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...the kind that turns real relationships into real music, merch, and ticket sales.
email marketing is dead
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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 email and the two are not interchangeable. Let's break down the major differences... Since about 90% of people open a text within 3 minutes of receiving it, SMS is great for timely updates. Examples include: Pre-sale tickets available now. Our vinyl is back in stock. Get yours before we sell out again. There are still a few VIP packages left for tonight's show... The average open rate for SMS marketing is 98%, so chances are very high your subscribers will see whatever you send. While great for keeping people up to date, it can be expensive. Message rates are set by mobile carriers and you pay more to send longer messages to the same amount of subscribers. (Which can add up really fast on an indie budget.) You also need to be incredibly mindful of how frequently you are texting your fans as people are a lot quicker to unsubscribe from marketing SMS messages. SMS is generally not the best platform to build an actual relationship with your fans. This is where email really shines. Here are a few of the main reasons why... Simply put, emails are long-form communication. SMS is short-form. One allows you to say more which naturally lends itself to your fans having a greater opportunity to actually get to know you. Email allows you to tell stories from your life, career and creative process. You can't do that with SMS marketing. What's more, if you're going to build a relationship with every new subscriber who signs up for your list, you really need to communicate with them consistently. Nothing allows you to do that more effectively than setting up an automated sequence to welcome each and every new fan. Most of the popular SMS marketing platforms musicians use do not have the ability to set up an automated sequence, and even if they did, you just don't have the "real estate" email gives you truly share your thoughts and invite people into your world. Sure, the open rates for email are much lower than text with the average being around 30% or so...but you can do things with email that you just can't do through SMS. Plus, you're not going to be nickle-and-dimed with email marketing. Most of the email platforms prices are based on the size of your list, not the length of the messages you're sending. For this reason, what I typically recommend (especially if you have a limited budget) is to prioritize growing an email list first. Identify your most-engaged subscribers and send them an invitation to join your text list. These folks will genuinely be stoked to be the very first to know about any new and exciting stuff you've got going on (and will likely take immediate action if they see enough value in whatever you're offering). In short, when it comes to email and SMS marketing...neither one is necessarily better than the other. They work best when used as a compliment to one another. Hope this helps, |
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...the kind that turns real relationships into real music, merch, and ticket sales.
Hey Reader, Picture this. You've been on three dates with someone. Three good dates. You're genuinely excited to see them again... And then they get down on one knee. 💍 You'd run, right? Not because you don't like them... because the relationship hasn't earned something as serious as a marriage proposal yet. Treating someone who signed up for your email list last week the same as someone who's opened every single email you've sent for a year, bought your merch, and shown up to three shows is...
Hey Reader, A few weeks ago I walked you through the 3 main metrics worth watching in your email dashboard: open rate, click rate, and unsubscribe rate. We talked about healthy benchmarks to aim for and what the data is telling you when you're not hitting those marks. While I mentioned optimizing your subject line as the best place to start increasing your open rates, there's another thing that creates a much bigger impact in this area than most people even realize... and that is...
Hey Reader, There are two kinds of subject lines. The kind that tell you what's inside, and the kind that make you want to find out. One gets opened WAY more often than the other. "New single out now" answers the question immediately. You already know what's inside. No need to open the email at all. A subject line like "the voicemail that changed this whole record" however, doesn't answer anything... It makes you curious about that voicemail though, doesn't it? This example creates something...