When it is used well, email can be one of the best methods of encouraging more people to buy your music and to strengthen your fanbase’s devotion to you. Unlike jostling for attention in the overcrowded arena of social media, jumping right into people’s inboxes is a more convenient and target-focused way of promoting your recent album.
However, people consider their email addresses as private information that they wouldn’t just give out to anyone. By consenting to have their email addresses included on your email list, they are trusting that you’re going to send them only valuable and interesting information instead of spammy material. Abusing that trust will make them unsubscribe from you.
The fear of getting unsubscribed from discourages musicians from employing email marketing. However, there is actually a way to overcome this fear and ensure that your subscriber fans will remain trustful of you by only sending them content they find valuable and relevant. The first step to overcome this fear is organizing your email list.
Why should you organize your list into segments?
If you want email marketing to work well for you, you need to be sending messages or content to your fans or industry connections would want or need to see. You can set up different lists of recipients regardless of the email service you are using. Email lists are usually organized into two groups: one list contains the email addresses of your fans and the other contains the email addresses of your networks in the music industry. Your industry connections wouldn’t want to receive your marketing communications; they would simply consider it to be nuisance junk clogging their inboxes. In the same vein, fans wouldn’t appreciate receiving messages that pitch your upcoming gig to venue owners, so it would be best for the fans’ emails and music industry colleagues’ emails to be grouped into separate lists.
Segmenting your list will help send emails that your subscribers want to receive
Let’s now focus on your fans list. You can actually further subdivide this list into three groups, each receiving only a distinct kind of marketing communication different from the other: leads, fans, and buyers.
Leads are people who just recently joined your email list for reasons such as wanting to receive a free song or an extended play. They might also have been enticed to subscribe to your list after having read your blog and are interested in following and being notified of your new posts. These kinds of people may not want to buy your music yet so sending them a message informing them of an upcoming sales event will probably just annoy them.
It would be better to further deepen interest in your pieces or album by sharing content about these things. Sending them interesting feature stories of your life or music career can also work and you may include in one of these stories one interesting song for free which includes a subtle but inviting link that would lead them to a site where they can buy the full album. You may ask them for their feedback after a few days or a week while inviting them to buy it.
In contrast to leads, fans are those who have been subscribed to your list for a longer time. They are also the ones who are more consistent in opening, reading and clicking through the links in your emails, and you can identify who they are based on your email analytics. They are also those people who have responded to surveys or participated in a contest you organized.
While some fans may be inclined to purchase your album, others prefer just listening to it regularly. Instead of sending them free music just like you would with leads or offers to buy the more expensive music packages, it would be more expedient for fans to receive a link to the digital download of your album.
The buyers are your most reliable subscribers. They are the ones who have actually bought something from you such as a signed album or a souvenir like a poster or a shirt. They are most likely people who would buy your newest album releases, and they can even be interested in making further purchases if you give them to have the opportunity of doing so.
The best emails that you can send your buyers are those messages that would offer these fans the chance to take advantage of a pre-order sale hours before your album is open for sale to everybody else. In addition, you may try offering deluxe or limited edition bundles that have bonus tracks or content. You can also offer them albums that come with a signed T-shirt or a discount. This is a great way to show your appreciation for your dedicated fans!
Promoly is a music promotion platform for musicians. If you’re looking for a music PR service to deliver music to your mailing list, get in touch to see how we can help today.
