Category: Email MarketingCategory: Email Marketing

Seth Godin in 2011 on “Getting serious about the attention economy:

“Every interaction comes with a cost. Not in cash money, but in something worth even more: the attention of the person you’re interacting with. Waste it–with spam, with a worthless offer, with a lack of preparation, and yes, with nervous dissembling, then you are unlikely to get another chance.”

Tweet another “new song” link, or post a static image to the Instagram feed when you should be posting a video (as IG boss Adam Mosseri said in this interview).

While the bar is low, there’s so much we can do, without a massive amount of effort.

Even with just plain old text:

🚫 “Hey, we’re on Revolver’s 6 Best Songs Right Now list.” [LINK]

✅ “Djent riffage that rumbles like a chunk of glacier breaking off and crashing into the choppy sea,” says Revolver Magazine [LINK]

Copy and paste what the established media outlet said about you, and then show it to your fans.

Do the thing that other people aren’t!

“Change comes from intrinsic forces, not extrinsic ones. If you think things are shit, you can — whisper it — stop making shit things.

We’ve be throwing “shit things” at the walls for so long it’s hard to notice the stink.

Now, do you have to chug Starbucks drinks to promote a new single, get 62K views, and covertly get 62K people to listen to track in the process?

Well, no.

You don’t need to make dance videos, or start a podcast, either.

But you need to do your thing, in a way that translates online, that your fans can actually view and get excited about.

Find a way to display your magic on these cursed platforms, and do it in a way that feels comfortable and sustainable.

The world needs you, and so do your fans.

Make it as simple as possible for your fans to subscribe to your email list.

Streamline the f*ck out of your landing page.

You want as few distractions as possible.

Less options.

Make it so easy to understand that a person can’t help but give you their email address.

A few notes about your landing page:

• Include your photos, your images, your logos, your branding. Do NOT let your landing page have any sort of DEFAULT look.
• Explain what they’re signing up for. Avoid the boring “sign up for updates” text – that’s for car dealerships and Kohls. Think of all the things you post on socials – I bet subscribers would love to see more of that!
• Don’t ask for a lot, in fact I recommend just asking for an email address. No need to go overboard with last name, city, town, zip code, phone number – you can ask for that later when you’ve developed your email list!
• Send a welcome / thanks email afterwards (if possible). You can use this email to link back to your website to watch your latest videos, or see your newest products.

There’s a few ways to build a landing page. Some are simple, and some more feature rich. Some are free, some will cost you a bit. Here’s some I’ve worked with over the years:

• Substack – (Free, then 10% if you turn on payments) they give you a pretty basic WELCOME page, which just asks for an email address, and if people have signed up for other Substack newsletters, their email address may already be filled in!
• Flodesk – ($35/mo) They offer some nice pre-built designs, and you can automate all sorts of responses.
• Tally – (Free) Can be bare bones, and provides a nice THANK YOU page when people sign up.
• Mailchimp – (Free up to 500 subscribers) A standard in the email marketing industry. Can be as complex or as simple as you make it.
• Your own website – Squarespace, WordPress and lots more offer some built-in ways for people to join your email list.

If you’ve got questions about any of these, get in touch!

Here’s the slowest, least-scalable way to grow your email list – “just ask, man.”

Want to reach a new audience that could help grow your fanbase?

Ask to be on a podcast.

Offer to write a cool feature for someone’s site that you like.

Did you make friends on a Discord? Don’t be a jerk, but maybe ask for someone to check out your newsletter on occasion.

Meet someone in real life and hit it off by talking about your art, your business, your offering? “Hey, I write about this stuff all the time, here’s the link to sign up for my newsletter.”

Have a cool back-and-forth on social media in the comments. DM them and ask them to subscribe.

Have a QR code on your merch table – people who sign up for your email list get 10% of their purchase, or a free sticker.

Neil Mason (LinkedIn) spent $3,000 on a photo booth to set up at shows. It runs on an iPad and captures people’s email addresses:

Since purchasing the photo booth, we’ve averaged 80 emails captured per show.

We’ve played 63 shows in 2023, with 62 to go.

80 x 63 = 5040 emails

I know not everyone reading this is in a band, or if you are, maybe you’re not interested in setting up a freaking PHOTOBOOTH, BUT… take these ideas and run with them.

Do interesting things, meet interesting people, and, on occasion ask them to check out your stuff.

Earlier this week The Armed sent out an email newsletter (above, right). As you can see, it’s similar in layout to an Instagram post (above, left).

The rest of the email is the same; photo, text, image, text.

White background. Dark text. Like an Instagram post, or a book, a newspaper.

• Make sure your text isn’t too tiny
• Don’t use eye-searing background colors
• Make your link colors stand out – they’re important!
• Make photos full-width
• Don’t use columns (yeah, I said it)

Make the bulk of your email a reflection of your authentic self, as The Armed did here:

“Well that’s it for right now…we’re in North Carolina and it’s 96 degrees. We play at 6:30 pm outdoors and there is no shade anywhere. So uh..I guess if we die, please remember LIAR 2 as our final, irrevocable mathcore legacy.”

An intern (or AI) didn’t write that, that came from the band.

That’s the opposite of mullet marketing.

Your social media feeds are the party. Loose and free, filled with witty rants, spontaneous photos, lengthy captions.

The likes pour in, and the replies.

Party in the back.

Then you subscribe to a band’s newsletter and get their “email blast,” which is just a few vinyl mock-ups of their album, some text, a button.

No lively text. No attitude. No swagger.

Business in the front.

Remember, the bulk of your social media followers don’t see your posts, so copy, paste, and elaborate on the wonderfully long captions you’ve already written.

“Engagement is the thing. The main thing. The only thing. Do I still open your newsletter?”

Adding more people to your list ain’t the fix for your 10% open rate.

This is an excerpt from ‘Do Open‘ from David Hieatt. Great read.