Build An Audience You Can Actually Reach

You probably didn’t hear that Axios sold to Cox Enterprises for $525 million, and why should you? We’re ARTISTS and MUSICIANS!

But let’s take a look at this nugget from ‘4 things Axios did right,’ by Simon Owens (he’s done PR, content marketing, and social media strategy for Google, Comcast, Forbes, ESPN, Nike, etc):

Whereas sites like BuzzFeed became overly reliant on Facebook, Axios was able to benefit from social media virality while simultaneously focusing on capturing as many email addresses as possible. This allowed it to have more ownership over its audience and protected it from the vicissitudes of social media algorithms. 

Say what?

Well, replace BuzzFeed above with, “every fucking band and metal news site,” and well, now you see why so many folks are losing contact with their fans.

Let’s break down that quote:

Axios was able to benefit from social media virality while simultaneously focusing on capturing as many email addresses as possible.

Yes, they used social media, but they used it not just for the clicks, but for the emails.

This allowed (Axios) to have more ownership over its audience and protected it from the vicissitudes of social media algorithms. 

If you’re like me you have no idea what “vicissitudes’“ means, but it means, “a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant.”

So when Instagram decides that your photos aren’t “engaging enough,” and now you have to become a part-time video editor, yeah, that’s a change of circumstance.

But if you have an email list, you send an email to your fans, and if you do it right 40% or more of your fans open it and read it. And you don’t even need to make a dancing video for TikTok.

😡 Social media has conditioned us that if we’re not on their app several hours a day promoting our work, then we’ll get left in the dust.

Fuck that.

I’ve seen music reaction streamers on YouTube gripe about this – that if they don’t post stuff every day, the algorithm throttles their channel and less people see their videos.

But if you have an email list, you could send out an update once a week of all the stuff you’ve made – your videos, your new songs, new photos – and link all your new things! Then you’re done, and you can get back to making your magic.

Here that strategy in action, from this interview I did with Joan Pope, who is constantly making art and sends out a newsletter every week:

The weekly compilation of all my creative works helps me reflect on my own work each week and it keeps my audience in the loop. It seems like people like it. A lot of people will tell me that they can’t keep up and the newsletter helps them do that.

So yeah, Axios sold for over half a BILLION dollars, and had an email marketing strategy that probably played a part in that.

An email list might be valuable for what you’re doing, too.

🎁 BONUS

If you’re spending all this time on social media like a good online marketer, how are you supposed to make time for preparing an email newsletter?

“It’s so much work,” you say.

Except, you already did the work.

You wrote the Tweets, you made the images, you uploaded the audio… that’s the hard part, the dreaded “content creation” process.

Now you just copy and paste that into an email newsletter, so your fans who aren’t following you on every social media platform can see it!

I wrote this post about you can use your already published social media posts as the core of your email newsletters.

QUICK BITS:

The Metal By Numbers column over at Metal Insider hasn’t been updated since July 23rd. I’m bummed!

Congrats to Leo Mascaro and his Shuffle Sundays newsletter for hitting 1000 subscribers.

This ‘Bringing your Instagram followers to Substack’ post is a good example of how to get fans to your email list / new video / your store (not just your Substack).

GOOD TWEETS:

Just because you don’t read newsletters doesn’t mean your fans don’t read newsletters (also: your fans need an email address to buy tickets online, sign up for social media sites, order vinyl, etc.)

Reminds me of Seth Godin’s “No one is going to pick you. Pick yourself.”

James Shotwell (@JamesShotwell_) is much too kind, but I’ll take it!

DUE BY FRIDAY:

It’s gonna be September when Friday hits. Here’s some things for you to do this week:

ADVANCED: With the holidays coming up, it may be a good time to start up a re-engagement campaign.

Donate to your local women’s shelter (find yours on Google), and / or donate to the Trevor Project by way of the Pride 5K I’m running in October.

Brush up on this ‘Holiday Rush Calendar’ and ‘Quick Tips for Holiday Selling’ from Big Cartel, which are still useful even if you don’t use Big Cartel.