10 Ways To Grow One Gigantic Mailing List

Hi! We're back from our Summer Holidays, Ian spent a lovely 2 weeks down in Devon dodging the rain, whilst I avoided the Olympic madness in London and spent the time in Berlin. So we are back now bringing you more tips and suggestions we have scoured from the web, and as we were away there's a lot to catch up on.

The first thing to catch my eye is an article on how to grow your mailing list. This in my mind is the single most important thing a band should be doing, after writing some amazing music!

Musicians have to get over the fact that their music won't be magically discovered as it was before the internet, and staying connected to your fanbase is imperative, and the best connection you can have (after their telephone number which is highly unlikely) is their personal email address.

Jon Ostrow, Cyber PR’s publicity director has written an article that hits the nail on the head and lists 10 Ways To Grow One Gigantic Mailing List.

Continual and correct engagement with your fanbase is crucial to keep them loyal, and with sense of exclusivity you will continue to keep them that way.

He mentions in his article...

When building and nurturing a fan base, your objective is always to strengthen loyalty, then size. Going way back to the ‘1000 true fans‘ theory, having 1000 super fans who buy everything from you and are in constant support of you is far more beneficial (and lucrative) than 10,000 casual fans. So, creating a strong sense of exclusivity is very important when offering something in exchange for an email address. You want your fans to feel as though giving their email address to you is meaningful, as if they were joining a club or community, ultimately strengthening their loyalty to you.

Check out his 10 winning ways to grow your mailing list here

 

Link

http://arielpublicity.com/2012/08/02/call-to-action-10-ways-to-grow-one-gigantic-mailing-list/

 

by Steve

 

 

 

Build A Loyal Fanbase - 13 Tips On How To Turn Fans Into Superfans

 

I've just read an interesting article on Hypebot, all about what's needed to build up a loyal fanbase. The interesting thing about it is how they have noticed it is quite similar in a way to building a cult! And as artists i guess you all want a little praise every now and then, so it is boiled down here into 13 tips on how to turn your fans into superfans! ( err and not the darkside!).

 

Building A Loyal Fanbase:

1. Give Your Fans a Name

2. Tag Fans in Your Panoramic Concert Photos

3. Give Approaching Fans Your Undivided Attention

4. Always Have [Cheap] Merch Handy [For Free Giveaway]

5. Share Dark Secrets on Your Blog

6. Send Special E-mails

7. Develop Shared Symbols

8. Use Loyalty-based Apps to Connect to Your Fans

9. Play in Smaller Venues

10. Stay on Your Merch Table

11. Conduct Live Webcast

12. Showcase Them In Your Music Video

13. Post [Photos of] Their Gifts on Your Website and Social Networks

 

You can read each part of these 13 tips here on the oiriginal post by Unified Manufacturings blog site.

They manufacture merch both sides of the atlantic for majors acts, hence the emphasis on merch, but hey in this DIY approach we push here at Make It In Music, merch is a really good thing. It can really strenghten the relationship between you and your fans, as well as being packaged in a deal in your online store.  Topspins figures prove that music and merch packages sell far better than just music, cds or downloads.

 

Check out Hypebots Cult analogy here.

 

Links 

http://www.unifiedmanufacturing.com/blog/transform-fans-super-fans-build-loyal-fanbase/

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/05/13-steps-to-turn-your-fans-into-a-cult-of-superfans.html

http://www.topspinmedia.com/

Where Do You Start Marketing Your Act and Your Music?

 Throughout the years I have known many many bands that seem to think that their music will do all the talking. That somehow their fantastic songs are all they need to win the hearts of the listener and convert that person into a lifelong fan. 

This in a sense is true conviction that any artist should have about their music, and that's no bad thing because inside that is also how we all feel we discover music, on a personal level, but the reality is we wouldn't hear anything if it wasn't for marketing, which is the first basic concept to understand in developing any career these days in the music industry 2.0.

The independent DIY artists really needs to embrace marketing, and Cyber Pr head honcho Ariel Hyatt has put together a cool set of posts explaining in 3 stages how to increase your fanbase and income. 

Ariel starts off saying that bands and artists seem to be more concerned with increasing the numbers and getting new fans, which is no bad thing thing, but also puts the emphasis on focusing on the fans that they already have.

  These fans don’t need to be found, because they are already your fans. Studies have proven that it is much harder to make a new client and get them to purchase something than it is to get a client that already knows you and trusts you to purchase from you over and over. 

It's all very well building numbers, but engagement is the key, and keeping your act in your fans mind. Building a solid marketing strategy is key to getting new fans and keeping old fans interested. 

