertale fan and it brought me great joy knowing that his most popular videos were in fact Undertale related. So I throw it out there as an afterthought. I am always looking for things to give a feeling of appreciation for whenever I talk to people, this is the best way to communicate as when doing it enough times, you will often find yourselves in positions where people will go above and beyond to repay that kindness back, just don’t expect it when it comes].

This seems like a lot of effort for writing an email, right? But….Did it work?

See for yourself here! Don't continue until you've seen the first minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZTOYmmf9uM