I knew I needed a mailing list for my music promotion. Every music blogger out there will tell you “YOU NEED A MAILING LIST”. Once I found my mailing list solution, I knew it was time to strategize and plan.
While I agreed it was important when I first started, I didn’t know too much about what I could really accomplish with Aweber. It’s not just about collecting an email and shooting out a newsletter.
I read some articles and became convinced that my mailing list promotion needed attention and not treated as just another tool.
Here is a collection of awesome articles to get your mind thinking on different ways to approach your mailing list promotion.
Invest time into your list. Build your list over time and finally market your music to people who are actually interested in what you do. They did sign up, didn’t they?
I recently switched over to Aweber as my solution for my mailing list. When I began blogging, I settled for a simple opt-in Wordpress plugin that would add some value to my subscribers.
The problem for me was the free plugin was limited and sometimes would have problems with random updates. I’ve been researching mailing list solutions and found some reasons why it is very important for your development.
Test For Yourself
I signed up for multiple mailing lists of websites that I enjoyed and found interesting things. I analyzed what I liked and didn’t like about their mailing lists: frequency of updates, or just too damn pushy and salesy.
My music operation is a business. I have made that distinction and its time to treat it as one. Reading some great posts by internet entrepreneur David Risley got me thinking about not just purchasing business tools but applying them.
If you don’t find ways to market your music with business tools then you are hurting yourself.
The view of the mailing list changed for me. I used to work crappy sales jobs and everything was about leads. I don’t want to be “that guy” because I have been on the receiving end of some horrible practices. This form of labeling made me not take my subscribers for granted, but reward them. Build relationships.
Aweber To The Rescue
I signed up for Aweber and was mad I didn’t do it earlier. The main reason early on I didn’t get it was I didn’t want to spend any money. I was just cutting corners and settling for passive email subscription services with limited features, such as Feedburner, just to save a buck.
Some of the features include:
Videos explaining the different ways you can use their multiple features to improve
your business.
Sign Up forms are easy to customize and install on your blog
Email Web Analytics allow you to track if people are actually clicking and reading your
emails or clicking on your products
Email Newsletters are easy to assemble and there are html templates to make your
newsletter shine if you choose
Follow Up Autoresponders are a great way to send a sequence of emails personalized
for your subscribers
Publish your email newsletter to Twitter
The service runs about $19 a month, with some low introductory offers for new subscribers. Paying for a high quality service like this is worth it. It is also the kick in the ass most musicians need. If you are paying for something, you want to get your money’s worth. Get active!
Reasons I See Value For a Musician Blogging:
Welcome Message: Send new subscribers a welcome message with some articles you think they will enjoy. Introduce subscribers to your website, or some aspect of your site you think they may have missed. Cover your ground
Autoresponders to the rescue: sending a sequence of emails that can introduce every
subscriber to your music catalog. Old albums and new albums can receive the same
attention
Newsletters can be sent on whatever timetable you like: daily, monthly, weekly. Test the
right timetable that won’t annoy your subscribers
Split Test Messages: see which subject lines people are clicking more, or which messages
are being opened. Maybe your music is great but your headlines suck.
See Sales Generated By Subscribers
Create Anticipation: while music is being created you can build anticipation for the
future release in hopes of stimulating sales and blog visits.
Everyone has an email account: building your reach and not just relying on passing
social networks
I like to promote services that I actually use and Aweber is one of them. It’s never to late to improve and I learned my lesson. Build your list as your traffic rises and don’t wait. Your mailing list is your asset that needs to be developed.
On that note, (shameless plug) feel free to sign up for Hip Hop Distribution’s monthly newsletter. The Sign up is located on the top right sidebar.
As 2009 wrapped up, I wanted to take some positive momentum into the next year. Evaluating what worked and what didn’t work in my music marketing campaign was easy. The hard part is acknowledging it and fixing it.
We are all human, and I fell victim to some bad habits. Stop waiting for the music lottery!
Musicians sometimes are happy with just having all the pieces a band needs. I have a website, Facebook page, Twitter account, and mailing list. I bought my lottery ticket, now its time for me to win. Without any consistent activity, those aspects to your promotion are useless.
There has to be a way to learn from mistakes and build upon what you were good at.
Organization/Time Management
I’ve gotten lost amongst music projects and blogging tasks that at times is overwhelming. The reason it got to this point is because I didn’t have a plan laid out. I was writing whenever I felt like it and lost track of what I really wanted to accomplish.
Create a content calendar and think of specific topics you want to write about for the month. Whether you are writing 1 article a week or 5 a week. This will eliminate time spent on thinking “I don’t know what to write about”. If you get the ball rolling, your tasks get easier later.
