How about reaching your fans directly and on a personal level? And without the cost of advertising? With solo ads and 11 email marketing tips for musicians and bands, you will definitely succeed – you just have to read now and get started.
A few years ago, social media was not only all the rage but also very effective at building and communicating with your own fan base. What began with MySpace and is now being continued in numerous networks such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter has a horse’s foot.
For example, the operators of social platforms have been curtailing organic reach for some time. In the case of Facebook, for example, this means that although you have collected 10,000 fans on your band fan page, you only reach 500 or 1,000 of them with your postings – and even sporadically.
Of course, the operators would like to make money and the best way to do this is to pay for your reach. So if you want to inspire all 10,000 fans of your band with your posting, you have to pay the mediator (Facebook) money accordingly.
Take control of it yourself with email marketing
But you don’t have to leave control of access to your own fans to third parties. The tool of choice is called email marketing. This includes creating your own list of email addresses to which you can send emails at any time.
With such a list, you eliminate the mediator and highwayman and take full responsibility. Not infrequently, a newsletter dispatch reaches over 40% of the subscribers. In our example above with 10,000 fans, you would reach 4,000 fans – four times as much as with an organic post on Facebook. And without additional financial investment.
Sounds tempting, doesn’t it? With the following tips for newsletter marketing, you can get started today.
Here are the 11 best email marketing tips for musicians & bands who want to be successful.
1. I am a musician, not a market crier.
Probably we all thought that – we want to make music and not go to a market and sell fish. And who has time besides songwriting, recording, mixing, mastering and playing concerts?
Who has time for email marketing?
The fact is, however, that if you don’t want to play in empty concert halls, someone has to drum up publicity for your band.
Email marketing may be an overcoming for musicians. But it’s probably the best way to get in touch with your own fan base and stay in touch. In addition, it is faster and more cost-effective than traditional marketing measures.
2. Email marketing needs a goal
Every email you send to your fans should have a specific goal. That’s why you should ask yourself with every email: Why exactly do I want to send this newsletter to my fan?
Emails are great for building and maintaining a relationship with fans They’re a bad tool for attracting new fans
You’ll have the most success when every newsletter adds value to your fans.
So ask yourself: What added value do I put into this email?
3. Use a professional solution for newsletters
In the beginning, sending emails via the private account may still go through. But in the long term, the use of a professional provider is recommended. Because if you send too many emails in a short time, you quickly end up on a relevant blacklist and your emails disappear into nirvana.
There are a number of providers for sending newsletters and some semi-professional programs for the desktop. Since the latter can, unfortunately, lead to blacklisting in the worst case, I prefer to recommend service providers. They have their technology under control and are able to deliver large quantities of emails to the recipients.
In addition to the well-known providers such as Mailchimp, CleverReach, or GetResponse, there are also some specialists. Among other things, they offer solutions for email marketing for musicians:
- Reverbnation
- Nimbitol
- FanBridge
In the long run, these providers will save you a lot of time.
4. Better small bites than the big menu
A short thought game: Are you interested in the next concerts of your band in Brazil? No? It’s the same for your fans. They are interested in your band and you, but they find the email advertising a concert 500 kilometers away rather annoying.
If a fan receives too many of these emails, they will unsubscribe from your newsletter or (even worse) move your email to the spam folder.
Professional tools, therefore, offer the possibility of segmenting your subscribers. This means dividing your subscribers into the same interest groups – for example, based on their place of residence.
This offers several advantages:
- Your advertising for concerts only reaches fans who can actually be interested in it.
- This means real added value for them.
- If you live far away, you will not be annoyed by your email.
5. Personal approach
If we want to build a real relationship with our fans with our email marketing, then the personal approach in the email helps. A “Hello, Eric!” just sounds much nicer than a “Hello, fans!”.
As every good salesperson knows, a direct approach to the other person with the name also generates much more attention. This is obvious: Since childhood, we have been trimmed to react to our own name when our parents call.
A good tool for newsletters therefore also offers you the opportunity to address each and every one of your fans by name. Provided that the fan has also specified this in advance when registering.
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6. How often should you send a newsletter?
Unfortunately, there is no general rule for the frequency of email marketing for musicians or bands. If you send your newsletters too often, you lose the attention of your fans. And that, in turn, leads to low open rates and less interaction. Those who send too rarely, on the other hand, may be forgotten.
A certain regularity is important. So once a month is a good start. For example, always on the first Tuesday of the month in the morning.
If you want to send messages to your fans more often, you should do so via your own blog, the band website, Twitter or Facebook.
7. It depends on the content
There are a lot of topics you can pick up on in your newsletters:
- the upcoming tour
- the recording of a new album
- the release of the last single
- etc.
What should not be forgotten: Your subscribers are first and foremost music lovers. That’s why a piece of exclusive music should be offered in (almost) every email.
It is less about the quality of the recording and more about the joy of receiving a piece of exclusivity. A video from the smartphone with a raw version of a new song ensures that the fans are already looking forward to the next email from you.
8. First give, then sell
Our society is built on the principle of reciprocity: the blacksmith provides a new horseshoe for the horse, and the farmer pays with a chicken immediately and one in a week. You receive a gift from your friends and at some point, you give them something for their birthday.
And this principle also works with your fans. If you want something from your fans (they should buy your new CD), offer them something in return.
If you want your fans to vote for your band in a band contest, then send them a small musical thank you for their help.
9. Only those who look at the speedometer know how fast they are driving
If you want to drive a successful campaign in email marketing, you need to know where you are heading. In addition, some important key figures such as open rate, new subscribers, and lost subscribers must be kept in mind.
If you look at your newsletters and compare the subject with the open rate or the content with the development of the lost subscribers, you can draw your conclusions. So you can quickly find out which content is particularly well received by your fans and which emails were rather poorly received.
So you can offer more of what tastes good and simply omit the inedible courses.
10. Get your fans excited about the newsletter
Many bands have built up a good fan base on social media in the past. Since email marketing is the biggest lever for fan loyalty for musicians, you should get your fans from your other channels excited about the newsletter.
Therefore, mention every now and then on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter that you have a newsletter and lure with exclusive music for your subscribers. On your website or blog, you should always see a corresponding advertisement for the subscription.
With these simple means, you can bring your fans a whole lot closer to you.
11. No spam
There are a lot of laws that protect consumers, especially in the area of email marketing – and rightly so. The first and most important rule: Only add people to your mailing list who have personally registered for it.
On the one hand, the so-called double opt-in is legally anchored in Germany. This means that the new subscriber must confirm his email address a second time. On the other hand, only fans who register themselves will actually interact with you and your newsletters.
Conclusion Email Marketing for Musicians & Bands
In the past, the loyalty of fans to their own band via email marketing has proven to be much more effective than via social media such as Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.
In the end, and even if social media were just as strong, the deciding factor should be that you have sovereignty over your mailing list itself. No one can deny you access to your fans or artificially reduce your organic reach so that you leave more money in the network’s advertising channel.
Email marketing for musicians and bands was the most important tool for self-marketing even before social media and is now more than ever. Today is a good day to start your mailing list and invite the first fans.