You can read her full post here

Links

http://arielpublicity.com/2012/04/16/basic-marketing-principles-for-artists-part-1-3/

http://arielpublicity.com/2012/04/23/basic-marketing-principles-artists-part-2-increasing-frequency-purchases/

http://arielpublicity.com/2012/04/30/basic-marketing-principles-artists-part-3-increase-amount-money-charge/

 

Album release checklist for the DIY musician - success plan!

This kind of post comes up all the time and this latest one from CD Baby listing what you need to do when that huge box of CD's has just been delivered is a good checklist to have to hand.

When your album is finished, your work is only half done; and oftentimes, that first half is the easy part.

Radio promotion, PR, booking, web maintenance, and all the other “business” elements of a music career generally don’t come naturally to artists. But if you can learn to embrace the fact that these tasks NEED to get done in order for anyone to hear your music (and chances are that no one else is going to handle all those things FOR you), then you’ll eventually find a sense of fun and accomplishment in the non-musical chores too!

Not only does it then list 12 steps that you need to go through but it also links to loads of further articles that expand on those steps. This is one worth bookmarking!

Whilst we're on the subject, there's a great pre-release checklist on MusicianWages here and you'll then need to check out Cameron's mind bogglingly good series of posts on everything you need to know about self-releasing an album here. It's awesome!

BUT, and this is CRUCIAL, this is all bollocks unless your album is worth releasing in the first place (read our post here) and you MUST have built a fanbase first - READ this post from Topspin dude Ian Rogers (he really is actually a dude) which is the best one post description of how to build that fanbase that I have ever seen.

I'll be sending endless people who contact me and ask about how they should release their album to read this post - I'd hope you'd bookmark it and refer to it as this is pretty much the plan on how you acheive DIY success!

Get more fans to your show!

I love learning from people who have tried an approach and then taken the time to write down what they've learned from that real experience.

That's exactly what Seth Jackson does here in his free eBook, 'Get more fans to your shows'.

And it's great.

Seth says:

In the book, I discuss how to get your shows listed everywhere, how to use social media to really engage your fans, and how to attract the media’s attention.

Also included:

• Managing your time to handle social media
• How to use Twitter and blogs to get more attention from the tastemakers
• How to squeeze every opportunity from your current shows
• Simple strategies to engage with your current fans and gain more.
• How to know what will make a show successful for both yourself and the club.

It's a no-brainer - go and get it. Every artist will learn something.

Motivate and reward your fans for spreading the word

There is an awesome idea at the bottom of this post that I haven't seen used in quite this way by a musician.

The post is a very thorough explanation of how to build an iFrame page on Facebook. Of itself that is a great post and worth learning how to do - although I use the 'Static HTML for iFrame' app on Facebook rather than going through the app developer route - you might if you're geeky!

But that's not the point here.

The point is to look at the bit of the post right at the bottom just above the comments where the author offers a reward/prize for people who pass on his post on Facebook or Twitter:

To make this a little bit more exciting, I’m gonna give away one copy of Guy Kawasaki‘s new book “Enchantment“, which I have been reading for a couple of days and can guarantee you it is off-the-heezy. To be fair and give everybody the opportunity, you’ll be able to participate on Facebook or on Twitter.

On Facebook

• Go to the SocialMouths Facebook Page and “Like It” (molto importante)
• Share this post on your wall by using the link: http://bit.ly/iFrameTabs
• When you share the link add this comment How to Build a Facebook Landing Page with Frames | @SocialMouths – If you “liked” me first, that “@” in front of “SocialMouths” will automatically tag me and make your post show up on my wall too, that’s how I’ll see you. If you don’t use the “@socialmouths” in your share you will be invisible to me ; )

He then goes on to explain exactly how he'd like you to share the post on Twitter as well using hashtags so that he will see the tweets.

He then picks a winner at random after a couple of weeks by watching the Facebook shares and the tweets.

At the time of me writing this, the post has been tweeted 1036 times and shared on Facebook 1463 times.

That is a HUGE amount of traffic.

Some of these will have been natural from the post's readers but there's no doubt that the contest and specific instructions will have kickstarted the sharing. This has snowballed further as it got shared wider picking up lots of Google +1's and clearly getting the love on StumbleUpon.

OK, this is a great post that is very useful to people as a tutorial and so very shareable.

But you can apply this principal to your own site and use it to get your fans and readers to promote your music.

Simply offer a copy of your album if they tweet your post about it using the same promotional techniques.

Or, perhaps you think you don't have enough clout to get the momentum started?

How about you make a list (or an album even) of bands in your genre or locality and pick one track from each and everyone runs the contest.

