Category: MarketingCategory: Marketing

Are you prepared for more people to find out about your work?

Is your bio photo current? Is your online store stocked? Can people sign up for your email list? Has your welcome email been updated since 2024? Is your website set up in a way that people would stick around and find out more about you, or are all your most engaging videos sitting on other platforms?

In my recent talk with Laura Kidd of Penfriend (new album ‘House Of Stories’ is out April 18th), we hit on the subject of “virality” and the pursuit of more.

“I think people get so blinded by virality and like if somebody doesn’t have 32,000 views on YouTube or something, nothing’s ever going to happen. But yes, my full-time income comes mostly from 236 subscribers on Patreon. and it’s topped up by music sales and stuff I put out on Bandcamp, pay what you want and stuff, and people choose to pay. So it seems small. Maybe it seems small. To me, I know it’s not small. Seven and a half thousand maybe seems small, but if you’ve ever tried to build an email list, you probably know it’s not small. But those people can give you a job if you are able to find… what that job should be, I suppose, what they will value and adds to their life and adds to your own creative practice and everything.”

Listen to the full podcast episode here:

More people on your email list won’t matter if you’re not providing them some form of “value.” Sorry to sound so capitalist, but I mean, in exchange for a reader’s time and energy of opening the email, are you providing entertainment? Relief? Wisdom? Hope? Good music?

Because if you’re not doing that for the people right in front of you, what makes you think you can do it for 5,000 more?

In the video above, Laura talks about having 236 Patreon supporters out of 7,500 email subscribers, which means that “just” 3.1% are enough to earn a living (in addition to music sales).

Depending on what you do, 7,500 is attainable. We’re all closer to 7,500 than a million, right? And 236? I like that number even more.

So cherish the 20 or so people on your email list today, because they’re your foundation.

Stop worrying about all the new people out there that have no idea who you are, and focus on the few dozen people who care enough to open your emails and click play on your videos.

“The false proxy of how many people are following you on social media is a trap,” says Seth Godin, “I know people who have gotten 40 million views of a TikTok, and sold $200 worth of stuff to go with it.”

I offer Email Guidance, where I provide affordable, personalized thoughts and ideas to use and think about for your project. I don’t need 40 million people to know about this offer. My email list will do just fine, really. I can pay the rent without this newsletter getting a million views (find out more here).

And maybe you don’t need to get your work in a fancy art gallery, or play a big corporate owned music venue. Maybe you don’t need to get picked by whatever gatekeeper exists in your world, and you can just do whatever you want.

What’s at the core of what you want to do, and how are you building that foundation today?

Where’s the biggest joy you find? How can you skip all the busy work you don’t want to do and still achieve your desired outcome?

In my recent Substack Live interview with Olivia Rafferty, she spoke of looking for creative inspiration outside of your industry.

“Even in terms of marketing and things, I just think there’s so much you can do if you look outside of how people in your industry are making the thing that you’re making. Like, if musicians don’t just focus on what other musicians are doing and how they’re making music, if, like, people on Substack who make newsletters start to think, ‘how could I make a newsletter in the way like a ceramicist would make a pot?’”

Olivia wrote an album about geology which led to performing in front of a Tyrannosaurus Rex at a museum.

Photographer Noah Kalina sold out of limited edition print he made in just a few hours from this video, which at the time had just around 300 views.

Alex of Saint Francis Apizza recently wrote about “Four sound decisions I made before opening our pizzeria.” Even if you’ll never open a pizza shop, there is much wisdom here. (link via Emily).

‘The True Costs of Being on YouTube’ by carla lalli music is an eye opening read, even if you have no interest in making YouTube videos:

“It costs $29 per thousand to run an ad in my videos, and I get $10 per thousand. Where does the other $19 go? To YouTube, of course. That’s a 2:1 split in favor of the platform. Lord, give me strength.”

Artist David Speed’s work is only available for purchase via his email list.

Seek inspiration outside of the creative sphere you occupy, across other genres, mediums, and industries. Find the people making work on their own terms, and use their approach to guide your own artistic journey.

You’re a one person team, I get it. But the marketing team needs a week off.

This week we’re not looking for more subscribers. We’re gonna put “growth” on hold this week.

Instead, your job is to get your sales team making sales. Your shipping team making your paying customer happy. Your front office team working smarter and more efficiently.

YOUR SALES TEAM: Can you send an email and get 5% of your fans to click something? Anything?

If you emailed your fans and said, “next 10 people to email me will get an exclusive demo MP3 of my next single,” would 20 people reply?

If you marked down something 25%, would it spur even one sale?

Would 20 people who already exist in your current creative universe take the time to hit reply?

Figure out how to motivate 20 people to do something. Anything.

YOUR SHIPPING TEAM: I ordered a hat from someone I’ve been following for years. It showed up in a plain box, and shipped from an “order fulfillment company” with a name like U.S. Logistics Corp.

I had no idea what this mystery box was on my doorstep until I opened it.

You don’t want your customers to feel bewildered when getting their orders. Your order confirmation emails don’t have to be boring (see how CD Baby did it back in the day).

You don’t have to outrun a bear, you just need to outrun your friends.

YOUR FRONT OFFICE: Set up an actual online store that can be optimized for the 10 people a month you’re serving. Build it today so you can handle 100 people a month a year from now.

Take the photos you’ve uploaded to Instagram and the videos you’ve posted on Facebook and put them on your website. Build a place for your existing fanbase to fall head over heels for your work. Turn it into a place so cool that your fans wouldn’t dare tell their friends to follow you on Instagram.

