The only thing standing between you and where you want to be is the right opportunity, but a poorly written email can ruin everything. We can help.
Forget what the Wu-Tang Clan said. Until you are rich enough to ease your worries by throwing money at problems without a second thought, cash does not rule everything around you. That title is reserved for email.
Think about it for a second. What is the first thing you check everything morning? Your inbox. What is (typically) the most important tool throughout your work day? Email.
Email is the backbone of everything. Particularly right now, as the world continues to work through a global pandemic, our inboxes have never been more important. They also have been this crowded.
We have told you repeatedly about the value of email. Still, not a week goes by without someone writing us and making one of several glaring errors that leave us with no option other than to pass on their submission. Why? Because professionalism matters. If you can’t be bothered to learn the name of the person you’re emailing, then you shouldn’t be shocked when they don’t respond.
In this Music Biz update, host James Shotwell reviews the basic elements of any successful email. He explains the most common mistakes he sees artists make weekly and offers suggestions to avoid those problems in the future. Check it out:
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
With more tools and services promising to help musicians grow than ever, you might be surprised to learn that the best marketing approach is also one of the oldest.
Every musician faces the same problem: How do I reach my fans?
Answering that question has never been easy. Before the internet, artists had to get on the radio or appear in a music magazine to have national coverage. The musicians able to establish a fan club did so without the assistance of a third-party platform or service. Bands like The Monkeys, KISS, and The Beatles would physically mail fans updates about new music and tours, which could end up costing a ton of money in shipping and handling that other, smaller acts couldn’t afford.
Now we live in the digital age, which supposedly brings us closer together, but finding and reaching your fans has never felt more difficult. Finding your fans is hard enough between the multiple social media platforms, streaming services, forums, and other random corners of the internet, let alone getting a message to them. Facebook, for example, only allows Page owners (artists/groups/labels) to reach around 5.2% of their total following. More can be reached, of course, but only if the artist is willing to pay for boosted promotion.
Buying ads to reach your fans is a surefire approach, but what about the artists and labels that don’t have a large advertising budget? How can everyday musicians hope to reach their fans in an increasingly expensive and corporate-controlled world?
The answer you’re looking for is a mailing list. Maintaining an email list offers the highest probability of reaching your most engaged fans at the lowest cost. There are several mailing list services (MailChimp, Substack) with free tiers for those just starting. You may need to spend money in time, but you can reach hundreds, even thousands, without spending a cent. All you need is an email address, and everyone has an email address.
Let’s say you have 1,000 Likes on Facebook and 1,000 subscribers to your mailing list. A single FB post announcing your new tour is only guaranteed to reach 52 people. You don’t know who those people are, and you have very little control over how the content is distributed throughout the Facebook ecosystem.
If you send that same announcement to your 1,000 mailing list subscribers, you can rest assured every last person will receive that email (unless there is an issue on their end). Thanks to email analytics, they might not all open it or click the links inside, but you will know how fans engage with your announcements. You will be able to see, often in real-time, what content your fans engage with the most.
From there, the possibilities are endless. You can use the most successful content to create ads that draw in new fans, all of whom you will work to convert to newsletter subscribers in time. Your mailing list will become a marketing funnel unto itself, with your most devoted fans identifying themselves their behaviors you view with analytics.
In an age of endless options, artists need a way to communicate with fans that guarantees reach without high costs or exhaustive effort. Email is the answer. Don’t waste another day. Start your email list, engage your audience, and take back your ability to communicate with fans.
Everyone is suffering from content overload, but email newsletters remain one of the strongest tools in any musician’s marketing arsenal.
In the age of abundance, how much is enough? How much money do you need to achieve stability? How many songs do you need to write a track that people will love? How many song streams will pay your rent? How many followers do you need to build a sustainable career? What is an ideal number of email newsletter subscribers?
There is no clear answer to any of these questions. The answer is different for every person or group, even if the goal is always the same.
One thing is sure: The number of subscribers (or followers) needed to build a sustainable career is smaller than you think.
