Conducting Effective Email Campaigns
Independent musicians typically do not have the funds to buy radio or TV ads. So how do you economically tell people about your music and gigs? Simply
put... email. Email is active promotion because you are sending out a message. Your website is passive promotion as
people have to choose to go there. Your emails should drive people to your gigs and to particular pages on your website. The following topics
will find success through email marketing:
Collecting email addresses
What to say
When to email
Tools for managing email campaigns
Collecting Email Addresses
"Email addresses are gold!", claims Lucky Boyd who has sold thousands of CDs through MyTexasMusic.com. If an email address was worth a piece of gold you
would collect email addresses constantly! Well that's a good way to approach collecting email addresses. Music sales are based on numbers. If you tell 100
people that you have a new CD 20 of those people will go to your website and listen to your CD and check out the price. 1 of those 20 people will buy
your CD. These numbers are for example only but having 1 person buy your CD out of 100 that you told is about right. If you have 2,000 email addresses
then you should hope for 20 CDs to be sold. If you only have 500 then only hope for 5 CDs to be sold. My point: GET EMAIL ADDRESSES AT ALL TIMES! Here are
some tips:- Gigs: pass around a signup sheet that has a space clearly designated for email addresses. Keep that list in plain view on stage,
near your merchandise table. Mention just before going on break that you have a signup sheet and encourage people to put their email.
- Have a simple
form on your website home page and your network/community websites for capturing email addresses for your newsletter. See the section on Managing Email Campaigns for
how you can easily incorporate this feature.
- When you send out emails ask the recipients to forward the email to their friends. Make sure your email says
something to the affect of, "If this email was forwarded to you simply reply to [band email] and we'll add you to the list!"
- Ask your friends if
you can add them to your email newsletter or ask them to go to your website and signup.
- If you send an individual email to a friend or a fan ask
them if you can sign them up. They'll probably say "yes"!
Email Messages
You went to all this trouble to get someone's email address... now make the most of it! The rule of thumb with email content is to give people something so they are interested in reading it AND the next one. Sending your gig
schedule every week is going to get stale. What you have to do is create some news! Here's some examples of newsworthy announcements:- Working
on a new album
- Nominated for an award
- Released a new single or CD
- Digital downloads of unreleased songs are available on
MyTexasOnlineMusic.com/artistname
- Playing your biggest gig yet
People want to know what you are up to but they get bored quickly. Mix
things up and don't underestimate what is newsworthy.
Now don't forget the fundamentals of email campaigns: to sell music and increase gig
attendance. Here are some standard items for all of your emails:- Link directly to your "upcoming shows" page
- Link to an online store
selling your CD(s)
- Include your website URL in your signature block
- Link to an online store selling your digital downloads
-
Include the details of your upcoming gig or public appearance - make sure it is at least 7-13 days away
- Any major event that is less than 6
months away
- An automated unsubscribe link... that works!
- Request them to share the email with others
- Always thank them
- Most importantly, tell them, specifically, what action you want them to take!
When you have news to share, then share it. Awards, new music, etc. Your
fans want to hear about you, especially stuff they can enjoy or participate in. If you are a member of MyTexas Online Music you can make the title of one
of your songs a link to the song we host for you. This way people can play your music directly from your email! Your fans will love it because it is unique and interactive.
The subject line requires its own paragraph. The subject line should be 3-8 words, not contain filler words, and describe the main point of your email.
"listen to my new song for free" is an alright subject line. It doesn't contain your name, there are unnecessary words, and it uses the word "free" (which many spam guards will
catch and then reject your email).
Instead try, "Freddy Powers: new music, listen now". This subject line says
a lot: who the artist is, something the recipient will be interested in, and a simple & direct action item. There are only 6 words that describe what the
email is about. Even if they don't open the email the recipient will know that Freddy has some new music and is providing a way to listen to it.
Email Timing
Send emails every 3 - 6 weeks. Not so often that people get tired of them but not so far apart they forget that they signed up to
receive them. Every 3 weeks if you have decent news (win award, new CD, new service for members, playing an important gig, etc.) or
every 6 weeks if you dont have anything new. The more value your emails have to your fan base the more often you should send them
out. You need to keep a consistent stream of communication with them and repeat your news email after email because not everyone is
going to hear it the first few times you say it.
The best time to send out email is Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between
10 am and 3 pm local time. So the theory goes, people need until 10 am to clear out their email from all the spam that arrived since
5 pm the night before. Emails get quickly sorted through before then. Emails also get sorted through quickly near the end of the day
when someone is trying to finish the days work up before they leave. Monday and Friday are the busiest days of the
week for most people so avoid them altogether. If you are using an email campaign management service then you should track your
statistics to find out the best day and time of day.
Reminders for gigs should go out at least 8 days in advance and then 3 days
in advance - there is no point in sending out notice 24 hours ahead of time as people already have their day set. Here's an example of a good email.
Email Campaign Management Tools
Whether you have 25 emails or 5,000 you should be using an online email campaign manager. An email campaign manager automates the
process of organizing your email addresses, sending out your emails and tracking your campaign statistics. Here are a few things that
an email campaign manager enables you to do:- Send HTML emails so you can include pictures and graphics.
- Your email can
have the look and feel of your website and contain hyperlinks to your website. - Capture email addresses from your website home
page.
- Most campaign managers give you some code to put on your website so people can enter their email and it will be stored for
your next email campaign. - Personalize emails.
- The information you capture for your members can be used in the emails sent
to them. People get a lot of email and putting their first name at the top is a good way to get them to read your email. - Capture
statistics.
- You will be able to see how many people opened your email, who clicked on which links and which email addresses
bounced back. Use this data to find out what subjects lines work and which links and graphics are popular. - Automatically
process members who unsubscribe.
- If someone unsubscribes from your email list they will be automatically removed from future
campaigns. - Spam check.
- Spam filters are very sensitive so you need to make sure you avoid the things that spam filters
look for. Your members have signed up for your email newsletter and this tool will improve the chance of being delivered.
Online
email campaign management services are easy to use, offer free templates, and let you insert HTML code or work through an HTML editor.
Below is a list of online email campaign managerment services that are affordable and have lots of useful tools. Email
info@MyTexasOnlineMusic.com and well help you pick the one that is right for you!-
VerticalResponse.com
 lets
you pay per email and has HTML templates. - ConstantContact.com
 more robust features and good for 500+ emails. Free
60-day trial. - Jangomail.com very robust set of features but expensive if
you have less than 1,000 emails. We currently use Jangomail and have used VerticalResponse in the past.
Getting an email address is quite valuable these days. Don't squander that value by sending out an unprofessional email. That's
easier said than done, of course. Use your best judgement considering your fan base and revisit this page every few months to make sure
you haven't slipped away from effective email campaign fundamentals. Whether you are an artist or a music fan read our tutorial
titled Blog Your Music - what you just learned about email marketing will come in very handy!
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