First, a few questions…
If you keep and maintain your fan email list in your Gmail or Yahoo account, you are doing it wrong.
If the only time you send emails to your fans is to let them know about an upcoming show, you’re doing it wrong.
If your fan emails generally go something like this, “Hey Everyone! We’re playing a show tonight. We’ll be a (insert venue name) at (insert performance time) and it’s going to be a fun time! Please come out and check out our show. Thanks! (insert band name): …you’re doing it wrong.
If you haven’t ever sent an email to your fans or you only send out a fan email once or twice a year, you’re doing it wrong.
If you’ve been “doing what you do” (recording music, playing shows, playing in bands, etc) for more than a year or two and your email list is less than 100 people, you’re doing it wrong.
If you or someone on your team isn’t reviewing the analytics and results of the fan emails you send and working to improve the results on the next email you send, you’re doing it wrong.
We’re sorry for being so negative by telling you that “you’re doing it wrong”. Negativity is something we like to generally avoid. However, we estimate that we’re probably hitting a nerve with about four out of five people who are asked these questions. And if we hit a nerve with you, we’d love to have the opportunity to discuss email marketing with you and explore some solutions to improve what you do and how you do it.
If you’re looking for solutions, we authored a comprehensive essay titled, “Band Email Strategy 101: How to Write Effective Emails to Your Fans in 8 Easy Steps“.
If you spend some time searching around on the web, you’ll find that email marketing is an entire industry of its own. It has become scientific in nature and your approach and execution of an email marketing strategy should not be overlooked. Don’t let anyone tell you that email is irrelevant or is a dying medium. Sure, Twitter, Facebook, SMS, and others are trending upward…but trust us that email will remain a core communication tool for a few more years.
We have thoroughly researched, experimented with and used a wide variety of email marketing providers and have a very good idea of what works and what doesn’t…. and more importantly - we know what bands and artists need. Currently, we like and partner with Topspin Media, MailChimp, and FanMail, depending on the needs of our clients. We provide comprehensive email marketing strategy, design, production, software, tracking and reporting, support, and more. For some examples of some email campaigns and artists that we’ve helped, you can subscribe to Logan Lynn’s email list at www.loganlynnmusic.com or The Dimes’s email list at www.thedimes.com.
Pricing varies, so please tell us what you think you need or let us help you figure that out. We’re pretty good at that.
Below are a couple of examples of emails that we’ve designed, planned and produced with our clients:
Example: The Dimes Fan Email
Example: Logan Lynn Fan Email