Social media has trained us to dream big when it comes to fans. The names everyone knows have millions of online followers. Thousands upon thousands of people engage with every post a celebrity makes, and they, in theory, support every announcement that person of interest shares.
But you don’t need one-million people to support you to have a full-time career in music. An audience of one-thousand can make a more significant impact as long as they are engaged with your art.
Ask yourself: Do my fans see themselves as individual supporters, or are they part of a community built around your artistic output?
If the answer is the latter, you’re in a good place.
When artists can cultivate a community around their music, anything is possible. An email newsletter with one-thousand engaged subscribers who want to support your continued success will bring in more money and meaningful support than a million people who never buy a shirt or catch a tour. Any follower is sweet, of course, but unless they take the extra step to support you financially, their interest in your art does not help your bottom line.
If you don’t have a community around your music, then consider this:
What can I do to make people feel more involved in my music?
There are many ways to engage your audience, but making people feel involved in your career comes down to whether or not you take an interest in who they are as people. Where do your followers live? Why do they like your music? What do they want more or less of? What are they doing this weekend? Do they have families, or are they in school?
When musicians understand their audience, they can engage with them in a meaningful way that leaves followers feeling seen and appreciated. If you can make people think that way about you and your music, the community aspect will begin to take shape. Followers will follow one another; they will plan ways to attend your shows and arrange meet-ups in cities where they live. Your music will have a life outside your own, one that gives it added value to the people who enjoy it.
When people care about something, and I mean care about it, they will go above and beyond to see it continue. This is true in life and relationships and art. Don’t underestimate the value of making your fans feel good about being your fans.
So, don’t worry about reaching one million followers. Don’t even worry about hitting ten-thousand. Focus on building meaningful relationships with everyone who cares about your music and getting them to join your mailing list, and if that is one-thousand people, great! If it’s thirty, that’s good too. Don’t worry about the number of people engaged as much as you do making them feel important. If you can make them feel as good as their support makes you feel more followers will come in time.
Haulix now allows users to schedule their promotional campaigns up to two weeks in advance, and there are many reasons to celebrate.
Promotional campaigns are the heart and soul of album rollouts. Everything, from the first single, to the final review, relies on good emails reaching the right tastemakers at the right moment in time. A poorly planned campaign can result in coverage opportunities being rushed or missed altogether, and in a market flooded with talent, there is no good reason to risk such a fate falling on your next release.
Haulix is built for promotion. Our customizable album promo screens enable artists and labels at every level to reinforce their brand and aesthetic while securing sharing their latest releases with tastemakers. In April, we took these efforts further by adding a scheduling feature that allows users to schedule their promotional campaigns up to two weeks in advance. You can try the system for yourself by signing up today on our official website.
But what are the benefits to scheduling your emails? That’s a good question:
Time zones
Tastemakers in New York City are usually up and working before the those on the West Coast. Tastemakers in London are eight hours ahead of Tastemakers in Chicago. Any influencer living in Australia is working sixteen-hours ahead of those living in Colorado. Confused? Us too.
Campaign scheduling empowers users to easily reach their contacts at the best times for those tastemakers. In a matter of minutes, a Haulix user can schedule campaigns for connections in different time zones.
Staggered Campaign Schedules
Not all tastemakers are the same, and they shouldn’t be treated as such. Instead of sending everyone a campaign at once, Haulix users schedule their campaigns to roll out based on the needs of their contacts and the preferences of their clients. High-priority contacts may get an album a month from release, but contacts with lower reach/importance may not be serviced an album until a week or two later.
Premieres
Great artists publicists know that the demand for access to the material they are promoting will spike immediately following a single release. If your new single is going to premiere at noon on a popular blog, then scheduling the advance to roll out to high-priority contacts a few minutes later can increase the likelihood of immediate engagement.
The problem is, the moments following a major premiere are hectic. Artists and publicists have to promote the release through their social media channels, monitor conversations, and engage with fans in real time. Campaign scheduling solves this problem, and even allows for creative subject lines to help further the narrative. For example, “Pup’s new single is out now, and here is the album!”
