Category: sethwCategory: sethw

I wrote the HEAVY METAL EMAIL newsletter for about two years, but about ten days ago, I renamed it to SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE CLUB.

That new name came about over the last two years, as I was sending 2-3 emails per week.

It started with the SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE PLAN, a play on the mighty DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN. And it just stuck around.

See, I booked a meeting with Sarah Fey of Writers at Work. She had a ton of great suggestions, but near the end of our chat, she suggested a name change. I was hesitant because who likes change?

But in my gut, I knew I was ready for some change.

HEAVY METAL EMAIL certainly points casual observers in one direction, but I don’t want to pigeonhole myself to just the metal world.

My niche isn’t the genre; my niche is “social media mostly sucks, let’s figure out how to spend less time on it.”

Since the name change, I’ve picked up about 25 free subscribers and two new paid subscribers. I’ve also had a few great conversations with fun stuff on the horizon.

Is it just from the name change? Probably not. But the name change and a fresh direction made a few things fall together nicely.

Don’t seat your guests at your restaurant, then explain that the specials are at your other location across town.

EDIT: this post sort of led to this interview with Audience Republic!

So stop telling fans to follow you on platforms that are built to limit your ability to reach them

I know it’s easy to post to socials during your big event, but remember; you’re lucky if you reach 10% of your followers.

Instead, go grab a slice of pizza afterwards. Go dancing. Get home super late, and collapse on your bed fully clothed and exhausted.

The next day, after some coffee and a shower, put together an email newsletter with a handful of the photos and stories from the night before.

Because, come on… when you “take a minute” to post to social media at the event, you’re going to end up checking your email and DMs, open IG, process your notifications – stop it!

Get back to the show, hang out with your collaborators, go make some new friends.

And stop posting your most exciting photos and stories to the places where your fans are least likely to see them

You can put photos in a newsletter.

You can upload audio right to your Substack.

You can upload a video clip right to Substack.

You can write big captions.

When you send it with Substack, it’s also on the web, so new fans can find it from Google.

When you send it with Substack, you can link to it from your social media (good luck with that, but still).

You can link to your upcoming tour dates, pre-orders, or anything you want unlike Instagram (which doesn’t allow links)

You can link to anything and your fans will still see, unlike on social media which throttles your reach when you do that.

It won’t get any easier to reach your fans on social media in 2024

That’s why you should start an email list today, and get subscribers by sending great newsletters.

Had a fun Social Media Escape Club Zoom hang this week (become a trial member and come to the next one).

This week I got us started riffing from Seth Godin’s recent quote, “Your (current) customers need to bring you your (new) customers.”

Through our 30 minute conversation we got on the subject of hyping new projects, and asking our fans to click to check it out, or subscribe. You know how it goes.

And well, sometimes the “check out my new thing” don’t resonate with our fans, as Robin Yang talks about here:

“Seth and I were in a LinkedIn class,” says Robin. “It’s about providing value, right? People aren’t going to do the thing that you want them to do unless they understand what they get out of it, right?

And so if it’s like, “oh, I have a new Substack over here.” But it’s like, why does that matter to me?

And some people have enough of a fan base that inevitably some people will follow them. Like, I’ve always loved whatever Seth’s doing, I’ll follow him till the end of… which like, I think we all will have those “true fans.”

But maybe the majority of your audience is like, well, “yeah, he’s like a good guy, I really value the content that he delivers in his new newsletter here. Why would I… what is he doing with his new social network?” Right? Like, why would I follow him on TikTok? (laughter ensues)”

This is why if you need to have a plan if you’re looking to get away from social media.

Telling your social media followers to sign up for your newsletter won’t get you far.

Sure, like Robin said above, some of your true fans may subscribe, but you’ve got fans at so many levels.

Remember to ask yourself, “what’s in it for them?”

Put yourself in their shoes,

Say, “follow our adventures as we leave for tour in a month. Sign up so you don’t miss a single photo of our adventures. Sign up so you, you don’t miss out on all our crazy tour stories.”

There’s a reason media outlets ask, “got any crazy tour stories?”

It’s because stories sell. Stories are what make movies!

Tell stories, not updates.

If you get engagement from a certain type of photo you post on social media, tell your followers they can get more by visiting your website, and subscribing to your newsletter.

If you get great feedback from your Twitter rants, consider putting more of them into your newsletter. Ask people to subscribe so they don’t miss any.

Maybe you stream tutorials online for everyone for free. That’s awesome, but remember, you’re making money for Zuck and Musk with each on of those! Ask your fans to subscribe to your email newsletter, and then link folks to your own video stream that corporate dorks don’t get to monetize it.

If you’re an artist that’s still trying to grow a following, you can’t just imitate what the big guns are doing and expect the same results.

A band like Beartooth can do this because they’ve been around for over 10 years, sell out venues in Australia on co-headline tours, and probably have 25,000 people on their email list (probably more).

Another approach is what Teenage Wrist did with their recent newsletter, writing 300 words before even getting to their upcoming tour dates (which are all linked, btw).

“i’m coming at you from the floor of soda bar in san diego, waiting patiently for my generic charger to bring my phone back to full juice.  spiritual cramp is sound checking, and boy do those guys have some shit to say that i can relate to.  deeply poetic verses like, “wake up in the morning and i think i’m gonna die”, “i’m sick of looking at my phone” and “i wanna smash my phone”.  seriously… i’ve spent countless hours over the past four weeks in the back of the van opening and closing my instagram account, refreshing my email, waiting for the fleeting dopamine hit.  it has officially stopped coming.  i need to find a new vein.  i wanna smash my phone.”

You share feelings and emotions and stories through your art, so try doing the same thing when you send an email to your fans.

Neil Mason talks about this in his Artist Development Newsletter:

“Be the artist continually creating a great escape, and you’ll be the artist that people turn to whenever they need one.

And we all need one.

The trick here is to connect the narrative from your music to your social media, your concerts, your merchandise, and on and on.

The best escape artists meet their audience in their emotions by showing they have been there too and they understand.

Then, take your audience on a journey to escape their troubles, and as a by-product, you will escape yours by creating the audience you once wished you had and making the money you once wished you made.

Don’t compete on the final product – a zillion songs are uploaded to Spotify every day, and trying to set yourself apart from that noise is tough.

Like, look at what I do; there are 1,000 other people writing about email marketing for bands and artists on the internet.

But I’m also trying to help you get away from social media, while most of those marketing professionals are telling you how to optimize your TikTok account.

That’s not me, and that’s hopefully why you’re reading this.

You’re watching this video on the new Social Media Escape Club.

A minute ago we were HEAVY METAL EMAIL, but now it’s Social Media Escape Club.

I thought long and hard about that, and I realized no one cares. I could name this thing Zip Zorp and you’re gonna either read it or you’re not gonna read it.

No one’s thinking about this stuff as much as I am.

So – welcome to the Social Media Escape Club. Make yourself at home.

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