It will get harder to reach your fans on social media in 2022.
The best time to start an email list was 10 years or 10 months ago. The second best time is right now. Today.
Buckle up.
In the world of email marketing, there’s something called a “lead magnet.” It’s a freebie, like a digital download (PDF, video, etc) that people use to get people on their email list.
People will say, “sign up and get my free guide on how to gain 1,000 Twitter followers in 10 days.”
Why do this?
EMAILS ARE VALUABLE
There’s a reason why Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, LiveNation, etc. don’t give you the emails of people who support your work; they’re gold.
So how do you get people to sign up for your email list?
Use your own lead magnet; offer something your fans want, and give them a way to get it in exchange for an email address.
For instance, we’ve all seen this sort of post on social media.
Not even 50% of your fans will see a post like that. And when you’re ready to release your hot new song, you have to start the attention-roulette game all over again.
Instead, let people sign up to be reminded when your hot new song is available.
Run those posts for a week or two, in between all your other posts.
Now that you have their email address, when your new song is ready you can email those fans directly, without worrying about social media algorithms.
This isn’t easy, though. It takes some planning. Much more planning than tossing up a social media post on a whim (and then wondering why it didn’t do much).
COLLECT THE EMAILS
In the example above, I used Tally to gather emails (I just used it for my Black Friday give-away, too). For my day job we’ve used TypeForm to collect emails for new project campaigns. You can get fancy with Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Elementor, Carrd, or even Substack, or Revue (which ties in super well with Twitter).
SEND THE EMAILS
Once you’ve collected the emails from your fans, don’t you dare send them to a BCC list in Gmail. Sign up for a Mailchimp account at the very least. You could also use Substack or Revue from above, though, though they offer less design options.
All that to say – when you’re ready to go live with your new song, video, or whatever, you send an email to your email list audience first. These are people who said “hell yes, let me know,” so treat them like the royalty that they are.
Statistically speaking more of your fans will see the email and click it than social media.
Example: 100 email subscribers, 29 people opened it: 29% SAW IT 1000 followers, 125 people saw it: just 12%
Sure, you probably won’t have 100 people on your email list right away, but you’re probably just starting out with email marketing, and you’ve been on social media for HALF A DECADE. Give it a minute.
Use this method multiple times over months and years, and you’ll grow a solid email list.
THIS SEEMS LIKE A LOT
The allure of social media is that most everyone can do it. You see what other people are doing; you just write some text, add a link, and hit publish. Then you’re done!
Unfortunately, most of your posts aren’t even seen, which means you have to keep posting, and staring at your phone, and “engaging,” to get any sort of results. This is hours of time that you could be working on your craft.
Or you could send one email a week and probably get the same results.
So, if you have some questions, reply to this email.
If all of this seems like too much, you could hire me to set it up for you, too (for about the cost of selling 10 CDs, or five vinyl records).
Reply to this email and we’ll make something happen.
I think a lot about nostalgia, especially around the holidays. We grow up, and suddenly everything feels less magical. As adults we know too much, the magic is gone. Black Friday shopping, credit card bills, traffic… good luck fitting in any Christmas magic, I guess.
When we were young the magic happened around us, and we just walked into it. My parents loaded me in the car, and we went and bought a Christmas tree. We went shopping during the holidays. I pointed out the video games I wanted. I still knew my parents bought me these things (SPOILER ALERT), but it was still magical.
Now the only magic is the magic we create. I hung Christmas lights around my two windows, and I have them on all day and night. I love them.
My housemate and I bought some Christmas lights and hung them on our back porch last night. We were outside, with thumbtacks and zip ties, messing up, re-doing it, and finally, boom… we have lights on our porch now.
We’ll buy a tiny tree, and put some ornaments on it.
It’s the October, November, December months that I always look forward to, and they always seem to disappoint, but that’s like looking at the the music that “kids these days” like, and saying everything was better when I was a kid.
Not sure the answer, but I know no one is gonna show up and make it magical again. That’s on all of us.
Q. I was going to start an email newsletter, but someone told me it’ll probably just end up people’s SPAM folders. Is this true?
A. If you’re just sending to a big BCC list using something like Gmail account – probably, yes. Don’t do that.
“There are a lot of spammers using @gmail.com to send out mass emails. So to protect their sender’s reputation, Google has strong anti-spam policies that often block bulk emails, whether it is spam or not,” says Email Octopus.
Use a for-real “Email Service Provider” like MailChimp or Substack. They’re built for sending to lots of people (unlike Gmail), and have better tools to get people to subscribe to your list, too, with landing pages (a fancy term for “a website where people can sign themselves up for your email list).
(I forgot who asked me the above question on Twitter – it was awhile ago!)
Q. I’m thinking of starting an email list to let people know about my upcoming shows. I’m thinking about starting a YouTube account to post video, too. Google says Constant Contact is the best platform for embedded video in email. Do you think this is true? (from SH)
A. The way I’ve been “embedding” videos is screen shots of the YouTube player, and putting that into Mailchimp (or Klaviyo, or Substack), like this:
Adding a button helps, too. People love buttons.
“Using a call-to-action button instead of just a text link got us a 28% increase in click-throughs,” says Campaign Monitor in a test they did.
