An email list is an important tool that every musician should utilize alongside social media to communicate with fans.
Although email marketing might sound old school, it still serves as a straight path to your fans and remains the most effective tool in converting them to loyal customers. In fact, a McKinsey study suggests that email “continues to account for a far greater share of acquired customers than social media”.
In this article, we are going to share some tips and tricks that will help you start and grow your email list as a musician and make the most out of it.
Email Marketing for Musicians
You can use email to promote and share news about your upcoming shows and albums with your fans. You can also use it to give them insider access, exclusive content, first looks, and much more. Think of it as a special club for your most loyal fans!
But before you can do that, you will need an email list, so…
What Is an Email List?
An email list is where you keep and organize the email addresses of the people who already opted to receive your marketing emails. These people are your more dedicated fans, simply because they have taken a step beyond just following your social media or visiting your website.
There are many tools that can help you create email lists, Mailchimp is one of them. It supports up to 2K subscribers for free and gives you the ability to segment your list based on the type of interest and activities. However, it is best to do a little research on the available email marketing platforms to determine which one is the best fit for your needs.
Growing Email Lists for Musicians
Email List Opt-in Form
A form where the visitors of your website can enroll in your email list is something you need to have before thinking of anything else.
It should be straightforward, simple, and easy to fill. You don’t need anything more than two fields for the visitors to fill in their name and email and a submit button. Anything else might be a barrier that might discourage people from filling up the form.
The good news is that you don’t need to hire a web developer to build the form from the scratch. Most if not all email marketing platforms provide a code that can be easily embedded into your website.
However, you should ensure that it stands out. A trick is to use a contrasting color to help the visitors of your website notice it right away.
Also, consider adding a headline that informs your fans what exactly they are opting for. It is your chance to convince them to enroll in your email list, so you might want to avoid any generic statement such as “sign up for the email list”.
To come up with an invitation statement that can achieve a great conversion rate, you should…
Offer Something of Value
Think of it as a trade. The best way to convince people to share their email addresses with you is to offer them something of value in return.
And you don’t have to worry about it. You can automate the process through your email marketing platform. Accordingly, when someone signs up to your email list, the autoresponder will send them an email to deliver their reward.
It is no surprise that what musicians commonly offer in exchange for the email addresses of their fans are songs. However, there are many other things musicians can offer to their loyal fans.
What works best is exclusive content, something that no one else but your subscribers can have. Here are some ideas:
- Unreleased songs.
- Acoustic versions of songs.
- Video lessons and tutorials.
- Remixed songs.
- Free concert tickets.
- Free merch.
Make A Landing Page For Your Email List
In addition to the opt-in form on your website, a landing page dedicated to getting email subscribers is one of the most effective tools to grow your email list.
Landing pages work because they focus on only one purpose. Therefore, you should avoid adding anything that is not related to persuading your fans to sign up for the email list.
Use the landing page to tell your fans exactly what they will get when they subscribe. Something in the lines of “Get unreleased acoustic versions of these three songs”.
Use Social Media To Promote Your Email List
You can utilize any established blog, podcast, YouTube channel, and/or any other form of social media you have in promoting your email list. If you are already active on social media, many of your followers will enroll in your email list once you start sharing it with them.
Posting the link of your landing page in your feeds and description boxes in addition to inviting people to sign up when you record your podcast or YouTube channel can do wonders.
Invite People In Person To Enroll In Your Email List
If you’re a performing musician, live events, gigs, and house concerts are a perfect opportunity to grow your email list. All you need is a signup form on your merch table.
For a better result, you should also do a little announcement during the event telling fans that they can sign up for emails and receive a cool and exclusive reward. Something sweet and simple.
Use Email Automation
Email marketing tools such as MailChimp and Constant Contact will allow you to automate many of your tasks. You should use this feature to automate the welcome emails that new subscribers will receive. The welcome email should also include a brief introduction and the reward you promised.
You can also use automation to communicate with the visitors who have abandoned carts in your digital store.
Using this feature in those and other similar situations can increase your engagement with your fans while giving you more time to focus on your music and creative work.
Keep It Interesting
As you work on growing your email list, you should also start making all the efforts needed to retain your subscribers. The way to achieve that is by sending relevant and engaging emails.
Always think about the value the email you are about to send is going to offer your subscribers. By focusing on content that is worth sharing, you will not only retain your customers but also encourage them to click the forward button and share your content with friends and family.
Study Your List and Target Smartly
When your email list gets big enough, you should study your audience and find out what they have in common. Once you determined the market segment that is interested in your work, you can use this insight to launch efficient ad campaigns to attract similar subscribers.
Even with a tiny budget, you can test and tweak your ad campaign and get the best value for your money.
Conclusion:
Email offers direct access to your audience, which is not always the case when it comes to social media. You can utilize technology and smart marketing techniques to build and grow an email list of your loyal subscribers and use it to communicate your exciting news, exclusive content, and great deals with them.
Are you an Artist who is looking to advance his career through a solid marketing plan? Mello Studio can help. Get in touch with us today and we will help you every step of the way.
