Distribution

Email Is The Digital Glue

In today’s digital age, there has been a shift of focus with artists from email marketing to social media marketing.  However, a well-structured email will establish a better relationship than the forms of engagement through social networking.  Having friends and followers are important, but emailing fans is still way more personal and direct.  You need permission to reach people through email whereas anyone can “like” anything with little interaction.  Email is simply a deeper level of engagement.  Metrics still show the ROI (return on investment) on emails is 10x the value of social media interaction.

How To Get More Email Addresses

There are some creative ways for artists to get more emails.  Instant downloads has been a more common way to get emails.  Here, the artist offers a free download and for the fan to receive the music, the fan must enter a valid email address. Once the email address is given, the fan must open the validation email to receive the download.  The artist receives a valid email address and the fan receives free music, a win-win situation.  Another option could be to offer a discount on music or merchandise in exchange for an email.  Once you receive the email address, the goal is provide the fan with some future value so they will continue to check and read your emails.

The Welcome Message

The viewer is most engaged at this moment.  This is truly the start of the relationship and here content should be seen instantly.  Content should consist of: tour dates, links to official website and social networks, list of albums that are out, and a brief update about what the band is up to.  The design and lay out is important.   It should not be all text in standard paragraph form, the email should have sections outlined and should include pictures.  Most importantly, the email needs to tell the viewer what to expect in upcoming emails.  That information will hopefully remind the viewer the benefits of opening upcoming emails.

How Do You Structure An Email That Won’t Be Disregarded?

The emails need to be well structured.  The shorter the email is the better and it should contain 1-2 “call to actions”.   Always drive the viewer to the connected landing page.  For example, if you say, “go here for tour dates”, don’t bring viewer to the homepage, bring them to the tour dates page.  Use “go here” or something like that instead of “click here” to make sure the email is not put in a spam folder.  Another important aspect of the email is finding the right voice.  In saying that, you should know your audience and your voice depends on whom you are speaking too.  Depending on what type of artist you are, you should include the tone you’re most comfortable with.  If you have someone else helping you with the content of the email, it should be a collaborative effort.  At the least, the email should include a quote from the artist.

Another important part of the email is the subject line.  Finding the right subject line can be a rather lengthy process and may not happen for the first couple emails.  Include whatever the main call to action is, should be short and sweet.  Including the word “free” can never hurt, and rarely gets filtered by spam.  If you’re sending out a weekly email, you really shouldn’t use the same subject line.  In general, it’s better to change up the subject line occasionally.

Lastly, considering more people are reading emails on their phones, you need to create local, friendly versions that can fully open on both the phone and the computer.  It’s also helpful to create a link in the email that can convert the email to be seen on a smart phone.

When You Notice The Emails Are Not Working, What Should You do?

You can spice up the subject lines and start a promotion. You can change up the structure of your emails. Include different call to actions.  Consider changing the tone of the email, maybe the email is too forceful or not entertaining enough.

At some point, however, it may be time to let the uninterested viewers go.  If you notice certain viewers are continually not opening the emails or not clicking within the emails, there’s a way you can try and reengage the viewers.  You can start a campaign and ask viewers to click a link to reengage or opt out. Any people that didn’t respond don’t delete them; just move them to another list.

Email marketing is still an important tool for artists to reach their supporters.  Even with the rise in communication within social networks, effectively marketing through email still proves to be a valuable resource for artists.