While Sunny Day Real Estate may not be heavy metal, I saw them post recently and felt their announcement process could serve as a good lesson.
First, a cryptic post on Instagram. The red letters spell out ‘We owe you nothing. You have no control,” which is a line from the song ‘Merchandise’ from Fugazi.
The post wraps up nicely with the usual “link in bio” song and dance, of course, which leads to the band’s website.
Now, this next part is important. You got people to click - which is a miracle in today’s internet world!
So for the people who absolutely MUST know about your new song, new merch, or new video - ask for their email address:
It might be hard to read above, but the website asks “Want exclusive updates?” There’s an email sign-up form which we’ve all seen a million times before, and I’m sure a few people signed up (I did).
Your results may vary (you’re probably not Sunny Day Real Estate), but getting emails from five fans a few times a month adds when you do it for a year.
START YOUR NEXT NEWSLETTER
You know you want to start a newsletter for your band, label, photography, studio, etc., but ahhhhh, what will you even write about?
Repurpose your social media posts. Probably over 70% of your followers don’t see your posts anyways (because of algorithms), and not all your fans are even on social media (more examples here).
Share stories like the music sites post. We all see the nice press pieces (track by track, inspiration behind the album, behind the scenes photos in the studio) - try doing your own from time to time. Show off your guitar pedals, your camera set up, your new studio, etc.
Anniversaries. Don’t just post about your music video or EP release a few times and forget about it - post about it six months later, a year later. Most likely you’re brand new subscribers don’t even know about your older material.
Those should get your started.
Remember, you’re an artist, a photographer, a producer; sell your damn journey.
There are syndicated TV shows that revolve around people baking cakes, and cleaning out storage lockers, sponsored by major brands that sell sugar water.
Mundane shows, sponsored by commodity items, and they’re all doing a better job at marketing themselves than 95% of the music world.
Do the dance on socials, drive people to your email list, then regularly connect with your fans with stories, photos, exclusive looks, and the occasional link to a record or photo print.
People tune into reality TV shows for the story. Heck look at all the stories that Tegan & Sara share with their newsletter.
Don’t just link to your new video - tell me why it took 19 hours to make. Tell me how you got chased out of an abandoned building. Tell me where you found some of the props, how you hired the director, and then tell me about why making music videos in 2022 is still important.
ANOTHER REASON WHY YOU NEED A NEWSLETTER
If your live-stream shits the bed, it’s easy to send a message to your fans and let them know you’re working on the issue, or maybe send a new link when it’s all back up and running.
QUICK HITS
📺 Seth Godin on ‘How To Reach Your Audience?’ (as a good friend says, “write a good song.” Yeah, I know, pretty simplistic, but if there was a map, anyone could do it.) Via Marketing 411
⚫️ ‘Ask Me About Abortion Anger’ from Eugene S. Robinson
⚫️ How To Add A GIF To An Email Newsletter
⚫️ ‘U.S. FCC commissioner wants Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores’ - ooops, can’t export your TikTok followers!
Remember - your email campaigns don’t have to be clones of every email campaign you’ve already seen. Just as your music, your art, your vision is unique, you’re allowed to color outside the lines and craft emails that your fans will want to open.
If you’ve got any questions about starting an email list, or dusting off an old one, hit reply to this email or reach me at seth@heavymetal.email.
/SETH