If I was in a folk band I might write a post about the ten best up and coming folk acts and add my own band in there as a cheeky final suggestion. I'd then perhaps offer the albums of the top three bands in the post as a prize to a tweeter or sharer. Get the ball rolling by telling the other 9 acts that they are in the post by contacting them on Facebook, Twitter and via their sites. Spread the word to blogs that cover the genre and you ought to see a massive spike in traffic and interest in all ten bands on the list, including yours!

It's also worth noting that all the sharing and tweeting will give your site a very signifcant SEO (search engine optimisation) boost as well that will have a lasting effect on your site traffic.

Use this as inspiration to try it and see what you can do to entice fans to share a post.

We will DEFEINITELY be using this technique ourselves.

 

10 steps to music success

This is a brilliant 'must-read' post from Emmanuel LeGrand in which he sums up the thoughts of many very successful web 2.0 savvy music indsutry people on how to make yourself a success in the modern music world.

It ends up being a 10 step method which talks about creating great music, connecting with fans, collecting email addresses and so on.

At it's core it has this message which applies today as much as it did 30 years ago:

In the mid-80s, Island Records – then still independent and owned by Chris Blackwell – sent to all its affiliates around the world a poster which showed a colourful drawing of an island with a coconut tree surrounded by the sea. The tag line was: “A terrible thing happens when you don't promote...” The answer came in the form of one word in very small font size: “…nothing!”

Read the whole post here.

How to make your digital album more like a physical one!

I didn't know about half the things that Chris Bracco has put into this post!

The post talks about 7 ways to make the digital music experience more tactile and involved - like when you had a CD or that lovely bit of black plastic that so many now fondly remember!

An example is the interactive tags in the metadata used by Arcade Fire on their last album that makes the images in iTunes interactive. This is one of the things that I didn't know you could do!

 

But the piece has 6 more cracking ideas - check them all out here.

How to blog as a musician

We've talked about the need to blog as a musician in several posts lately.

Now, Jon Ostrow at Mic Control has written a free eBook that sets out exactly HOW to blog effectively.

It's full of great information and I recommend that every musician gets it and implements his teaching.

Get it here.

Just click the big orange button on the right of the screen!

 

MicControl Consulting from MicControl on Vimeo.

Likes direct from Mobile

I'm in a rush!

Catching up from 2 days off and rushing to a seminar tonight.

But I wanted to try this out - I'm not sure if I've set it up right, but please give it a go for me, and try it for yourself.

This is a QR code from Likify.

The idea is that you can link the QR code direct to a 'Like' button. I've tried to link that to our Facebook Page - I think I have but as I'm rushing out of the door, I haven't had time to test it!

People scan the QR code and the 'Like' button comes up right on their phone. Brilliant.

Give it a go. Try Likify here.

 

Don't do any self-promotion - at all

Another post that challenges the preconceived ideas that 'music success' bloggers like me peddle.

We tell you to build an email list, social media yourself to death and spread the word - but there is another way.

Refuse to play the game and don't do any of those things!

Manchester band Wu Lyf are one example of how doing this and creating an air of mystery can work wonders. Read this and then this to see how their reverse publicity worked wonders.

It's worth noting that they did engage the world through a website - of course, it didn't follow any of the 'best practice' methods that I and my ilk advise, but it did give them a focal point for the mystery to unfold.

And then there's the Weeknd - read our piece on them here - who did create all the social media profiles but their twist was to hit it all in one go with some stand out material and moody photos!

But is this 'no publicity' hype anything new?

It usually starts the same way. Some band posts a song to a music sharing site like Bandcamp or SoundClick. One person sends it to two people, who each send it to four, and so on, until it gets picked up by a music blog like Gorilla vs. Bear or Brooklyn Vegan and then aggregated on the Hype Machine. A week later, the band has caught the attention of record labels, tastemakers, and promoters.

But everyone wants to know, who is this act? They won't do interviews, so all anyone has to go on is two MP3s and a low-resolution profile picture where they're too far away from the camera to make out anyone's face. And still, Pitchfork just gave their song the Best New Music designation. They're booked for a South by Southwest showcase. Fifteen days have passed, and the band is now the blogosphere's next big thing—even though the blogosphere couldn't recognize the band on the street.

This is how underground bands come of age in 2011.

Read the piece here.

 

 

Is this the first DIY Musician star?

OK, so Lil B is now signed to a label - well, a very modern take on a label - Amalgam Digital.

But, his rise to success is almost entirely down to an understanding of the online marketing and promotion of his music. He embraced social media and demonstrates an ongoing willingness to give music away for free - his new album has a free download link as well as being for sale on iTunes.

