How to Write Effective Emails to Your Fans in 8 Easy Steps
Key Concept: Sending emails to your fans has a lot more to do with science than it has to do with art.
As digital strategy geeks, we subscribe to a ton of artist email lists. We do this because we want to see what others are doing and also because we want to regularly put ourselves in the role of the fan, reading things and experiencing things as a fan would. Unfortunately, 90% of the band emails we receive aren’t effective…and actually, many of them cause us to find the “unsubscribe” link after only a few emails from the artist.
Moreover, if you are an artist or you are in a band and you confidently think your fan emails are good and effective, I would like to ask you how you know this is the case. How do you know you are successful? Are you assuming your emails work because people come out to your shows and because the fans you encounter mention that they like your emails? I would like to politely challenge your confidence and proclaim that if you’re not actually tracking, analyzing and optimizing your emails, based on real response data – than you truly have no idea if you are successful with your emails or not. But don’t worry…. you’re not alone.
We’ve learned that most artists have no idea how to send an effective email to their fans and almost no one is taking a scientific approach, looking at tangible and measurable results to improve what they’re doing. This experience has prompted us at Pet Marmoset to take a closer look at our clients and the artists we work with in a wide variety of capacities. And as embarrassing as it may be, we found that we’ve been doing a terrible job of helping and informing the artists we work with as to what the should be doing to succeed with email marketing. As such, we’ve decided to dedicate this essay to “Band Email Strategy 101″ – explaining the very basics that every artist should be doing, packaged together into 8 easy steps.
The bottom line is that connecting with fans is a crucial endeavor for bands and artists alike. It’s something that should never be taken lightly, and when done correctly, it should play a central role in growing a fan base and engaging a community or a tribe around the artist. While trends prove that social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LastFM are on the rise for fan engagement and interaction, I challenge anyone who would lead you to believe that email is a dead medium. In fact, depending on the demographic of your fans, I would argue that email continues to stand strong as the leading fan communication channel for most artists.
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