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The Goal of Email Newsletters (And How Many Subscribers You Need)

Best Email Newsletters music marketing

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. 

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News

The Old School Music Marketing Trick That Still Works in 2019

Marketing is everything in today’s music business. Between the increased number of artists competing for attention and the shrinking amount of attention people are willing to give talent they are unfamiliar with, marketing has become the primary focus of most day-to-day music professionals. It would be easy to say that trend will change in the years to come, but the chances are high that the competition will only grow fiercer from here.

A quick Google search for ‘Music Marketing Tips’ will return well over a million results, with dozens more added every week. The vast majority of these articles will offer you some variation of basic social media marketing tactics that apply to any business or personal brand. They will tell you to post regularly, preferably at peak traffic times, and to follow popular trends in an authentic voice. They will also encourage the creation of original content daily, and to make replying to comments or messages a priority.

All this advice is sound and valid, but it’s also what everyone — including your competition — will do in hopes of finding success. Everyone is screaming into the void that is the internet, just like everyone is doing their best to create original content that holds people’s fickle attention for long enough to promote or sell something.

When everyone is doing the same thing the chance any one person or group stands out is virtually non-existent. Social media is good for general engagement, but regarding audience retention and community development, its usefulness is limited.

The solution is, as it has always been, for artists to have their own newsletter.

Before social media gave everyone the ability to connect with anyone, newsletters were essential for creating meaningful artist to fan engagement. First distributed through the postal service before moving online with the rise of email, newsletters offer fans the chance to learn everything new and exciting about their favorite artist(s) without needing to cut through the clutter of the digital space. They provide album and tour information primarily, but they can be incredibly personal as well.

Starting a newsletter is easy. Most artists begin by signing up for a service like MailChimp or MadMimi. From there, artists can generate a shareable link that is then posted to social media (often on a recurring basis) and/or through a specific promotion, such as a song premiere. Fans then click the link and insert their email. All acquired addresses are kept on the newsletter platform, which then recalls the email information whenever a new mailing is created.

Some artists choose to make newsletters a premium offering similar to a fan club. For a small contribution, either one-time or monthly, fans can gain direct access to the latest news and information, as well as exclusive benefits such as music streams or tour pre-sales.

Given the low cost of creation and the potential for a high return on investment, starting a newsletter should be part of every artist’s promotional plans. It’s the one way to guarantee fans know what’s happening in an artist’s career, and it establishes a connection to an audience that no other service can offer (without regularly paying for ‘promoted’ content).

Cut out the middle man and take your relationship with fans into your own hands.

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News

How To Get More Email List Signups At Shows

Hello and welcome to another week of music industry discussion here on the official blog of Haulix. We are thrilled to have you join us, even if it’s only for a few short minutes. The content we have planned the coming days has been in production for weeks, and we truly believe it’s some of our best material to date. We’re starting with some advice, but in the days ahead there will be interviews and additional features as well.

This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-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.

We have made this point several times in the past, but in a time where everyone is constantly vying for attention on social networks there may be no better way to reach your fans than through maintaining an email newsletter. Some may think email is becoming antiquated these days, but that is in fact not the case. Email is the only way many brands and artists are able to reach their audience that allows for in-depth discussion on multiple topics, and though it may never make you a star maintaining such outreach can aide in developing a sustainable career in music. We have talked about how to make great newsletters in the past, and if I had to guess we will probably revisit that topic in the future, but today we are looking at how to increase signups for this outreach at your upcoming live events. The advice we have is not all that complex, but if you follow our guidance and apply the concepts to your audience you will see results.

Contests connected to signups.

One of the easiest ways to gain additional signups for your email newsletter at shows is to lure in curious music fans with the opportunity of a lifetime. Maybe you cannot offer a trip to Italy or a summer in Hawaii, but you could offer free tickets, free merchandise, or even a chance to contribute gang vocals to your next album. Find a prize that is feasible without breaking the bank and promote it at your merch table, requiring everyone who wants to participate to signup for your email newsletter. If longtime fans complain that they cannot enter, consider launching a digital counterpart that allows people to gain ‘entry’ in exchange for encouraging friends to signup.

Everyone loves a free download.

This one takes a little bit of extra computer work, but it’s worth the effort if you are willing to make time to do it right. Many people who signup for your email list at shows will have seen you for the first or second time that evening, which means there is a good chance they do not already own your music. One way to convince them your email list is worth their time is the promise of free music in the immediate future. Tell interested participants that everyone who signs up during the show will be given a free download following the night’s events, in addition to being added to your newsletter. This conveys to music fans that you’re willing to do whatever it takes to get them interested in your music up front, and it also gives you an excuse to connect with them after the event as well. When sending out downloads you will have the opportunity to contact people individually, which could help develop a street team down the line.

There’s an app for this kind of thing. More than one, in fact.

For many years, the fastest way to collect emails for newsletters was to keep a pen and paper on your merch table, but in the digital age that format of record keepings is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Today, as long as you have an iPad or some type of tablet device you are able to collect information and store it in a fraction of the time the same activity required even five years ago. Apps like ProspectSnap, SignupAnywhere and Chimpadeedoo for instance, allow you to instantly add people to your email list. These programs are often used at conferences, but they work perfectly fine at concerts as well. You can even customize the signup form to reflect your band and image. The best part? You do not need a wi-fi connection for these apps to work. That said, you will want to keep someone at your table at all times to ensure the safety of your tech.

You have a voice – USE IT.

Might as well close with something a bit more obvious. No one can promote you and your music quite like you and the people who help create the sound you hope to make your career. That is a long way of saying you are the best advertisement for your efforts, and that goes as much for your new album as it does signing up for your email list. While on stage, mention the signup list. When your meeting fans by the merch table, mention the signup list. When you’re loading out and people want to hang and/or grab a bite to eat, make sure you mention the signup list. People will want to know what’s in it for them, and if you’ve applied any of the other tips in this piece to your efforts it should not take you long to formulate a fitting response. Sell yourself. If you cannot do that, how can you expect anyone else to?

…One last thing

Above all else – be human. Talk to people and let them know that you would like to stay in touch with them even when you do not have a show or album to promote. Newsletters are as much a place for promotion as they are a place to share where you have been and where you are headed. They bring together communities that would otherwise be unable to connect and strengthens them through meaningful messaging.

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