Campaign summaries
As an added bonus, the rollout of campaign scheduling also marked the debut of Haulix Campaign Summaries. Now, every campaign sent through Haulix generates a standalone activity page where users can view email engagement and promo engagement in a matter of clicks. Users are also empowered to easily send follow-up emails and direct links to their promos.
Look busy, even if you’re not
The music industry is a 24/7 business that does not care whether or not professionals have healthy personal lives beyond the office. Work comes first no matter what, but scheduling allows you to get ahead, if only long enough for a quiet lunch or a stroll around the block. Let’s face it: Everyone deserves a few minutes to relax, including you, but that doesn’t mean you campaigning has to stop. You just have to be more creative the competition!
Email is the name of the game when it comes to music PR, and when everyone is doing the same thing, it’s the details that make all the difference.
Everyone working in music receives a lot of emails all the time for a wide variety of reasons. Writers and music critics, for example, receive press releases from anyone with an artist or release to promote who is smart enough to find their email address. They also have messages from editors, personal contacts, and – in the case of blog editors – aspiring professionals looking for an opportunity. It’s overwhelming, and it is becoming increasingly hard for any message to stand out.
Many marketing blogs will tell you that an eye-catching subject line is all you need to get someone to open your message. That may be true in certain circumstances, but an open only brings a reader to your message – it does not make them engage with it.
If people don’t like what they see at first glance, then your email is no more successful than the messages that get trashed without an open. Grammar and structure aside, there is one thing that can grab the attention of a writer (or anyone) at first glance:
Use their name.
First or last or both, it doesn’t matter. Just use it.
That seems surprisingly simple, and it is, but the vast majority of publicists, artists, and others vying for attention these days do not take the few seconds needed to address the recipient of their emails adequately.
Here is a sampling of the most common, least engaging greetings used today:
Dear Music Blogger
Hello, Music Friends!
Dear [Wrong Name]
Media Friends:
To whom it may concern
Sir or Madam
ATTN:
[Name] <– This happens when they leave what should be automated forms blank, and it happens a lot.
Technology may make connecting with others easier than ever before, but it still lacks the personal touch of a traditional conversation. Even letters written by hand required something more tactile than a digital message can allow. Using someone’s name tells them you view them as something more than a faceless body existing in the void of the internet that you seek to use as means to ascend through the ranks of the entertainment industry. Using someone’s name, treating them like a professional should, is so simple, yet it can mean so much. It tells someone you see them and their work, which often is the result of great sacrifice, and it subconsciously makes them care a bit more for what you have to share.
Everyone working in music receives a lot of emails all the time for a wide variety of reasons. Writers and music critics, for example, receive press releases from anyone with an artist or release to promote who is smart enough to find their email address. They also have messages from editors, personal contacts, and – in the case of blog editors – aspiring professionals looking for an opportunity. It’s overwhelming, and it is becoming increasingly hard for any one message to stand out.
Many marketing blogs will tell you that an eye-catching subject line is all you need to get someone to open your message. This may be true in certain circumstances, but an open only brings a reader to your message – it does not make them engage with it.
If people don’t like what they see at first glance your email is no more successful than the messages that were trashed without an open. Grammar and structure aside, there is one thing that can grab the attention of a writer (or anyone) at first glance:
Use their name.
First or last or both, doesn’t matter. Just use it.
This seems surprisingly simple, and it is, but the vast majority of publicists, artists, and others vying for attention these days do not take the few seconds needed to properly address the recipient of their emails.
Here is a sampling of the most common, least engaging greetings being used today:
Dear Music Blogger
Hello, Music Friends!
Dear [Wrong Name]
Media Friends:
To whom it may concern
ATTN:
[Name] <– This happens when they leave what should be automated forms blank, and it happens a lot.
Technology may make connecting with one another easier than ever before, but it still lacks the personal touch of traditional conversation. Even letters written by hand required something more tactile than digital message can allow. Using someone’s name tells them you view them as something more than a faceless body existing in the void of the internet that you seek to use for leverage in the entertainment industry. It’s so simple, yet can mean so much. It tells someone you see them and their work, which often is the result of great sacrifice, and it subconsciously makes them care a bit more for what you have to share.