And, that album was released with no fanfare and no obvious campaign from Amalgam, but it caused a stir in all the right places because of the work that Lil B has been doing for the last 4 years.

Of course, his talent for getting a story covered in traditional media has added to his level of awareness, but it's his hard work and DIY ethic that make him a DIY musician to model.

1400 tracks posted on MySpace over the last 4 years - constant improvement and evolution of his music whilst in direct engagement with his fans. Oh, and note, that's MySpace - dead for 'cutting edge' rock acts for a year or more, but still a very important musical hub for Hip Hop. A large part of the Hip Hop fan demographic is still looking for music there. Don't ignore it yet if that applies to you and your music.

He's got Facebook ,Twitter and YouTube licked too though!

For a far better appraisal of what this means for DIY musicians, read this article on The Arts Desk.

 

Making friends with fans

This is intelligent and precise thinking on what the growth of social media has done to the relationship betwen artists and their fans. The positive and the negative.

It's from Nancy Baym, an online fandom expert, and is full of insights that every artist ought to be attuned to.

There's a two part interview from the Bandzoogle blog and a follow up video from NMS.

Here's a snippet:

Fans and friends are not the same thing. Individual fans may become friends (as they always have), but real friendships are mutual – friends choose to be connected to each other, they do things for each other, their relationships are based on equality, they spend time together. It’s not a kind of relationship that scales to a large fan base. Artists can’t be expected to take the kind of interest in each individual fan that the fans take in them. That said, the boundary is often not clear (if it ever was), and each artist has to figure out the boundaries that work for her or him, because it’s not the same for everyone and there’s no right or wrong way to draw those lines. Some people feel fiercely private and want a strong difference between friends and fans, others are totally happy to treat fans as friends and to meet them and see where it goes. Just like some of us are gregarious socializers and love to go out and meet new people and others of us are homebodies who are happy with the small social circles we’ve got.

For the full text, click the links and watch the video.

Interview - Part 1

Interview - Part 2

Here's the video.

 

Making Friends with Fans from Nancy Baym on Vimeo.

13 steps to music success

Bob Lefsetz again.

This time advising old school artists on what they need to do to build a new fanbase when they have a new release.

BUT, equally applicable to your career whatever stage you're at.

And, Bob has a beautifully simple way of distilling the steps down to the basic truth.

Here's the first key:

1. You’ve got to know who your fans are.

It’s best if you’ve got everybody’s e-mail address.  But you need a presence on Facebook and Twitter too.  If someone decides to check you out on a whim, which is what fans do, we mindlessly surf to the firing of neurons in our brains, you’d better be readily available online, with up to date information.  People will go to Facebook first, but if you’ve got a Web page don’t focus on design but information.  Even if you yourself don’t post, make sure there’s new info EVERY DAY!  That’s what makes people come back.  And if you’re posting on Facebook or Twitter it had better be you, nothing pisses people off more than when an impostor, your lackey, posts for you.  It’s easy to detect, just like boys impersonating girls online and vice versa.  Anybody who says you can’t tell the sex of someone online doesn’t play, it’s OBVIOUS!

Read it all here.

 

The gatekeepers don't know

We often quote Bob Lefstz - sign up on his site if you don't get his mails already.

He rubs some people up the wrong way, but, for me, he just tells it as he sees it, whether he is going to piss you off or not.

This is a great piece where he talks about how a DIY musician will break through to the mainstream.

That’s what great music does.  Inspire you.  Keeps you going when no one else will pay attention, when they’re pissing on your dreams if they’re aware of them at all.  Put on that record and let your freak flag fly.

Well, not exactly.  Amanda Hocking was cold and calculating.  She delivered books she believed would sell.  Which is why when we ask why no outsider has triumphed in the music game we’ve got to point out that they’re all trying to be hip and cool, whereas he who wins without a major label…will be positively mainstream.

The music will be catchy.  With great vocals.  Harmonies.  Not only choruses, but bridges.

The breakthrough will come not from Brooklyn, but somewhere far from hipdom, where a young soul is creating to get out of the hole he’s in, to make it.

The gatekeepers don’t know.

Repeat that to yourself.  You’re as smart as they are, probably smarter.  Because you know the target audience.  What does a fiftysomething male know about what kids desire?  Radio doesn’t know either, otherwise it wouldn’t do research!

You’re the expert.

Read the piece here.

And, do follow his link (this link) and read the story about Hocking in the NY Times. It's inspirational.

I particularly love the part where she says that it was hearing two musicians encourage kids to make their dreams come true that made her keep trying - and then she put in the effort!

How to blog as a musician

It's very rare that we recommend something for our readers and followers to buy.

