5 Email Marketing Rules From Six-Figure Musician
David Hooper recently released "Six-Figure Musician," a book that says it will tell you "How to Sell More Music, Get More People to Your Shows, and Make More Money in the Music Business." I've been checking out the free PDF version and pulled out a group of rules for email marketing that all musicians should know. But what's a bit more difficult to pull out and possibly more valuable to many are the insights that place Hooper in the category of Music Marketing Coach.
David Hooper's Six-Figure Musician does have a lot of practical material and interesting ideas to consider. Rather than using it as a blueprint, the tips and ideas seem most useful in thinking through particular aspects of music marketing and giving you material for brainstorming new ideas.
For example, the email marketing rules below came from the first Appendix which also gets into suggestions for sending postcards, making phone calls and creating audio, text and video messages. Other practical elements include tips for social media campaigns and how to make money selling your music and merch.
5 Rules For Keeping In Touch With Your Fans Via Email
1. If somebody didn’t sign up for your mailing list, don’t put him or her on it.
2. If somebody lives more than 50 miles away from the gig you’re promoting, assume they don’t care.
3. If you’re playing a weekly gig, you don’t need to let people know every week.
4. You MUST have a one-click unsubscribe option.
5. You MUST use a reliable, third-party mailing list service.
And remember:
Give People a Reason to Sign Up For Your List
Focus On One Single Topic Per Email
These are solid concepts that far too many musicians haven't learned and others seem to have forgotten.
However the richest material may well be the more psychological insights which have a practicality of their own. The reality is that if you try to make a career in music, no matter how skilled and ready you may be, you're going to face challenges such as negative responses from people close to you who might come at you unexpectedly when your defenses are down.
But Hooper doesn't simply provide a pep talk, he works through specific roadblocks one might encounter and includes real life examples of well-known musicians who faced similar challenges and went on to great careers.
He does a nice job of addressing such issues in a genre of music marketing education that I think is pretty similar to Life Coaching. He's not providing counseling so much as informed inspiration. If you have serious family issues, you'd want to seek more professional support. But if you're trying to sort out some of the basic obstacles you're likely to face, folks like Hooper can be a great source of encouragement.
Six-Figure Musician is available in multiple formats including a free PDF and audiobook or a paid Kindle ebook and print edition.
More:
- Top Tips For Entertaining Your Music Fans With Creative Email Content
- Infographic: Trends And Behaviors For Effective Email Marketing
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (Twitter/App.net) also blogs at All World Dance: Videos and maintains Music Biz Blogs. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