One hard truth about working in music that you will never see glamorized in movies or through song is the seemingly endless stream of emails that pour through your digital inbox every single day of the week. Whether you work as a journalist or someone hoping to pitch journalists, I am certain not a day goes by where you feel as if you’ve received too few emails. With that in mind, we’ve partnered with our friends at Muddy Paw PR to provide you with a guide to email etiquette that will help you maintain professionalism through all forms of digital communication. Enjoy.
Dear reader: Are you in a band, managing a band, working their PR, or writing about them? Perhaps you’re about to send off that all-important request to photograph a live show of your favorite artist or apply to write for a major publication?
Regardless of what area of the music industry you work in, there is one universal aspect that connects all of us: emails are every bit as important as phone calls and Skype meetings. In our world, an opening email is often your first and best chance to make the right impression. Make a good first impression with a band or company and you can be set for years. Make a bad impression, however, and it is extremely difficult to recover.
As a publicist, managing editor and former hiring manager, I’ve seen nearly everything over the last five years. A few of my email experiences with bands and industry clients include: alcohol-driven rants, smiley faces after every sentence, misspelling my three-letter name (if I had a nickel for every time I’ve been called Jo or Joy…), being called Insert Name Here, and being outright insulted.
It’s a roller coaster, this music business. But with five years of experience across multiple fields, I’m here to share with you some tips on maximizing your email correspondence. Whether you’re in a band looking to get a label’s attention, applying for that dream paying job, sending a request to your favorite band’s PR team or just looking to expand your relationships with the right people, these are a few do’s and don’ts to make you look as professional as possible in all your industry dealings.
DO: Get straight to the point.
This is essential, regardless of what industry field you work in. Whether you want to speak with a label executive, get your band some coverage or send a job application, don’t overload your message with unnecessary text. A quick 1-2 sentences for a polite introduction, then get down to business.
Use your first main paragraph to outline your reason for contact and what you’re looking for. For publicists in particular, state the artist’s genre and who they sound similar to. With many industry workers forever fighting losing battles against their inboxes, if you take too much time getting to the point, your message may be deleted. Always make your language clear, concise and professional to give yourself the best chance of getting your desired response.
DON’T: Try to fake sincerity.
Sounds incredibly obvious, right? Well, just like measuring someone’s tone in person or on the phone, it is also easy enough to judge a person’s sincerity in e-mail correspondence. Do your in-depth messages receive a sentence or two in response? Are there a lot of basic spelling errors? Sentences with no punctuation at the end? Particularly blunt language? All of these imply a level of laziness, a lack of respect, and too little desire to be helpful. An insincere person can often be spotted a mile away, even through e-mail messages, and news of an unpleasant experience spreads quickly in this industry. So how can you maximize your chances of making the right first impression?
DO: Be as kind and accommodating to the other person as possible.
The music industry is all about building relationships, and chances are you’ll be dealing with a lot of the same people over and over. If you make yourself easy and pleasant to work with, new friendships will emerge and the number of great opportunities you receive will grow very quickly. This quality could make the difference between being approved or denied from that “dream opportunity” you’ve been waiting for.
DON’T: Introduce yourself with “What’s up?”
For job applicants in particular, this is a must. During my hiring manager days, the number of applications I received that started with “What’s up Joe?” was startling. More often than not, that intro was followed by a poorly written application letter and no resume attached. When you’re looking to get your foot in the door of your chosen field of work, keeping your language proper and professional (and, of course, actually having a resume) is essential if you hope to land that all-important interview.
DO: Always click “Reply All”.
Bands, this one’s for you. Before a recent meeting I had with a potential PR client, we introduced ourselves through e-mail and I kept my boss on CC so she could see how the talks were progressing. A total of 10 messages were sent back and forth, and not once did the client hit “reply all” to keep my boss in the loop. This was a red flag – one of several throughout the correspondence – because it told us the client was not reading my messages carefully (despite me repeatedly mentioning my boss’s name). After a not-so-great start, the meeting resulted in my boss and I deciding this was not someone we wanted to work with, despite being incredibly talented.