Although we're always buying training books and courses ourselves - and we believe that it's essential to invest in knowledge that can help you reach your aims - I guess that we'd feel a little uncomfortable if we were doing it all the time!

Plus, when we get the time and develop our own training products, you can bet that we'll be recommending those!

In fact, the last thing we recommended was ProBlogger's 'First week of Blogging' guide. Several people bought it on our recommendation and thanked us!

So, now, ProBlogger have released a new eBook called 'Blogging for your Business' and it is just as applicable to 'Blogging for your Music career'!

We learnt all the basic knowledge about using Wordpress and the ins and outs of blogging from ProBlogger (at the very least, it's worth digging around their blog)

So, this comes well recommended. What we like about it is that it takes the approach of seeing blogging as something that supports your efforts to market your business (or, in your case, your music). Yes, it deals with the technical side very well, which is always welcome, but it will help you understand how writing about things that are not just about your latest release will grow your audience.

Oh, and it comes with a money back guarantee!

So, you can read it, learn everything you need and then ask for a refund!

Expert blogging instruction with a money back guarantee that will help you build a bigger fanbase - we like this.

Have a look at it here.

Don't give away all your music for free

We looked at this issue once before in the context of charging for online shows.

Interestingly, in that particular situation, evidence suggests that charging more increases sales - check it out.

But this post is about the whole idea of the effectiveness of giving away music and whether it is the right course for musicians.

I had a conversation with an artist manager this week who partly believed that giving away music to those who had already become a fan (by being on an email list or 'liking' on Facebook etc) was the best way to use freemium.

I categorically disagree.

I think giving away free music is THE key to building a fanbase in the DIY musician world. By that I mean the exchange of some free music (a selection of tracks - perhaps 6 or so - rather than 1) in return for an email address and the potential fan's time invested in making a judgement on your music. But, I also think that this article makes a great point. Don't just give away the farm on first contact. Give something (preferably from your own site rather than in a Twitter DM) and then entice that listener into a deeper relationship.

Don't bombard them with free material at the get-go! Let the two way relationship build (Funnily enough, using an autoresponder such as Aweber, as we recommend, is the ideal way to do this).

I don't agree with the whole of Dave Cool's article (basically as I know free works for my clients) but the measured approach that he is advocating is very much the way to go!

The argument for giving away your music is that you should simply want to have your music heard, and since people can generally find music online for free, then why bother putting a price tag on it? Live shows, merchandise, licensing, and subscriptions are just some of the ways that bands are encouraged to generate revenue. However, should artists just give up selling their music? Are we to believe that nobody buys music anymore? I’m not so sure that’s the case.

Read the article here.

 

The guide to being in a band!

...from the lovely folks at Wired.

Three part series that is a very good dissection of what you need to do to find success as a musician in the web 2.0 world.

It's viewpoint is pretty much perfectly in line with ours - that you need to focus on having great songs and build an online fanbase that you may then parlay into a record deal or not, depending on your choice.

Read them here :

Part 1 - Getting your music ready.

Part 2 - Getting your music online.

Part 3 - Getting your music heard.

Direct to Fan and email amrketing

Topspin and Nimbit on the same panel at NARM talking about their platforms and giving great data insight and tips on how to maximise the direct to fan model.

All kinds of fascinating stuff - such as the fact that the greatest driver of sales is a Facebook share - still thinking about your Facebook page as an 'extra'? It's an esential!

Well worth watching!

 

And, you can see it here on the Nimbit site.

Know your tribe

That image is from a post on my friends blog - Bloody Loud.

Check it out here.

The post is about a photographer who shoots people attending gigs and is fascinated by how the fans identify themselves with the band.

It's a bit of fun worth checking out, but there's a serious point that you can draw from it. As well as being gobsmacked by some of the shots!

Seth Godin wrote about 'tribes' as groups of people bound together by a common interest and it applies perfectly to music fans. Find posts about it or the book itself with a quick Google.

As an aspiring musician you must get to know how you fit into a scene and create your own tribe. If you don't know what you're about and where you fit in, how can possible fans be expected to do so?

GaGa did this perfectly and created a named tribe of 'Little Monsters'.

As well as suggesting that you check out Godin's book, I came across this article the other day which looks at a similar theme but not from the fashion / demographic point of view.

Your fans are your bread and butter—they are the ones who are literally going to keep you in business.  Most of us musicians don’t have the luxury of having a label or marketing machine behind us, but the good news is, if we’re willing to put in some effort ourselves, we don’t have to wait for that to happen.  If you’re a good musician, or have a good act, there is an audience out there that wants to hear your music.  You just have to identify and connect with that audience—find out who they are, and how to reach them.

Read that here.