In this article I would like to show you how you can use your band mailing list to make sales and be a good source of income, without being a total troll and pissing everyone off.
It’s very simple and it’s all about timing and learning the three types of emails that let you push your music with for maximum effect.
We are going to be using and Autoresponder for this and if you don’t know what that is you can read my post from the other day that explains everything.
3 Tips to Increase Your Album Sales By Up To 70% Automagically!
So anyway once you have your Autoresponder set up it can be hard to know what to actually write to your fans, and I’m going to suggest that you make it your focus to build a relationship with them while letting them know that your music is available to buy if they want it. (The golden rule is to never be pushy.)
The three most common fan emails you will be sending are as follows…
Email 1 – The Hard Sell
The hard sell sounds aggressive but it basically means that the whole goal of the email is to inform your fans that your music is available and then ask them to follow a link to it.
You don’t have to be cheesy about this. You just need to let them know that you have been working really hard on your record and if they like what you are doing they might also like to get their hands on the most recent work. That way you are doing them a favor by letting them know about something cool, rather than just trying to line your own pockets every time you speak to them.
I recommend that you send a hard sell email first so that the new fans know that your serious about what you are doing, and then include a cliffhanger that leaves them excited about your next email.
Keep your tone nice and light, try something like this to finish your first message…
“So now you know where you can spend all your hard earned money on our music 
look out for the next email because I have a really cool free video for you. It’s getting played all over the web and you don’t want to miss it.”
The most successful TV shows like LOST for instance, know that leaving a cliffhanger is like crack for the fans and it works great for emails too.
If you don’t feel comfortable with introducing your sales page in the first email feel free to wait a little while. I’m just letting you know what works for me.
Email 2 – The Soft Sell
This is a message that combines some content (like news about a new song or an upcoming show) and then transitions into letting them know that they can also buy something that may be related.
This is cool because it means that you don’t have to do so many hard sell emails. You are just providing the “buy now” link if they are in the mood.
You might say something like this…
“Hey Bob
I just wanted to let you know we have been busy working on the new album over the last few weeks and I can now give you an exclusive listen to our new single and a video of us playing it live at the Roxy last week.
[Link here]
We are only giving this to the hardcore fans on the mailing list so please don’t pass this around for now…it’s just for you
If you are one of the people who have been emailing asking how to actually download the album we have made 10 “Early Bird” copies available here:
[Link to download page]
(I’m sorry if they are all gone when you get there.)
All proceeds from our recordings go back into the band in the hope we can bring more and more value to the fans.
I’d love to hear what you think of our new stuff…
YOUR NAME”
This is not a massive sales pitch and you will get very little complaint from people about just providing the link.
Email 3 – Content (Be Santa Clause!)
The content email is the one that you will send most to your fans and simply contains a link to something really cool you have done that will make them think “I fu@%ing love these guys!”
Basically in your content emails you want to try and be like Santa Clause and make your fans excited to hear from you every time. Nobody is ever upset to hear from Santa because he gives us great toys for free.
So get festive and practice your ho ho ho…
Pretty soon fans will start leaving milk and cookies in your paypal account
The Email Sequence
I would suggest that you test the following timings for your emails. Remember that each mailing list is different and you will need to test which sequence of emails works best for your people.
Day 1 – Hard sell
Day 2 – Soft sell
Day 3 – Content
Day 4 – Content
Day 5 – Soft sell
Day 6 – Content
Day 7 – Content
Day 8 – Hard sell
Day 9 – Soft sell
Day 10 – Content
Day 11 – Content
Day 12 – Content
Day 13 – Content
Day 14 – Content
You might also want to skip a few days if you think it will piss off your fans to hear from you all the time. But to be honest it will only annoy people if you send them crap, because nobody would turn down cool free stuff in the mail every day.
You will notice that toward the end of the sequence I add a lot of content emails and that is because there might be the odd person who is offended by you trying to sell anything at all and be considering leaving your list. This period of great content will keep most people happy.
By the way I think that it’s total bullshit that musicians have to feel shameful about trying to sell their stuff. I don’t know any other profession in the world where you are expected to just do it for the love of it for your whole life and never try to make it your job.
Try and get your bank manager to work for free…GOOD LUCK!!!
So your action point for today and this week is to write 14 follow up emails to your fans that will go out over a period of a couple of weeks building a relationship and selling your music in a cool way automatically.
If you make great stuff you deserve to get paid, don’t undersell yourself.
Digital Telepathy?
Once you have completed your first 14 day email cycle you want to track which emails are most effective then write another 14 day follow up and use what you have learned.
This is what I call “Digital Telepathy” because the more you see what your fans respond to, the more you can give it to them in a constant and never ending feedback loop.
Pretty cool!
Some people write years of email to go out to their fans and this can more than double your initial income over time. That should be your ultimate aim too, but just start small.
Good luck,
- Chris
Tags: Email Music Marketing, How To Make A Band Mailing List Work
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