Obviously there were more important factors than the client’s lack of CC knowledge, but bands, it is vital to keep ALL parties involved in your correspondence. Many of us have bosses, interns, managers, editors, etc. who need to know what is going on at all times and can offer insight when necessary. It’s a simple task to check if anyone is CC’d in a message, but if you really can’t remember to do it, Gmail even gives you the option to make “reply all” your default setting.
On behalf of every industry friend, co-worker and acquaintance I’ve ever known, please use “reply all” so we can stop tearing our hair out!
DON’T: Put your subject line in all caps.
DO YOU SCREAM AT PEOPLE IN PUBLIC TO GET THEIR ATTENTION TOO? Unless you’re in a crowded bar or at a concert, I doubt it. An all-caps subject line makes us feel like we’re being yelled at, and although some believe it increases your chance of getting the other person’s attention, it often does more harm than good. Just like the message itself, keep your subject line short, to the point, and with normal-sized letters. As long as your words are clear and attention-grabbing, you’ve done your job.
DO: Respond Promptly Whenever Possible.
Now, I’m not saying be a slave to your e-mail inbox. Many of us get overwhelmed with hundreds of messages every week and sometimes it’s not possible to respond quickly. But this isn’t Facebook, where everyone plays the “click on the message notification to see the first few words and if it doesn’t look important, I’ll respond 10 hours later” game. Many music industry workers use apps like Mandrill or SendGrid which lets them “track” the e-mails they send to see if and when they are opened by the recipient. Personally, if I read a message and see that it doesn’t require an essay in response, I try to reply within 24 hours. Look at it this way: do you take days to respond to a call or text from a friend? Of course not, so why should professional work-related messages be any different?
Responding promptly tells the other party that you are taking them seriously, you’re dedicated to the cause, and you’re being accommodating to their needs. Amazing how many details you can see through someone’s online correspondence, isn’t it? However…
DON’T: Respond to important/lengthy messages with your phone.
Have you ever sent a super-embarrassing text to a friend or family member thanks to the ultimate frenemy known as auto-correct? Yes you have – don’t lie. Unless it’s just to say “thank you” or it’s absolutely time-sensitive – in which case a phone call is better – hold off on responding to your most important messages until you’re in the much safer confines of your laptop. A later, well-written response is always better than the virtual foot-in-your-mouth typo that phones often bestow on us.
Joe Ballard is a music writer and publicist. He cares as much about the words used to promote music as he does the music itself, and that is part of the reason we love him. Learn more about Joe and his work with talented up and comers through the Muddy Paw website.
Hello, everyone! I know we took a little time off yesterday without warning, but a close friend of the Haulix family passed away and we needed some time to mourn. Fortunately, many of our close friends in the industry reached out to help us continue our content creation efforts while we reflect on our recently deceased friend. The piece you’re about to read was created by Seth Werkheiser, and it offers insight that could help bands and artists of all sizes improve their digital marketing efforts.
This blog exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
I’ve talked to a handful of musicians and bands lately about the subject of “social media.” I usually steer the conversation towards email marketing, and explain how it converts better than the “social media flavor of the week.”
“But I don’t want to just email out our tour dates,” they usually say, explaining that they don’t like those emails.
There’s a simple solution: don’t be like the lazy bands who do just that.
Copying and pasting your tour dates into an email is very boring. An unpaid intern could do it. In their sleep.
Instead, try this: out of the 34 photos you posted to Instagram and Facebook during the course of your last few shows, or tours, pick a handful that “clicked well.” What dose that mean? That means the photos that got the most "likes,” or shares. Take those, and put a few of them into your next email.
Now, here’s the part where an unpaid intern can’t do what you do.
You write the back story. The location. Explain what happened. You lived it, bled it, slept in it. You drove all those hours, got sick, met an amazing character in a small town, hung out with coolest people.
Everyone loves a good story, and as a traveling musician you’ve got stories to tell, so stop “blasting” your tour dates every five minutes like every other hack band out there.