Reply to the people leaving comments. Reply to the emails already in your inbox.

Make every reply a giant hug.

Write an email that people love to see in their inbox.

YOUR CREATIVE DEPARTMENT: Do you have current photos on your site? A current bio? Are there any broken links in your LINK IN BIO? In your Bandcamp sidebar? When’s the last time you updated your profile photo? Your logo?

Is the design of your online ecosystem coherent or a jumbled mess?Subscribed

Someone emailed me (see below) asking how to get more people to their site without social media, so they could make more sales. A reasonable challenge in the year 2025.

All their fun, flashy, informative videos were on Instagram, miles away from their online store.

They had a nice site, sure – but all the immersive media, the videos, were sitting on Instagram, for 90% of their followers to never see.

I told them to move that cool stuff to their website. Put the sauce next to the sexy ADD TO CART button.

We don’t need more traffic. We need to captivate the people right here in front of us.

Maybe we don’t need more subscribers.

Instead, we need to optimize what we’ve got because just throwing 1,000 more people at a bad set-up won’t help.

Investing an hour with other creative people is a good idea.

I host weekly Zoom calls with Social Media Escape Club subscribers. We don’t all work in the same fields, or make the same art, but we still learn from one another, week in and week out. We’re not for everybody, and that’s okay.

Social media isolated us. Facebook and Instagram and Twitter keep us entangled in their products, making it difficult to walk away. They make us believe we’re nothing without them.

Social media is a toxic partner.

It’s time to get back to real life, with real people. To start using the internet as a tool, not a destination.

During last week’s call someone asked about hosting Zoom calls, and the room lit up with ideas, and thoughts, and encouragement.

If you’re an artist, a writer, a photographer, a musician – doing Zoom calls with subscribers is a great way to strengthen your community.

If you’re just looking to get away from social media, Zoom calls can be great to keep in touch with friends and family.

In each case, they’ll be laughter, some tension and silliness, and probably some revelations. The collection of people in Zoom calls can bring answers to questions we didn’t even know we had.

Here’s what I’ve learned from hosting about 30+ video meetings since 2023.

1. Set up a Luma invite, and connect it with your Zoom account. By using Luma, you can limit the capacity of the room. When I started out I limited the size of the room to 8-10 people because – honestly – I wasn’t sure I can emotionally handle hosting that many people on one call. Now my calls hover around 12 or so people each week.
   
   Also, with using Luma, now you’ve got the contact info of everyone who signs up. I did this for months, before I switched my calls to paid-only, but I still invite everyone who signed up for those early free calls. Those 30 people get an invite every week , and they can absolutely unsubscribe if they don’t want to be invited anymore.
2. Don’t just put an invite in your newsletter once and never mention it again. Announce it several times! Put it at the top, in the middle, in the footer – MIX. IT. UP. Do this in the two weeks leading up to your call.
3. Scared of no one showing up? Ask a friend or two (or three) to hop on the call a week ahead of time. Have them sign up via Luma, too, just so you get a feel for the automated emails that Luma sends out, and how it works.
4. Invite another writer / artist / musician on the call, and call it a live interview! This should be someone you’ve spoken with before, whether in person or on Zoom. You don’t want to learn how to interview people live on camera the first time.
5. I learned this from Cody Cook-Parrott; schedule your call for when you have the time and energy for it. Yes, it’s nice to accommodate for time zones and our international fans, BUT… a tired, sleepy host doesn’t do anyone any good!
   
   This also goes for how long your planned call is – 30/45/60 minutes? Do what feels right for you, and how much energy you have.
6. Consider having an intention for each call, at least as a launching point. This could be a recent newsletter you sent, or a media piece that has lot of people talking, and you can lead the discussion around it.
7. Slides? Agendas?! Up to you – I started out with agendas, but calls usually drifted elsewhere after 15 minutes or so. Like I mention above, I usually lead with a main point, and let the vibes take over.
8. The best way to keep the calls interesting is be interesting.
   
   Make sure you’re reading, staying fresh with the current happenings in your field. Also – go outside, get good sleep, drink enough water. How can you care for your community if you’re not your best self?
9. Read Priya Parker’s ‘The Art of Gathering,’ especially the ‘Never start a funeral with logistics’ part. Folks showed up. They took time out of their day to hop on a call. Start on time, think about your opening, and leave the “house keeping” until later in the call.
10. Your audience is counting on you to make space for everyone, so practice cutting people off when they get too chatty. It’s hard, but it’s best for the group.
11. Invite the right people. This is your space. Your baby. You don’t have to invite everyone. Protect your peace, protect your space, protect your guests. Make it as exclusive as you desire. If you’re going to devote an hour a week to bringing people together and creating a positive space, honor your time and sanity and make sure it’s something you’d want to be a part of.
12. Finally – Don’t be afraid to mess up, or stumble over your words. This is what makes us human. AI can write a newsletter, but it can’t build relationships and invite people to chat for 30 minutes on a Tuesday afternoon.

A Zoom meeting can only be as good as the people involved, so be mindful of who’s in attendance. Set the stage, manage expectations, and allow others to seek entrance to your community.

I loved this point from Michael Gilbride of MAD Records so much I made an audio clip from the What Am I Making Podcast, hosted by Matty C.

I’ve been saying this for a minute – use the same magic and creativity that you put into your music and your art and your videos, and use that same spirit in how you market your work. How you grow. How you shape the business, and how you want to operate in the world.

Hear the full episode here.