Category: NewslettersCategory: Newsletters

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.

Sharing this post from TOKiMONSTA to demonstrate how hard it is for everyone, even a Grammy nominated artist with 178,000 Instagram followers, and 1.3 million monthly listens on Spotify.

But hey, Jeffrey Wisenbaugh (Director of Social & Content at Meta) tells Link in Bio about some new things coming to Threads!

“I think I’m most excited about an improved search experience, the web version, and multiple account login—will make managing brand pages and your own personal account so much easier.” 

Who else is excited about an improved search experience?!
Are you excited about “the web version” yet?! WOO!

Most artists would be excited about reaching their fans who clicked follow, but you gotta pay money for that (and even then, there’s no guarantee they’ll see it).

SO WHAT DO WE DO?

What do folks without Grammy nominations, press coverage, label support, and a management team do?

Are we really going to stick it out on Instagram and Threads and “X” and whatever else, working our asses off to get a million followers just so we can reach 10% of them if we’re lucky?

You’re closer to 10,000 people on an email list than you are to a million on a social platform (probably).

And if you got “just” 10,000 email subscribers and a 40% open rate you’re cooking with an email a week.

Now, that doesn’t just mean some vinyl mock ups and video stills linking to YouTube.

That’s the sort of stuff you can outsource to Fiverr.

Like my pal Laura says in her latest video, she doesn’t need to be the one stuffing mail orders.

Her magic comes from writing catchy songs and making great videos – the sort of thing you can’t outsource.

Tegan and Sara have been writing multiple newsletters every week since January, 2022.

Nina Nastasia wrote about the one year anniversary of her album ‘Riderless Horse,’ complete with photos of the recording process with Steve Albini (disclaimer; she’s a client, but she wrote all that).

PUT DOWN THE PHONE

If you wanna do the bare minimum with a newsletter, don’t expect great open rates, or people rushing to subscribe.

Instead, set aside one hour from the multiple hours you spend on social media each week and write a great newsletter.

Include some photos. Maybe a video.

Oh, you know – like all the stuff you shovel onto social media that most of your fans never see!

And all those cool interview features you see in magazines and music sites (maybe stuff that other artists are doing, but you’re not at that level yet), DO THEM YOURSELF.

Make you own photo session.

Hell, work with a photographer friend. COLLABORATE.

List your 10 favorite horror videos, favorite 80s action movies, the album that got you to start playing music, the mentor that got you making art… should I keep going?

I can do this all day.

Because dammit, if you got that sort of press on a site or an alt-weekly you’d share it with your fans, right?

YOU’RE MORE INTERESTING THAN THIS NEWSLETTER

I mean, straight up; I write a newsletter about MAKING NEWSLETTERS and got about 25 new subscribers in the last month.

This is the nerdiest shit and I’m nearing 600 subscribers.

You probably make art, run a shop, write music, interview bands, photograph live shows, teach amazing courses – you know how much more interesting that is than writing about newsletters?!?

BUT, if you just make your newsletter about 10% discounts and BUY NOW buttons and NEW SONG in bold with a link, well, then yes, my shit is cooler.

But you can tell stories! You should share photos! Talk about the things you like!

Or… just sit around and hope that social media platforms are gonna change.

That ain’t gonna happen.

We’re all a million times cooler than these social media nerds.

Make cool stuff, and share it with your friends on your website and newsletter (where they’ll see it).

Yep, things look slightly different here at Heavy Metal Email.

I discovered an account that started in 2019 was using the same “iOS email app with 666” design for their logo, so I switched things up.

Aside from the batch of stickers I made with that old design, it’s not a great loss. I doubt any of you reading this right now will un-subscribe, and six minutes after reading this you will have forgotten all about it.

It’s okay to scrap old things and start fresh.

That’s why you should start your email list today.

Pick a service like Button Down or Substack or Beehiiv and just start.

Like I wrote in “GET BETTER AT REACHING YOUR FANS,”

If you start with Mailchimp, you can send five emails and decide you hate it and use something else.

Just export your subscribers and leave.

I did this recently with a client.

We sent two email campaigns and jumped to Substack.

We are at week 33 of 2023. Do not wait until the new year to “maybe figure out that email thing.”

