Trading Songs For Email Addresses
One of the most powerful marketing tools of the digital age is the email list; if you have email addresses for your fans, you can reach out to them directly with new material, videos, songs and upcoming gig alerts. But what are the best ways of building up an email list?
Start In The Real World
You should of course have a website; but even before going online, it’s a good idea to collect email addresses everywhere you make an appearance. If you’re playing a gig, get someone to collect emails at the door, or get someone to wander through the audience gathering signatures (it might be a cheap trick, but if your audience is predominantly male, an attractive female with a clipboard will have no problem building up a list in this case).
Get Yourself Connected
But what about online? Well, Internet marketers use all manner of devices to get people to part with their email address; free gifts work very well. Offer an ebook that will help your readers, and they will give you their address gladly – if there is a clear value to the gift, then it’s an easy sell.
With songs, it can be a bit more difficult – unless they are already fans. They might need a few free samples upfront before they can be lured by the promise of more of your music; if they don’t know they’ll like it, they might not even bother with the apparently simple task of entering an address into a box.
It’s All In The List
Brian Hazard at Passive Promotion created a useful list of techniques used on the Internet – from the typical squeeze page/popup, to Tweet for a Track, to Bandcamp…
On his second point regarding the homepage squeeze, he mentions that asking a visitor for an email every time they visit is likely to drastically reduce your number of return visits. However, there actually is a WordPress plugin called ‘What would Seth Godin Do‘ that can be used to display a message only to first time visitors…