As an Aweber user, there are some limitations I see for them within the music industry and one of them is collecting fans at live shows. Aweber doesn’t like you uploading a bunch of names that were scribbled down on a piece of paper at your merch booth.
FanBridge does this much better. And today I got wind of their new iPhone (iPad, iPod Touch) application that is pretty kick ass.
With the app you can:
Easily collect fans on the go. Ideal for live events, street teams, super fans.
Info collected auto-syncs with your FanBridge account
Collect fans’ email, first name, mobile phone, Twitter name and custom notes
This is a pretty sweet upgrade and one reason that FanBridge is doing a good job of being a major player in the fan data/email market for bands. The thing that gets me about them is how they charge, the lack of a solid autoresponder and being able to segment your lists on the fly between buyers, nonbuyers and other parts of the spectrum that we discuss in the New Music Economy.
If you are using FanBridge, I recommend that you shell out the $5 and grab the app. Throw is on your iPad and have someone collecting emails at your shows.
Yea, you know email is important. I’ve been a pain in the ass in telling you how important that it is for your career.
I know that my email list is the single biggest thing I have in my own business. I also know that it is the number one asset for nearly every musician that I represent. The same is true for Label 2.0 members. On a recent call we dug into list building and at the end of the call we started talking with some of our members.
Below is a quick audio from member Andrew Hand on his metrics, the importance of his list and how he is using it to position him in his market. (if you are reading in RSS, you may need to click through to play the audio)
There are a few things that I want you to think about from this audio and from the recent posts that I have thrown up:
Size isn’t everything. The value you give to your list is.
You need to be list building with every marketing tactic you do.
You can’t be scared to talk to your fans, open up and be yourself.
You also can’t be scared of unsubscribes. People that don’t open, don’t read or unsubscribe weren’t going to come to your show, buy your albums or help progress your career anyway.
So your goal for the weekend is to collect some emails. Make a goal to get 10 new subscribers. Maybe 20, or 50 or 100 – depends on what you are up to. But make a goal. If you want to be held accountable, leave a comment with your goal and I’ll follow up with you to see how you are doing.
Earlier this week, I received an email from Label 2.0 member Andrew Hand. I joined Andrew’s list for a few reasons. One, I wanted to see if he was implementing some of the course material on email marketing and two, I am genuinely interested in his career. I was really amazed at the email he sent out that I asked him if I could share it with the readers here at Gen-Y Rock Stars. He said yes, so here is the email below:
Subject: A Brand New Song Is Here
Hey Greg,
I hope that you had a very enjoyable V-Day yesterday. Hopefully there were some yummy chocolates involved! I do love chocolate.
Anyhow, I wanted to share my new song with you…it’s called “All I Want’s To Be With You” and I’m trying to get a pulse on it. You can take a listen Here and then just fill out the brief 4 question survey.
As I get ready for my big music conference in LA, I need to find the best tunes to present to the industry folks I’ll be meeting and I trust in your input more than anything, so please don’t hold back!
I am wishing you my very best and would love to hear what you’re up to.
Cheers,
Andrew
P.S. Thanks so much for taking the time to give me your feedback on my new song
Thoughts on Andrew’s Email Marketing
This is a great email. It’s short, personal and directs the reader to do something with assertive and friendly calls to action.
Andrew is doing a great job engaging his fans and getting them involved in the progression of his music career. When you are writing your emails to your fans, are they delivering a clear message? Do you have a purpose and a call to action? Do your fans feel like they are a part of your culture?
In trying to hype fan email marketing for our upcoming product launch, some of the major players are really helping us out. Earlier today we told you about Reverb Nation’s new Fan Reach Pro and only a few minutes later, Brianna from FanBridge comes out with the new analytics software for their email platform.
The FanBridge Analytics is a premium feature for artists on their paid plans, BUT, they have a cool way to get a month free.From Brianna:
You want analytics, and we want help spreading the word about FanBridge, so maybe we can work out a deal?
If you help us get the word out about our services by doing any one (or more) of the following, we’ll give you a free month of analytics:
- Follow us on Twitter (@FanBridge) and post a tweet to us about why you love FanBridge
- Write a comment about us on a musician forum/blog
- Write about us on your own site/forum/blog
- Anything else that helps us spread the word about FanBridge to other musicians (ie. YouTube videos, Flickr/Photobucket pics making sure to tag with ‘FanBridge’ and ‘Analytics’ if possible, etc.)
*Bonus messages/extra months of free analytics will be given for showing your creativity, and we will tweet links to some of our favorites.
With the FanBridge Analytics you can see basic stats like:
Total Messages Sent
Open Rates
Unopened
Bounces
Forwards
Unsubscribes
SPAM abuse
Timeline of opens
and Links that were clicked on
They have also just launched a new Subject Optimizer to split test subject lines. Great value there indeed.
This is a great improvement for FanBridge and during our Product Launch we hope to have an exclusive chat with their team on improvements to their software along with tips and ideas to make your email campaigns stronger and create a bond with your fans that improves your overall music business.
My only reservation is that this should be a part of every plan, not just to paid artists. The money is in the stats for the artists as we will start to break down shortly.
The great thing about the Internet is its ability to pinpoint things. Things like
Traffic or visitors to a website
Location that the visitors came from
What keywords drove someone to your site
What links and pages drove people to ytour site
How long they hung out at your site
How many pages they visited
And so on
E-mail marketing is another medium that has similar implications. You can have numbers for:
Total number of people on your list
Number of people relative to a certain zip code (if you require that they enter zip code)
How many people open your emails
How many people click or take action from your emails
And so on
Why is this so important?
It is important because when you are selling products, whether they are your own, a sponsor’s or an affiliate product, you need to produce trackable results.
Reverb Nation, recently launched Fan Reach Pro, a paid upgrade to their widely successful Fan Reach E-mail program and has an amazing case study that shows if you count it, track it and promote it – they will come. Check it out:
Building the email was easy. Our touring is strictly in Montana. This repetitive cycling of six Montana markets makes ZIP code targeting invaluable. As a side note, Jim Beam approached us to discuss an endorsement deal. I put together a full report with demographics, fan numbers, and show attendance numbers all from the Reverbnation’s stats system. In the end, the corporates at Jim Beam were very impressed and we’ve landed the deal. — The Clintons
Fan Mail Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools in your music marketing arsenal. From seeing the number of clicks to the number of people who buy your CD’s, digital downloads, live tickets and other goods, your email list is essentially your bands ATM machine. Building this list of opt-ed in (meaning they asked to be put on the list) fans is crucial to the Gen-Y Rock Stars principles and creating a financial system to support your career.
There are a few highly effective ways that bands and artists can take advantage of email marketing to increase exposure online, boost your plays and streams and increase your income and build your music business. Check back tomorrow for a new video highlighting the importance and value of building a strong fan email list.
As an Aweber user, there are some limitations I see for them within the music industry and one of them is collecting fans at live shows. Aweber doesn’t like you uploading a bunch of names that were scribbled down on a piece of paper at your merch booth.