It will only get harder to reach your fans on social media in the coming weeks and months – it’s time to figure out your Social Media Escape Plan, friends. Let’s go.

I like this quote from New Creative Era:

THE CREATIVE STATUS QUO HAS MADE US LONELY CONTENT MACHINES
PRESSURED TO POST WITH UNNATURAL QUANTITY AND FREQUENCY
TO PURSUE OUR LIVELIHOODS AND EXPRESS OUR WORK
WE PLAY SOMEONE ELSE’S GAME

I’ve been thinking about that first line a bit, as I sort of felt isolated as a writer, as someone trying to offer up ideas. I feel like it’s me vs everyone, stacking up against everyone else trying to offer solutions and ideas in a busy, hyper-competitive world of music and culture.

But I found some comfort in two podcasts recently, that sort of set me at ease, the first being with Bobby Hundreds on the Tim Ferris show:

The one thing that stuck with me was building something within a community.

Think of artists working together on various projects, like Turnstile working with BADBADNOTGOOD and today releasing this EP:

Working with other creative people is good energy, and good energy spreads. As the effectiveness of social media wanes, think of the creative people you can work with.

Next is ‘Common Shapes’ from Cody Cook-Parrott and their episode ‘The Art of Newsletters.’

Here’s a quote:

“Just hit send. It doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, I imagine people might see your imperfections and think “me, too. I feel that, too. I have typos. I misspell things.” Whatever it is, let your anti-perfectionism be an invitation to your readers that it’s ok to be clumsy and start anyways. It’s ok to be mediocre and still hit send.”

I’ve botched subject lines, missed typos, and sent emails with broken links – life rolls on. Learn from it, and start work on the next one.

It’s most likely no one died from a tiny error in your newsletter. Let your humanity have some space in your work, in your social media posts, in whatever you do.

Things don’t have to be perfect, they just need to be done / shipped / out the door. And like I mentioned above, you don’t have to do it alone!

If you haven’t started your email list because you’re still debating between Mailchimp or CovertKit or 1000 other servives, you’ve got until the end of this email to pick one.

Don’t watch 18 hours of people you don’t know talking about things you might not ever need.

If you want to learn guitar, find a guitar and fucking go. You can always buy a better one later.

Same with learning photography – pick something you can afford and just start.

Which snare should you get? Which cymbal manufacturer is the best?

What paint brushes should I use? What brand of paint?

JUST. GET. STARTED.

If you start with Mailchimp, you can send five emails and decide you hate it and use something else.

Just export your subscribers and leave.

I did this recently with a client.

We sent two email campaigns and jumped to Substack.

Did you start using Klaviyo and now you hate it? Export your list and move somewhere else.

Hate Substack? Fine. Export your email list and move to Flodesk. I know someone who uses BOTH.

Some cost more money if you have more subscribers.
Some cost more money if you send more emails.
Some cost zero money, but then charge for other things.
Some can integrate with Shopify, other’s can’t.

SIGN UP FOR ALL OF THEM

Put down your phone for an hour and create a free account on all of them and start poking around. Just go crazy.

Find out how easy it is to upload your logo.

Find out how easy it is to start a new email.

Find out how easy it is to enter your basic info.

Stuck? Check out their help docs, or search for the answer on YouTube.

You’ll quickly figure out which service just doesn’t work for you.

My picks?

If you just need basic and free: Substack

Basic and pay a little: Buttondown

If you need something with lots of options and integrations with online stores and SMS: Klaviyo

Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. You’re gonna send an email with a typo, or a wrong link. Professional email marketing folks make mistakes (like me) – no one is perfect!

As my friend Jocelyn wrote in ‘It’s fun to be bad,’

“There’s always something to learn, isn’t there? Even when we’re good. If we’re honest, there’s always something we’re bad at. Something that needs working, practice, etc.. This is true in art and in life. Which is why you should just try the thing and learn to love the process of learning.”

Like your first song, or your first photograph, or album cover, or album you produce, or course you offer – the first one will be rough, and that’s okay.

Make cool stuff, and you show it to your friends, like Rick Rubin says. That’s what all of this is about.

Yes, it’s a new thing to learn, but it’ll be worth it, I promise. Starting and running an email list will help you reach a higher percentage of your fans, who will then be more likely to check out your cool things, and support you in your wonderful creative endeavors.