As Betabrand founder Chris Lindland says, “the assumption is that not everybody wants to shop every single time they get a newsletter.”
Think about that for a second: not everyone is ready buy tickets to your next show or watch your new music video (they might be watching Netflix at the moment). But if you tell a story about how cops nearly shut down your video shoot, you might distract them from ‘Orange is the New Black’ long enough to at least get a click!
For example, there’ a new video out from the Cancer Bats, for their song ‘Satellites.’ In the video they shoot fireworks at their drummer in a field the whole time.
Wait, they what?
How did they not get arrested shooting that video? Did anyone get burned? How much did they spend on fireworks? Who came up with that idea of shooting fireworks at their drummer?
Their YouTube description field? "SATELLITES!! Hope you like it!” Snooze.
So don’t do that with your own email newsletter. Get creative. Just because every other band out there sends a list of tour dates and nothing more doesn’t mean you have to do the same.
Share some photos, stories from the road, and then paste your tour dates at the bottom of the email. Heck, list the mileage between stops, or the tourist destination you’re planning on visiting. Ask your fans for suggestions on places to check out, the best food stops in town. Invite a few out for pre-show pizza.
These are the people who might may to come see you, right? Maybe buy a CD or shirt?
Remind your fans what you’re about, not just where you’ll be two months from now.
Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
Hello, everyone. Thank you for finding time in your busy life to spend a few minutes discussing music marketing with us. The post you’re about to read was written by Andrew Jones, founder of Checkered Owl. The contents highlight common mistakes found in many email marketing campaigns, as well as what you can do to improve your messaging. If you have any questions, please leave us a comment at the end of this post.
This blog exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you would like more information on the content in this article, or if you know of an industry pro you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Everyone should know at this point that e-mail better be a part of your online marketing strategy. While social media sites can suddenly change their terms of service, re-evaluate their algorithms or lose they user base, e-mail is always there. Not to mention the fact that WAY more people actually BUY things from e-mail than any social media site.
There is a ton of great advice out there for e-mail lists so I don’t feel the need to write “TOP 8 E-MAIL TIPS MARKETERS DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW”. My main two pieces of advice are simple:
#1. Use Mailchimp to blast out your e-mails. They make your life so easy AND IT’S FREE until you have over 2000 subscribers!
#2. Speak genuinely. People want to connect with you not just get a flyer.
Which brings me to my third piece of advice. Something a little different than most of the articles I have read recommend.
#3. Don’t “personalize” the “to” field
On any decent e-mail service there is a section to “personalize” the e-mail with a tag, so you type in “Hey [FNAME]!” (or something similar) and the person opening it sees: “Hey Andrew!”.
Sounds great right? Here is the problem, EVERYONE KNOWS IT’S FAKE! It’s like those sweepstake letters you get in the mail, you know the ones; they have your name on them, they look like they were written in blue pen from the desk of the CEO, occasionally they will even use non-glossy paper or even pretend to cross out a word. But…they don’t make you want to enter.
Instead, at least for me, they turn me off, they are laughable.
If you want to be personal, be personal.
Write me a personal e-mail, I appreciate that. OR Fire me a nice looking HTML update that goes to 500 people and say “Hey Everyone!”.
I’m not offended that your band (or brand) doesn’t write me a personal letter every month, who has time for that? What does bother me is seeing something that says “Hey Andrew” and I think I have gotten a personal note only to discover it’s a mass blast. Just be honest.
Make the personal personal, make the e-mail blasts communal.
A communal blast has it’s advantages too! It (if executed well) can help begin to form a community, talk to everyone, together, as a unit. The KISS army approach works! Let people join your tribe!
And then when a key moment hits that’s worth a personal message, send that, personally. There are no shortcuts to relationships.
This post was written by Andrew Jones, editor of Checkered Owl. It originally ran on his blog, but we loved it so much we felt it deserved to shared once more on ours. If you like his work and want to read more of his writing, or if you want to be super cool and offer him full time industry employment, reach out and connect with him on Twitter.
