How To Get More Email List Signups At Shows

By Yannick Ilunga from The Jazz Spotlight.

When it comes to the online world, having an email list is one of the most important features a website can have. While having a lead magnet such as a free giveaway (e.g. free song, ebook, etc.) is an excellent way to attract people into subscribing to your newsletter, there are a few tricks that you can use to increase the number of your subscribers.

For musicians, having an email list represents an opportunity to collect email addresses and to have direct access to their followers. In a recent episode of The Jazz Spotlight Podcast, Dave Kusek talked about email lists as a tool that can land artists more gigs.

As promoters and music venues aim at getting people through the door, you can utilize your email list to help them get customers. “If your email list has 200 people in a 20-mile radius from the venue, you can let promoters know about that,” explained Kusek. “If you show venues and promoters that you can help them get more patrons and promote your gig, you have more chances to get booked for a performance.”

So, if you don’t have an email list yet, now it is a good moment to start one. If you have already built an email list, these are 4 tactics you can use to grow it offline, at your next gig.

1. Contests and Giveaways

Chances are people will stop by your merchandise corner (because you have one set up, right?) after your show. So, why not taking advantage of that and invite them to join your email list?

You could easily do that by having a notebook or board where people can write down their name and email address.

Or even better, you could use contests and giveaways. Place a box somewhere on the table, have people write down their name and email on a piece of paper and ask them to put it into the box. This is how they become eligible for the contest or giveaway.

The next step is to manually add the email addresses to your newsletter, randomly draft a winner and give him/her her prize.

2. Use Specific Apps to Collect Email Addresses

Having a box or board where people can write their email address can be a great way to grow an email list. There’s the risk, however, that you may end up having to spend quite a lot of time to manually insert that data into your newsletter.

Luckily, though, there are alternatives. Apps like ProspectSnap, SignupAnywhere and Chimpadeedoo for instance, allow you to instantly add people to your email list.

Such tools are great for networking at conferences, but can also be very valuable at live shows. Why not to hand over your smartphone or tablet to and ask them to insert their name and email address, while you are signing a copy of the CD they have just purchased?

This kind of apps usually works without a wi-fi connection and they syncronize the data with most popular email list services (MailChimp for SignUpAnywhere and Chimpadeedoo, both MailChimp and Aweber for ProspectSnap) as soon as you have an Internet connection available.

3. Use a QR Code That Redirects People to Your Email List Subscribe Page

Another way to grow your email list offline is to add a QR Code to promotional materials such as posters, flyers and business cards.

In order to do this, you want to have your email list subscribe page already set up. This way, people can simply scan the QR Code using their smartphones and they will automatically be redirected to where they can sign up for your newsletter.

If you decide to use this tactic, you want to make sure to add some catchy copy next to the code, so that your fans know what the code is for.

You could also integrate the QR Code with a contest and write something like “scan this code and sign up for the email list to enter the competition and win a free [name the prize]“.

4. Word-of-Mouth

The good old word-of-mouth is still a very good way to pass messages along and promote yourself.

When people pay an admission fee to come see you perform live, they will be focused on you (for the most part of your gig). So why not taking advantage of this focus and ask them to subscribe to your email list?

Obviously, if you decide to go down this path, you want to have a link that is easy to remember (e.g. something like www.yourdomain.com/newsletter) and have a lead magnet, a giveaway that will incentivate people to immediately sign up for it.

The next time you hit the road to head to your next gig, keep in mind that there are great ways you can easily grow your email list offline.