Does Billboard Fame Excuse Lazy Email Marketing?

I was looking for inspiration for my mailing list strategy and chose to check out what the commercially cool kids were doing on Billboard’s Hot 100.  I randomly chose 10 artists from this weeks Hot 100 and wanted to ask some questions:

1. How hard is it to sign up to their mailing list?
2. Do they have a mailing list offer with any free music?
3. What are they offering to make me want to sign up?
4. What catch phrases are they using to invite you to sign up?

The real thing I also wanted to see is how these big labels  are now dealing with this new “socially conscious” movement of marketing and social networking.  By now they must have made adjustments and learned from some independent musicians’ success, right?

I was disappointed with a majority of the sites that I looked at.  There is a reliance on popularity and a somewhat arrogant attitude by not creating offers for fans.

Random Billboard Artist Experiment

A. Robin Thicke

1. I could not find a mailing list to sign up for
2. There is NO free music offered
3. There is a “Community” section that is used to capture emails, but doesn’t really peak interest into reasons to subscribe
4. no catch phrases and no mailing list

B. Usher

1. There is a mailing list sign up found at the top right of the page
2. There is NO free music offered
3. No offer clearly stated for the mailing list.  There is a Community section and Contest offered for a personalized Platinum record used for capturing emails as well
4. “Join Newsletter” is the catch phrase used

C. Timbaland

1. There is no visible mailing list on home page
2. There is NO free music offered
3. Not offering anything for signing up.  There is a “Community” section that encourages signing up, but community section looks boring
4. No catch phrase found for a mailing list

D. Trey Songz

1. There is a mailing list sign up section in the right sidebar, easy to find
2. There is NO free music offered for signing up
3. Not offering anything to encourage signing up, there is a “Community” section as well for catching emails
4. Catch phrase:  “Sign in, Join the Community, Upload Content”

E. Alicia Keys

1. Left hand side bar there is a mailing list sign up form
2. There is NO free music offered
3. There are no clear offers for signing up.  There is also a “Community” section to capture emails, featuring fans and social networking
4. Catch phrase: “Stay up to date with the latest from Alicia Keys. Get the Newsletter!”

F. Rihanna

1. Mailing list sign up found in the middle of the page
2. There is NO free music offered
3. There are no other offers seen, just another “Join” tab to get more emails.
4. Catch phrase: “Join The List”

G. Lady Antebellum

1. Join mailing list found on the top right corner, join by email or mobile, easy to find
2. There is NO free music offered
3. There are no other offers for signing up.  “Fans” and “Join the Community” are prominent.  Entice you by being able to post blogs, comment, rate and vote on stuff
4. There is no catch phrase for the mailing list.  The “Community” section offers some reasons to sign up, more along the lines of social networking. Joining the mailing list also gives options to join the street team and their community

H. Muse

1. Mailing list easy to find on left hand side of website
2. There is NO free music
3. No offers, more of a newsletter
4. Catch phrase: “Register for the mailing list: get the latest Muse news on albums, gigs, competitions and more”

I. Train

1. “Join Now” found at the top and another mailing list sign up is found in the right sidebar
2. There is NO free music offered
3. There are no other offers
4. Catch phrase: “Join the email list”

J. Miranda Lambert

1. Newsletter sign-up found on right sidebar.  Join fan club also found to emphasize community
2. There is NO free music offered
3. There are no other offers, but fan club promises perks.  You buy into her fan club by purchasing fan kits.  This gives you access to meet and greets, fans only merchandise and personalized “Fans of the Month” newsletters
4. Catch phrase: “Subscribe to Miranda’s free monthly newsletter”

Surprises?

Overall I was very surprised by Artists not offering some free music to get mailing list subscribers.  They don’t have to offer continuous free albums but they should reward a visitor with something they can listen to.

Your music is your best marketing asset.  Offering free music doesn’t always have to get a bad rap.  Free music that is downloaded and copied to a new fans music library is such a plus.

The branding begins as your name pops up on random play-list. Let your fan hear musical reminders and let your email strategy draw them back into new projects.

I got used to knowing many new music acts from just being on Twitter and letting their “Timeline” marketing happen, and I’m pretty sure your music can serve the same purpose in someone’s library, it just has to reach it first.

Most of these artists had “community” pages that allowed fans to chat with other fans, and keep alerted on the band’s news.  The community section seemed to replace traditional email marketing for most acts, which didn’t make sense to me.  What about fans that don’t want to chat with other fans but just want to receive music and news only?

The Catch phrases were not enticing at all and this is due to the fact there were no free offers. Internet marketers do it all the time with offering free PDF’s in hopes to get you to see value in exchange for your email.  Shouldn’t your music serve that similar purpose?  The recent mailing lists I signed up for offered some form of free music, almost as a test drive to get to know artists.  “Join my newsletter” is just not good enough.

I expected more of these mistakes from artists with limited budgets or ones that are on the independent grind.   By looking for inspiration I actually found the same problems left unsolved.

Some of the sign up forms seemed more like the record labels were only concerned with collecting demographics.  They were vague in regards to what you would receive with the mailing list but they were very direct to ask you for name, address, mobile, zip code, country, or favorite social network.

This was a test to grade initial impressions of mailing list sign up forms.  Some of these artists might have great autoressponder sequences to sell new subscribers, but what use is it if its not grabbing the attention of new readers.

As a musician, finding a mailing list service is key.  The next step is, how will you attract fans to sign up?

I’ve been really impressed to see independent artists being more creative than established acts in this area.  My attention is drawn towards value and quality, not so much on popularity.

What makes you sign up for someone’s mailing list?