“Lastly, don’t assume the reader only clicks on the CTA button. Curious people often try to click different elements in the email like the logo, headlines, and images. Consider adding the same link to those elements if you think it will help the reader,” says MailerLite.
This is why I always link video screen shots to the video, too!
You could also use an animated GIF for your video, too. Just be mindful of the file size. “Ensure you GIF is sized at 0.5 MB or 1 MB maximum,” says Send In Blue. Check out ‘A guide to animated GIFs in email’ from Litmus for lots of insight.
Video is tricky in emails, so I’m a big believer in using the most “basic” method, to makes sure it works for everyone.
I hope that helps some of you! Send your questions to seth@heavymetal.email or just reply to this email!
This from of the best newsletters out there, Atomic Habits:
If you go to Tokyo, you’ll see there are all sorts of really, really strange shops. There’ll be a shop that’s only 1970’s vinyl and like, 1980’s whisky or something. And that doesn’t make any sense if it’s a shop in a Des Moines suburb, right? In a Des Moines suburb, to exist, you have to be Subway. You have to hit the mass-market immediately.
But in Tokyo, where there’s 30-40 million people within a train ride of a city, then your market is 40 million. And within that 40 million, sure, there’s a couple thousand people who love 1970’s music and 1980’s whisky. The Internet is Tokyo. The Internet allows you to be niche at scale.
Niche at scale is something that I think young people should aspire to.
This comes from a Bloomburg Podcast, which I still need to listen to, but yeah, this is amazing.
It’s easy to look at the giant podcasts, the cool websites, the people living in vans and some wild, joyful dream life, doing yoga while the sun comes up.
But there’s so much space between doing nothing and being at that level, whatever level that is. And there are so many layers. So much opportunity.
I say I’m not big into the “streaming” thing, but I live Craig Reynolds from The Downbeat podcast and clothing brand and drummer for Stray From The Path.
He’s big into the Twitch thing (here), and I love his podcast. This one he did with Mike Johnston is JAMMED with useful information.
The thing for me is this: he’s not this super high energy, “WHAT’S UP GUYS?!?” sort of character that we see so much of on the internet. I so very much love and appreciate the chill tone, and I think there are so many people out there that are on the same wave-length, and I just want to see more of that in the world.
Q. Best ways to get people to sign up, besides orders?
A. Send a newsletter people want to sign up for!
Figure out why someone should sign up for your email list.
This is your “lead magnet,” which is a horrible term used in the email marketing world, but it works.
Don’t just say, “sign up for tour dates,” say, “sign up to see photos from our last tour,” which then gets people to subscribe. Then you eventually send them your new tour dates.
If you’re a guitar player, and you nerd out with effects pedals, start a newsletter talking about your favorite gear. Your current set up. Talk to other guitarists (from other bands) about their effects pedals.
If you’re an artist, highlight some of your favorite album covers, or show posters. Swap emails with other artists and present them as interviews.
Think about everything surrounding what you do and consider using that as the focus of your newsletter. That’s your lead magnet for your email list.
For years you’ve been providing social media networks with your content for free, willy-nilly. You, and 324328 other bands and labels and distros and brands. All those behind the scenes photos, updates from the road, show reports, new product announcements.
Yeah, that’s the stuff you put into a newsletter. Then you start “sharing” less of that on social media.
What gets you the most engagement on social media? Use that. Keep posting a few of those things, and sneak in something like, “hey, sign up for my newsletter for more.”
Not a personal record, not a fast day, but a day of control. Kept it close to the line of easy and too hard on a 10K run with the Delaware River rumbling in the distance. It peeked through the trees, powerfully ignoring me the whole time.
The beautiful fall foliage, lots of reds and yellows, paid no attention. Creeks babbled and paid me no mind.
Nearly 10 or so minutes off my PR, on my third effort here at the 2021 River Ramble, but it felt fine.
My bib was #80, and I came in 80th place. Perfect day.
Remember, all the “growth marketing” stuff you see on socials about companies who struck gold – they had EMPLOYEES working on that stuff non stop. It’s okay if you’re small biz or project doesn’t compare. You’re doing the best you can.
Also, all the freelance business coaches out there selling programs that promise you, too, can have the same if only you follow their program and hustle hard enough? They have staff, too. They aren't doing that shit themselves. https://t.co/I8rzxOlu8F
There are teams of people, with DEGREES, in marketing and stuff, getting paid six figures. That’s what they’re supposed to do.
You make hand bags, or sell donuts… a few tips and tricks and hacks can’t hurt, but it’s not magic. If everyone could do it (they can’t), they would (they don’t).
Like, think you need to hop on Tik Tok but still can’t manage to email your best customers twice a month? Maybe work on that first. Yes, fancy named digital currency is cool. So are dollars, and CRM tools.
You don’t get to a million without ten. And you don’t get ten without sharing. Maybe not every single day – walk away from the computer and put down your phone – but every now and again.
Remember – online marketing and social media management are actual, full-time jobs. It’s a lot of work. But your real magic is the art you put into the world. You can learn or even hire social media and email marketing help, but you can’t outsource the thing that makes you unique.
