I answered this question on Substack Notes, but putting it here too because someday Substack as a Platform won’t exist.
Q. Honest question — how do you treat building an audience without a social presence? I mean you could be active here on Substack (which is also an evolving social network). Still, I’m curious about your view on distribution channels, specifically for relevant people who might be interested in your content. From Itay Dreyfus.
A. The people who’ve already signed up deserve my best writing, my best “output.” And if almost 900 subscribers of Social Media Escape Club (woah) aren’t sharing my work on their networks, then I need to get better.
Growing up in music, we learned about bands because friends saw those bands and told everyone. Those bands were THAT good.
So I started making videos JUST for my subscribers (free + paid). I started doing Zoom hangouts with subscribers. Getting to know my readers more and more has helped me write better posts and continue to grow just from people sharing my work.
And I spent a lot of time trying to network on social media channels – I had over 2500 followers on Twitter, 600-ish on Instagram. I made videos, designed cool things, all that… but that was time spent seeking MORE eyeballs, time I coulda have been spending on the people who’ve already subscribed and said, “Yes, I want more of this.”
I deleted my Twitter account last summer, Instagram on January 1 of this year, and LinkedIn will be next.
Because today? This newsletter is where I’m at. This is where I’m showing up. If you don’t wanna click over here, that’s okay.
There’s a Taco Bell commercial featuring Portugal. The Man – not for their actual music, but as a “feature” to highlight how broke the band was, but at least they could eat at Taco Bell.
It’s almost as if Seth Godin knew what I was going to write about today:
“When things don’t go the way we hope, one alternative is to look hard at the system that caused the problem. And another productive strategy is to figure out what to do with what we get, instead of seeking to find the villain that’s causing our problem.”
Right now, phones can shoot music videos, laptops can become studios, taking pictures with a disposable camera is chic, and we can post everything to the internet in seconds.
But the days of posting something on social media and getting 10,000 people to see it are over. That ain’t coming back.
If you’ve been a subscriber, you know I always say this – it will never get easier to reach your fans on social media.
Don’t blame Spotify, or Apple, or Meta – these are all companies that were built to make money for shareholders. They’re doing their job; are we doing ours?
Are we making the best art that we can?
Are we writing 1000 words a day?
Am I practicing my bass for 15 minutes a day? (No, I’m not)
If you were the lone creative weirdo in high school back in the day, well…, you’d better read some books and find some magazines because you’re on your own.
Now we have websites, Zoom, internet radio, email, and a thousand messaging apps – there’s no reason to do any of this alone.
We know the villains in the current landscape. We know what we’re up against.
Time to stop playing games we don’t want to play (and can’t win), and figure out what’s next.
My three quick ideas on that:
Write a good newsletter to your fans that they’ll want to read
Set up a website and fill it up with all the cool stuff you do
Delete the social media apps from your phone this week
Will that raise streaming rates and bring back organic reach on Facebook? NOPE. But it’s action, something we can do right now, and it’s a step toward new possibilities.
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.
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!
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.”
No one signs up for a social media account and says, “don’t worry, I’ll only post once a month, I don’t wanna be too spammy!”
So why do we act like that with email newsletters?
Maybe because when you donate to a political campaign they start emailing you twice a day?
Or when you buy from an online retailer they bombard you with emails a few times a week?
Well, you’re not them.
The stuff you post on socials – the photos from shows, the work-in-progress videos, the rants, the albums that you love – could all go into an email.
Remember these two facts:
Not everyone follows you on social media.
Even if they do, algorithms will prevent them from seeing your posts.
So your live-action shots and clips from the studio go unseen – mostly (probably) by your biggest fans.
The ones who buy your albums, your prints, you shirts, your art.
Yes, if you email once a week with just PURCHASE NOW or BUY TICKETS messages, people are going to unsubscribe.
So don’t do that.
Your fans subscribed because they love you, and want more of you. Give them more of you.
You can literally scroll back through your socials from each week, see what resonated, and copy and paste that into your email.
Write more about some of your thoughts from the week.
Post some photos from your art opening on your site, then mention them in your newsletter. “Hey, click here to see more.”
That’s not a hard sell. That’s not trying to get anyone to pull out their wallet when they’re in line at Dunkin Donuts.
It’s a passive ask, friend to friend: Here’s the lyrics to our next single. Sneak peek at our next shirt design. This is the inspiration for our next album.
Yes, include your album art and a pre-order link. Below the fold. Think of it like an ad in a magazine. You read the interview, then notice the full page ad on the next page.
Your fans aren’t ATMs, they’re your friends, followers, people who gave you their email address and said, “yes, I want more from you.”
