the dead record

In today’s fast-moving, digital society keeping completely on top of your online presence is absolutely vital to your success.  This series of posts discusses how you can do just that and provides tips and advice on all aspects of your online image management, whether you’re in a band or a business.

In the previous post I discussed the best way to spread the word beyond just using Facebook and MySpace by using other social networks and services such as Twitter and iLike. You can read more about this topic HERE. In this post I discuss the email list, the very cornerstone of online promotion.

When planning to use an email list to promote your band or business it is important to have a clear strategy in mind. The list can make you. All of the other facets of online promotion mentioned so far, and most of those that will be discussed in this series, pale in comparison to the effect that a well-managed email campaign can have on your promotion. In fact many other kinds of promotion are useless without an email list.

The reason why this is so is due to the fact that emails are personal and easily managed ways to provide their readers with a lot more information that they wouldn’t otherwise get were they not on the email list. It enables fans, customers or clients feel more valued by the sender and also makes it seem like they are privy to information not available to others. In addition emails are obviously sent directly to the reader meaning the information is pretty much first-hand and can consist of a simple message or have attached mp3, pdf or movie files as well as links to other places on the web.

When somebody signs up to an email list they are making a conscious effort to find out more about the sender. By taking the time to do so however they will also unconsciously invest something into the band or business and if their investment pays off with the acquisition of free gifts, exclusive information, downloads or other offers, they will feel closer to the sender and more likely to turn their interest into support and/or cold hard cash.

Email lists provide a means to transcend the more superficial promotion that social networks provide. Most web users log into their email accounts everyday and, as the vast majority of people use web-based clients such as Gmail or Hotmail they also have access to them all over the world. Now it may be true that many people also log into facebook several times in a day but they are mainly doing so to interact with their friends and pass along messages, not to read something brand new. Emails have always been a bit more formal and something that we take more care and time in reading and managing. This is yet another reason why they are perfect for promotion.

Now I must stress here that this post won’t tell you the functional ins and outs of choosing a platform and setting up an email list from scratch, there are plenty of resources out there that can do that such as http://hubpages.com/hub/Ultimate-Email-Marketing-Guide or http://www.kirtokreviews.com/email-marketing-solutions/. Instead I want the rest of this article to provide you with far more applicable information, how to utilise an email list effectively to drastically improve your music-based organisation’s promotion.

Below I have included a number of points that should definitely be considered when creating your email campaign. If there is anything else that you would like to hear about please don’t hesitate to comment on the post.

Getting Subscribers

This is a key consideration and can actually be quite simple. If you have followed some of the advice in the previous posts in this series then you will hopefully be in a position to contact at least dozens of people every single day. If that is the case then the next step is to turn those social network “soft” contacts into email subscriber “hard” contacts.

Now this can be done by simply advertising the list well, by explaining how good the emails are going to be and what will be included in the invitation text. This should be done obviously, but there is another technique that almost every professionally-run email list utilises; and that is to offer a free gift in return for signing up.

The free gift can take the form of an exclusive track(s), a discount coupon, an e-Book or even membership to an exclusive website, the only proviso is that it must be attached to the welcome email used to greet all new list subscribers. But that doesn’t actually limit you as much as you might think. If the gift is to be something physical then the email attachment could simply be an exclusive code that the reader can email to the company along with their address to get the gift sent to them.

Think outside the box and offer something that your fans would genuinely want, put invitations to your email list on all your website and social network pages then watch the subscribers roll in.

Write Good Emails

This might seem rather evident but it is important. If you litter your messages with spelling mistakes and nonsense it won’t be long until your subscribers don’t read them at all and just put them straight in the junk folder. Of chief importance is staying consistent, keep each email a similar length in a similar writing style and with the same message. Bear in mind that you do need to keep people interested however so a few little unique twists and messages will not go amiss.

Stay Organised and Honest

Stay on top of it, be professional and fulfil promises. If you say ‘weekly emails’ then do one every week, if you say ‘we provide you with exclusive tracks’ then make sure you do. It may be a good idea to prepare a few ‘emergency’ emails for times when you have too many other commitments and cannot stay up to date.

Be Interactive

Emails are great places to test things out. Send out some sample images of your company’s new clothing line and ask for feedback. Provide exclusive acoustic tracks and see if fans think they are good enough to warrant an acoustic album. Provide email addresses so people can write back to you and reply to those who do and this will further enhance your email list.

Indirect Profit

When your list is up and running, sign-ups are flooding in and you have developed a great style and format with which to communicate with your subscribers; now you are in a position to start profiting from your work. Firstly you need to consider the affect that the email list will be having on your business reputation and income indirectly.

Those who have signed up will be reminded of your services every time you send them an email and the trust they build in you will make them more likely to spend money on you. In addition, the simple fact the overall reputation of your business will be added to by the email list will hopefully translate to more financial success if not from your subscribers then possibly by professional collaboration.

Direct Profit

This method of cashing-in on your email list is not really recommended until you have built a bit of a following and should not be carried out too often. Basically, once you have enough people on your list you may want to go about selling advertising in your emails to other related companies. Alternatively you could include adverts or links to your own tracks or merchandise and make money that way. Whatever you decide to do respect your readership and remain true to your promises and message and you will find it much easier to succeed (and sleep at night).

Keep this stuff going, growing and evolving and a good email campaign will definitely translate to financial success. A good way to learn and stay up to date with email marketing techniques is of course to sign up to email lists yourself and see how they do it. Keep the email list firmly in mind when you do anything online and ensure that any new developments are communicated to your subscribers first. They will feel valued (as they should be) and with enough cultivation will be worth far more to your promotion with their positive word-of-mouth communication than a thousand facebook groups or MySpace pages!

Thanks for reading. Next time I will be discussing Professional Networking; how to act and appear fully professional when carrying out your online business activities. It isn’t about selling out and compromising your identity, it is simply about appearing to be completely reliable and able to carry out the task for which you wish to get paid. And it is easier than you think. Until next time!