This is a must for 2010. I’ve been able to plan out future articles and get more time for myself. The calendar led to projects being completed and kept me motivated to write.
Blog Promotion
Two factors showed positive effects towards my blogging promotion: social networking and getting to know other bloggers.
Social Networking Initiative
Social networking is great. The key was using what worked. Twitter is awesome, at least for me. Use what you enjoy and if you see it has a positive impact on your blog visits, then improve it.
For instance, with Twitter, I could try speaking with 5 new people and introduce them to the blog. I could also hold a Twitter contest to get more mailing list subscribers. Use it with a purpose and learn from your peers.
The emcee in me always comes out: “I wasted time in 2009, that all ends in 2010″
Getting To Know Other Bloggers
Focusing on your website content is key. As your site visitors grow, opportunities will arise. Taking time to get to know other bloggers has helped expand my reach in 2009.
Create a list of music blogs you are interested in and get to know the writers.
Build your promotion from the ground up. Other bloggers can relate to the trials and tribulations of marketing their site. Joining together on random efforts can reap huge returns in visitors later. Be honest and brainstorm as well. You pick up great tips and free promotion.
Helping others goes a long way. Thanks to all the bloggers out there spreading the word about Hip Hop Distribution.
Blog Maintenance
Keyword research has proven positive in my experience. Take time to tag your article correctly, and study the trends from your web stats. Understand your audience and give them more of what they want.
Better linking is very important. Take some old articles and find a way to link it to some newer content or vice versa. Increase reader and search engine relevance. Doing this raised my Page Rank, higher traffic and increased page views. I will build upon this.
Homework
Create a list of 3 things that improved your website stats and revenue.
Answer why it worked
Create tasks to apply this month
The simplicity in this small assignment is to start thinking of building on successful campaigns that worked for YOU. Listing specific accomplishments can be hard, but you have to know if its a winning or losing effort.
I will expand more on specific tasks in later posts. Please share any things that have worked for you below and what you have learned from your blogging in 2009.
If you are just beginning your band blogging mission, this list will help give you an idea of things to monitor and improve your marketing attack.
If you have been blogging for a while, this list is great to make sure your focus is on point. I have been doing recent band consultations and found it necessary to create this PDF. Blogging is one aspect of a music operation but can open up endless networking and promotion opportunities.
This list has made it possible for me to reach a wider audience with my band blog and with Hip Hop Distribution. These 5 factors made my monthly visits increase.
Benchmark your Progress
When I first began it was hard for me to get a steady stream of traffic to my music. I started with getting a couple hundred visitors for the month, wondering what the hell I needed to do to.
When I would check out my stats all I would see is this “roller coaster” graph, watching monthly visits go up and down. I have been a big Search Engine Marketing nut, to say the least, and had been trying different techniques to implement into my operation.
The hard part was finding information that was relevant to music marketing. My initial concerns were how to keep traffic improving, without paying for advertisements, mainly focusing on search engine traffic, organically.
The website’s purpose doesn’t change whether you are a full time artist or a nighttime musician, creating tunes from your home. The website is your mouthpiece, your business card, your storefront, and your forum to connect with people.
The amount of money you want to make is really dependent on your effort and consistency. It’s really easy to create a revenue stream for your music, and offset costs of domain purchases, and web hosting. I did it and all it took was understanding your goals, setting a plan and executing.
The big thing to avoid initially is getting overwhelmed with too much promotion. This led to burnout and at the time I wasn’t grading how good my promotion was and what was working. This was an important step.
Don’t waste time; it will catch up with you in the long run. I created this sheet to evaluate what was working and what showed potential. From here I could create a solid foundation and add to the list different solutions to positive promotion.
These five factors were huge for my increasing visitors and counting.
Blogging
Social Bookmarking
Commenting Around the Web Keyword Research
Free Music Strategy
The crazy thing I realized is these 5 factors are dependent on one another. For example, Keyword research will improve your search engine rankings for your articles. Writing an article needs social bookmarking and commenting around social networks for best reach, they don’t market themselves. A free music strategy creates incentive for fans to interact with your website or mailing list.
When these clicked on all cylinders, my visitors and comments started increasing. I was getting help from people on social networks, because I interacted with them. My keyword searches started increasing and I had data to evaluate how people could find me better.
