In this article I'll take you through my best strategy for sending to curators. The better you know how to use SubmitHub, the better your results will be, so I hope this will help.
I'm going to assume you've already uploaded your song and selected some basic filters (feedback type, copyright permissions, and genres). The page we really want to dig into is the final big one where you're confronted with hundreds of curators to choose from.
Using approval rates as a measure of "risk" is my primary approach to selecting curators on SubmitHub. The idea is to treat each submissions as if you were investing in a stock on the NIKKEI or NASDAQ.
If you are risk averse, you shouldn't put all of your song's marketing budget towards to curators who approve a low percentage of the music that they receive. However, some risk is healthy in your portfolio, which is why you might allocate 20% of your budget to those "risky" curators. The risk-reward outcome could be worth it in the end.
What you’re going to need to do as a first step is to identify how you would like to allocate your budget, with risk in mind. As an example, you might split your credits as follows:
An easy way to do this is by playing with the "Approval rate" filter on the left hand side of the screen.
If you don't like big risks, I would also recommend using this filter in conjunction with the "Price" filter in the sidebar. Remove those who cost 3 credits. That way you aren’t spreading your higher risk investments too thin.
At the top right of the screen you can sort the list of curators by a few different settings.
My recommendation is to use "Genre match: high to low". Genre match is an algorithmically generated metric which indicates who is the best curator to submit to based on inputs like the genres they approve the most, amongst other things.
Now, let's return to the two or three genres you selected earlier. At the top left of your screen you’ll see in between each genre is an ‘and’ or an ‘or’. If you click on that word, it will toggle between the two.
Doing so allows you to make your search more or less specific. For instance, indie rock AND tribal house is going to show you curators who have selected that they like both of these genres (as opposed to showing curators who like either of the two). The AND setting will naturally show less curators, but those curators are going to be more aligned with your sound than someone in the indie rock OR tribal house category.
As we move into the final step, I like to use the toggling of this setting to expand and contract the search results to help get a better idea of who is best to submit to with my budget.
So, now we are set up with all of our filters and are ready to go. It's time to go through the list of curators, sorted from highest genre match to lowest, and begin scanning for curators with high engagement scores. Once you've run out of options, try toggle to OR and see if there are more choices for you there.
* Important to note when sending to high risk curators, you’ll want to avoid choosing those with low engagement scores. Doing so would be like taking a risky bet on a stock that also has a low expected return!
Go on and repeat this process for other segments of curators based on risk / approval rates. Personally, I would put about 20% of my budget into high risk curators, 50% into the medium range (eg. Approval rates of 15 - 40%), and the rest into the ones with higher approvals (NB. There are plenty of curators with high approval rates that give great coverage and have dedicated audiences, so I would advise not to overlook those ones).
Ultimately, the distribution of your budget that works best depends on your preferences and how much time you have. Experimenting with different mixes of genres, tweaking budgeting balances, and noticing which curators most speak to you is where your personal touch comes into the submissions process. Hone in on a strategy, and stick to it for a few campaigns — but don't be afraid to adapt. And as always, feel free to reach out to myself or the SubmitHub team for help 😁