6 Sensational Reasons To Keep Your Fans Updated
Keeping your online presence up-to-date can be a difficult and tedious process, particularly when there's no easily perceived benefit in doing so. Here we offer six compelling reasons why regularly updating a Pledge Music campaign is critical to its success.
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Guest Post by Paul 'Barney' Barnes on Pledge Music
“All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions,” as George Bernard Shaw once insightfully declared. And while the “current conception” of streaming and MP3s have given us unprecedented convenience, the “existing institutions” of physical releases and the tactile packaging that accompanied them have indeed been supplanted. Though it’s hard not to look back on buying a CD and reading through the liner notes with a certain dewy-eyed fondness, we mustn’t miss the fact that with digital technology at our fingertips, we have state-of-the-art tools to replace those elements and emulate, or even surpass, those sensations. That’s where our PledgeMusic updates come in.
One of the duties of every Campaign Manager at PledgeMusic is to help their artists, managers and teams create updates. Updates are a key component of PledgeMusic campaigns, a chance to add value, intrigue and context to your new release. Artists will often ask me about the benefits of the regular updates I’m requesting: why do they need to add to their workload to create updates for the people who have already pre-ordered the release?
Here are six reasons why the difference between success and failure in a PledgeMusic campaign can be as simple as your commitment to updates.
1. TO BUILD A LIBRARY
The key thing to understand is that the collection of updates you’re building in the backend is as much for the people who haven’t yet pledged as it is for those that have. Whereas one update can be effective in getting eyes onto the campaign, a back catalogue of twenty updates is an altogether more substantial offering. With those updates under the lock and key of the AccessPass, and a steady drip of them appearing — and being tantalisingly discussed — on your socials, fans on the outside will be craving to see what all the fuss is about. Late in the campaign, with the release on the horizon, that collection of updates is a priceless complement to the release, and may well be enough to make the most casual of fans part with money for the pre-order of your release, rather than waiting for the stream.
Megadeth have built up a formidable portfolio of studio updates essential for completists, rivaling the quality, depth and scope of a documentary feature.
2. TO TALK ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN
Our marketing department proves time and again that the artists that are most engaged and post the most about PledgeMusic are the ones that get the most in return. Last month in the UK, the act that made the most revenue in one week posted four updates in that week and posted 41 times to social media; seven posts mentioned PledgeMusic. From posting the intro video, to discussing progress towards the target, to linking to individual items on the campaign, there are lots of ways that we can generate reasons to talk about our project. But when those reasons run out, you risk burning out your fan base’s goodwill by posting another link back to the campaign page with the same old messaging. The best way to freshen up interest in the campaign on your socials is by offering a new update, containing original messaging, music or video.
Blake do a great job of smattering links to the campaign and exclusive items with regular updates, keeping their messaging fresh and interesting.
3. ANOTHER SOCIAL CHANNEL
In a social media world dominated by Facebook and Twitter, with sizeable territory covered by Tumblr, not to mention the ground that Apple Connect has gained, it’s easy to assume that every person that has pledged on your campaign is hard-wired into your every move. But, with the paid engagement of Facebook, and the blink-and-you’ve-missed-it nature of Twitter timelines, it’s reasonably likely that the tour announcement that you’ve spent all morning posting across the web may well have passed by the eyes of even your most ardent fans.
In addition, emails sent to your dedicated mailing list, especially older ones with lots of dead addresses in it, can struggle to get into inboxes and stay out of the spam folder. PledgeMusic’s up-to-date, approval-based, Sendgrid mailouts have a suite of clean IP streams, ensuring unsurpassed inbox reliability, so a PledgeMusic update is one of the most efficient bearers of good news out there.
The Wrecking Crew are a great example of an act with a more mature demographic who don’t necessarily have established socials presence, but use their PledgeMusic updates to inform and invigorate their fan base.
4. FOR MARKET RESEARCH
It’s vital to bear in mind that your pledgers are your most engaged, committed, and loving fans. These are the people who, in many cases, enjoy your music enough to order your record before you’ve even recorded it. How’s that for loyalty!? Remember that this sample group can be presented with the kind of information that you might not want to relay over your main webpage and socials. Think of your pledgers as your very own fan club, with the updates as the newsletter, and all the marketing possibilities that can entail, from competitions, to requesting assistance, to organising flash mobs. Effectively, you’ve got your own bespoke focus group, ready and willing to wax lyrical in the comment section about your latest demo, cover art sketches or pressing decision.
Audrey Assad had pledgers vote on their favourite hymns and let them add song suggestions to her new release — essentially her target audience chose their own track listing.
5. TO ADDRESS PROBLEMS
As well as discussing the positive aspects of your release’s progress, sometimes it’s necessary to discuss things that aren’t going as planned. Posting these kind of gory details straight to your socials or webpage could be detrimental, especially in a music industry where showing signs of setbacks is the wrong kind of publicity. With a PledgeMusic update, you’re hitting your most committed fans, so they’re certainly reliable enough to deal with a bit of bad news. Whereas delays in production on your standard online store might mean multiple refunds, complaints and bad blood, with a PledgeMusic update you can address problems directly, and discreetly, to your biggest fans.
Allan Holdworth’s camp recently did an update to explain some minor delays and the comments ranged from positive encouragement to ‘we’re happy to wait’ validation.
6. TO WHET THE APPETITE
With your update library complete, your demo recordings delivered and your cover art created, the pledgers can hardly wait to hear the release. Whereas the noughties were dominated with fears of the dreaded ‘studio leak’, now with a PledgeMusic campaign you’ve effectively got a chance to start your marketing of the record, and sales thereof, before the leak is even an issue.
With a pre-order campaign we can turn all those intangible details of the record into calls-to-action; demos, discussion, and dissection of the tracks before they drop will let the pledgers in on the shape and size of the release. When your masterpiece is finally revealed their anticipation will be at its zenith, and they’ll already be attached to the record in an intimate way.
We have a joke about updates in the office. An old Italian man goes to church every day and prays before the statue of a great saint, begging, “Dear saint-please, please, please… give me the grace to win the lottery.” This lament goes on for months. Finally the exasperated statue comes to life, looks down at the begging man and says in weary disgust, "My son-please, please, please… buy a ticket.”
Buy the ticket. Update your pledgers. Win the prize!
Thanks to Ryann McGrath for her invaluable help in writing this blog. Do you have any PledgeMusic-related questions, suggesting or subjects that you would like Barney to tackle in this blog? Email askbarney@pledgemusic.com and he’ll do his best to answer you.
