Becoming a Musicpreneur: Top 3 Reasons to Create an Email List - and What to Do with It
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Ah emails.
Some love opening their email to see what their favorite artists or companies are up to (or what the latest sale is). Some dread opening their email because of the amount of spam the have to sort through (and why do our favorite emails end up in the spam folder while ones we don’t want to see are in the main inbox?).
For some, emails are a dreaded thing, especially when a retail store asks for your email address. Heck, I have an email address just for those types of emails!
And in the social media obsessed world of today, most of us start to focus on our followers on various platforms rather than connecting with our fans and audience by email.
I'm sure you're about to say "but why should I have an email list if I have a large social media following?” You literally just told me in your last blog post AND podcast episode that I should build an online and social media presence. What about that?!
I know, I know. I did just tell you that.
But let me tell you this, while it’s important to create an amazing online presence, the dolla bills are in the email list, especially if you’re selling a product.
In fact, I can tell you from a consumer stand point, I typically will make a purchase after seeing it in my email rather than logging onto a website. I actually just purchased an online course because the course creators offered a sale on it. Had I not seen the email, I wouldn’t have known there was a sale. So yes, the money is in the list.
With that, here are the top three reasons that I am building my own email list (and why you should too!)
Top 3 reasons to have a list:
You Have Control
You own your email list.
What you don’t own, or have any control over, are your Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, or Tik Tok accounts.
If those platforms shut down today or you got booted off the platform for whatever reason (it happens, and I’ve heard about it with Pinterest!), how would you connect with your audience? How would you let them know about your new single, tour, blog post, podcast episode, tips, or YouTube video?
But, turn your followers in to subscribers, and you’ll have a way to reach them when times get tough, platforms shut down, or you switch up your marketing strategy.
And speaking of strategy, what about those pesky algorithms? Not only are these major platforms always changing their algorithm (how posts are sorted on a platform, typically based on relevancy to the viewer), they always changing. We’re left scrambling to figure out how best to connect with our fans and get our content in front of their eyes when we want them to see it.
When you have an email list, you have the control. You can keep in touch with your audience when a platform shuts down. You can get in front of them when algorithms change (again) and business pages don’t see the light of day.
2. If they subscribe, they will probably buy
Or attend a show. Or stream your music. Or read your blog post.
Your email subscribers joined your list for a reason - because they want to hear from you, learn more about you, and get information about your next show, release, post, or product.
In fact, most email lists that I’m subscribed to are for that purpose - I want to know about the next release or tour, I want to know about the next product, or what services are in the works. Anything that doesn’t suit that purpose either gets deleted or I hit the “unsubscribe” button.
I’ve purchased more online courses, templates, and products from an email list than from someone’s social media post about the exact same thing (and I’m sure you have too!).
3. Develop a relationship
An email list is one of the easiest ways to keep in touch with your audience and to build trust with them. In fact just in the past few months, as the COVID-19 stay at home orders began sweeping across the United States, I checked in with my audience.
“Just checking in. How are things going?” the caption read.
And you know what? Not only did I have one of the highest percentage of open rates, I had more replies to my email than ever before. People were sharing their stories with me, letting me know they were okay, letting me know what they were doing not only to cope but to help other musicians.
Even when times are good, I check in with my email list to tell them a story, share my advice and experiences, and let them know how things are going. I want to build a level of trust with my list, to let them know I’m thinking of them and finding ways to help them build their career or business, or to just give them comfort in rough times.
Okay, but how do I start an email list?
First, don’t panic and don’t overcomplicate it. Make it easy on yourself (and on your audience).
This might sound a little too obvious, but just tell people about it. You can start with friends, family, and co-workers and then move into fans, followers, and strangers.
It can be something as simple as “Hey, I’m going to start a weekly email about best tips for [songwriting/production/guitar playing/etc]. Would you like to be on the list?
Be honest with what you’re providing (and also in today’s web policy driven world, make sure you let them know you won’t sell their info!) and just ask.
How else can you gather email addresses?
Have a list signup on your march table at shows
Offer a free downloadable on your website (otherwise known as an opt-in)
Include a newsletter sign up form on your website
Sell merch or records on your website
The possibilities are really endless. One way that I collect email addresses is to offer a free downloadable: Think Like an Entrepreneur: 6 Mindset Shifts for the Musicpreneur.
I’ve also had a pop-up and a footer on my website to sign up for a weekly newsletter and I have a waitlist for the Musician to Musicpreneur eCourse.
You’ll want to think about what you’re going to offer your customer, then build out a form on your website or through your email marketing platform.
I have a list, now what do I do with it?
What can you share with your audience on a weekly basis that will provide value?
Here are a few things to consider when you’re creating email content:
What do you want to be known for?
What are you an expert at?
How do you want to connect with your audience?
Have you had a recent challenge you’ve overcome or a revelation?
Can you share personal and / or business stories that your audience might relate to?
Keep in mind that while you may have friends and family on your email list, it will mostly be people from your target audience. Thank about what drew them to sign up for your email list and provide them that information consistently.
If your opt-in was songwriting tips, you wouldn’t want to suddenly start talking about your favorite cat videos (unless somehow you can intertwine the two).
For a really long time I struggled with what to send my audience. I put far too much thought into it and if I didn’t have some epiphany that week or have a really great story to tell, then I would let it slide. Soon enough, months go by without emailing my audience and I become afraid to even start again.
Will they unsubscribe? Will they ignore my email or let it go to spam?
[👆🏻 These are legit things that can happen if you ignore your list for too long]
So what did I do?
I brought it back to the podcast and the blog. Now I’m emailing my list once a week with information and takeaways from a podcast episode or from the blog. Since my content is evergreen (it doesn’t really go out of date), I can even go back in the vault to share past episodes and blog posts that might interest a newer subscriber.
(This is a new process, so I’ll be sure to update this post with results!)
Where do I send emails from?
You might be tempted to send emails to your audience directly from your gmail account, but with many different government privacy policies including GDPR and CCPA, I would highly suggest choosing an email marketing platform.
There are many different free and cheap email marketing platforms out there including MailChimp and ActiveCampaign, among others, but my platform of choice is ConvertKit.
ConvertKit makes it easy to manage my email list with segmentation, send out emails to all or part of my list, create forms or landing pages for my audience to sign up (and receive a freebie), and I can even create automations and sequences so my audience can get emails without me touching a thing (after I’ve created it, of course).
ConvertKit actually offers a free version for up to 100 subscribers, so if you’re just getting started with your list it’s a cheap way to learn the ins-and-outs of email marketing.
Email List Dos and Don’ts
Now that you have a list, I’m sure you’re ready to do what most people want from their list - to generate sales!
Here’s the thing, yes you can email your audience with your newest merch, record, or other services, but that is probably the fastest way to alienate your audience.
In fact, I think I’ve only ever mentioned my services to my audience once when I launched them.
It’s the same as social media: you want to provide value, address pain points, tease your offer, then “launch” or talk about it. You need to build trust with your audience. They need to know that you’re not just out to make a buck from them, that you provide useful information, and that you care about their struggles or desires.
Here are my email dos:
Provide value
Share a story with a lesson
Connect the dots or solve a pain point
Be consistent in your message and timing
And a few of my email list don'ts:
Sell in every email
Spam your list every day (especially if it’s not valuable content!)
Sell their information
Ready to Learn More?
In Musician to Musicpreneur, we’ll tackle just how to build an opt-in, create a broadcast on Convertkit, and develop email sequences to keep your audience coming back for more. Sign up for the Musician to Musicpreneur waitlist to be the first to know when it launches!