You released a new song... and almost none of your fans knew. It got buried in their feed (if it showed up at all). Beyond the Algorithm helps musicians build an audience they can reach every time: through email. Sign up below if you want a direct line to your fans.
what those numbers in your email dashboard actually mean
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Hey Reader, So you just sent an email to your list. You open your dashboard to check the stats...and you're staring at a bunch of percentages with absolutely no idea if they're good. If that sounds familiar, you're not alone. Artists are told they have to market their music, but nobody really teaches how to know what's working and what's not. Quick question before we get into the content though... Before I sit down to write the next issue, I want to make sure it's actually useful to you... so I'm letting you pick the topic. 👇🏻 Back to the good stuff... Here are the three numbers worth paying attention to in your email marketing, and what they're actually telling you: Open RateThis is (total opens ÷ total emails delivered) × 100. Anything between 20–30% is considered solid across all industries. But honestly? The artists I work with tend to land in the 50–70% range, especially if they're on top of cleaning their list regularly. If you're not hitting this mark, it means your subject line isn't giving people a strong enough reason to open the email. Think about ways you can create some curiosity to make them want to open it up. Click-Through Rate (CTR)This is (total clicks ÷ total opens) × 100. 2–5% is a healthy target here. And here's a stat that still blows my mind every time I share it: limiting your emails to one call to action can increase your CTR by up to 371%. One ask. Not five. Not "follow me, stream this, buy tickets, and also reply." Just one. If your CTR is under 2%, it means something is off in your messaging. Try making sure that whatever you're asking your fans to do is super clear and dead simple. Unsubscribe RateThis is (total unsubscribes ÷ total emails delivered) × 100. Keep this under 0.5%. If yours is creeping above that, something in the content or how often you're sending is off, and it's worth taking a closer look at which emails are causing people to unsubscribe. If your numbers feel off right now, that's not a failure. It's just information. And there's always a way to optimize and make things better. Keep at it,
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Leigh Cara
You released a new song... and almost none of your fans knew. It got buried in their feed (if it showed up at all). Beyond the Algorithm helps musicians build an audience they can reach every time: through email. Sign up below if you want a direct line to your fans.
Hey Reader, If you're worried about coming across as spammy to your fans, it probably means you're already sending them spammy emails. Doesn't matter whether an artist has a huge label team behind them or if they're in DIY indie mode...Artists at all different levels have this major fear of not wanting to bother their subscribers. And they think the best way to avoid doing that is to email them as little as possible. That usually means that when they do have something to sell or promote, they...
Hey Reader, I have this artist friend who reached out recently. They landed an opening slot on a tour and were asking me about ways they could maximize this opportunity to grow their text list. (Hey…email or not, it's an owned audience and I'm here for it.) They had a couple things we needed to keep in mind as we brainstormed: It was an OPENING slot and they wanted to make sure they were being respectful and not stealing any thunder from the headliner outside of their set. They had a small QR...
Hey Reader, There's this idea that email marketing is dead and that SMS is the only real way to grow an owned audience anymore. And if you're still building an email list instead of a text list, you're way behind the curve. First of all, email marketing isn't dead. (You're here, aren't you?) It is very much alive and to this day, the average ROI on growing your email list is $36 for every $1 you spend....if you use it right. SMS is great...But it serves a completely different purpose than...