This is just one checklist I created for my Internet marketing campaign and have stuck by it with nice results. Do it yourself doesn’t mean you cant make a huge impact. Feel free to download here. Evaluate Your Band Blog (7)
Hindsight
It Works, Just Do It
“Do It Yourself” is not to be taken literally. For success to be achieved you have to be able to delegate responsibility to your strong points. Some band members may enjoy writing more, while others enjoy social networking on Twitter and Facebook. Once you have a list of areas you feel need to be built on, fill in the blanks with team members that can execute.
Simplicity dominated this project. After years worth of work, fading trends and social networks, this PDF is a constant for my websites. Create your own list, and evaluate your effort, and strategy. DIY operations can survive, but the importance of team work and active promotion can never be underestimated.
Keep working at your goals, but you have to set them to achieve them. Let me know what kind of things you as a musician use to benchmark your progress and failures.
The ultimate goal is creating a music marketing plan that works. Music 2.0 has offered an amazing amount of options and tools for independent musicians. The one thing I have realized is that every music operation is unique in its own sense.
Finding the right mixture is dependent now on the expectations of the artist. I’ve put a big emphasis on blogging for my Label in hopes of reaching value in time to come. Maybe its my Finance degree yelling at me to keep investing in this stock that is bound to take off.
The reason I find value is monthly visitors keep increasing and digital sales are coming in slowly but surely. The key component is converting sales. It’s a common problem many internet marketers face with monetizing their blogs and its a big issue for musicians. How can we become creative and use successful principles in relation to our music?
I want to take a pro active approach and test out different ideas that will take time but will be worth the effort. The first experiments will involve building Mailing list exchanges and affiliate marketing opportunities.
Mailing List Exchanges
write down goals and specifics to achieve those goals
Every musician needs a mailing list. Nothing new here, but we have to think about what do we want to get from our mailing list?
The discouraging thing for many new bloggers is building a mailing list takes some time and then they neglect its importance. I want to plan networking with fellow bloggers and exchange mailing list opportunities and let the test begin.
Step 1 involves you getting to know fellow music bloggers and establishing relationships. The main reason I see this as a good move is we got to think like an artist on a tour. Most tours have several opening acts that are the warm ups for the big show. The opening acts generally are in related genres and the opening acts benefit from the exposure to the bigger fanbase.
Why not treat our mailing list with a Pandora mentality? “If you enjoyed this song then you might enjoy hearing this band”. The key here is not whoring it out. Work with artists whose music you enjoy and brainstorm with these musicians. Offer to promote their song/album, blog article in a newsletter in exchange for the same effort. The power here lies in the numbers: building stronger exposure and branding while establishing a fanbase and networking.
Your blog visitors are just as important as your mailing list subscribers. These assets were built from your hard effort, now its time to put them to work for you.
The plan now involves talking with hungry musicians like you who are willing to share exposure. Take time to find the right partnerships. Power in numbers.
Affiliate Marketing and Music
Affiliate marketing provides a great way for you to get some extra income for your music operation. You essentially promote other services or products and in exchange get a commission. Many bloggers use this to make some extra money to cover hosting costs and promotion. I promote only products I use, so I feel comfortable promoting it and relaying my experience with it.
I am looking to flip this script and have other people promote for me. Affiliate promotion is ready for the music arena. This is not new but I personally have never been offered the opportunity to promote a musician’s cd and am shocked. The incentives through Amazon and iTunes affiliates provides a low commission rate, thus low incentive for people to promote.
As my label emerges, I would love to reward faithful fans with a commission for promoting my album. You share some album sales but may gain long term customers and loyalty. Who knows, even promoting an affiliate in your newsletter. Earn a commission while rewarding someone who is helping you. Monetize where you can and do it in a Ron Burgundy manner, “Stay Classy San Diego”.
Giving away some money to affiliates is not a bad thing. You would have to hire a street team for that kind of promotion and pay some money anyway. Share the wealth and watch your sales expand. The one thing I will be looking for is finding how to set up your own affiliate program or better solutions to establish this plan.
Why Is This Important for My Band
Judge what fits right for you in your operation. Some musicians use multiple blogs to promote their band while others prefer traditional methods. Do what you feel comfortable with. Most musicians play multiple roles to increase chances for success. The important part is finding what you enjoy and working hard at that goal. Build a fundamental business, with strategies in place, and watch your expansion take place.
The planning now begins and building these relationships with fellow musicians to stimulate sales and exposure. Selling music is just one aspect of a music operation for many bands. Build equity through your blog and use that leverage to expand on your ideas.
I knew I needed a mailing list for my music promotion. Every music blogger out there will tell you “YOU NEED A MAILING LIST”. Once I found my mailing list solution, I knew it was time to strategize and plan. 
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