Is SMS marketing worth it for musicians, venues on a budget?
SMS or text marketing can deliver strong results, particularly with younger audiences and within certain genres. But is SMS marketing worth it for musicians, labels and venues of a tight budget?
Is SMS marketing worth it for musicians and venues of a tight budget?
SMS open rates often run as high as 90% and more. That is double or more what you might expect from a good email campaign
Unfortunately SMS marketing is not free or almost free like email.
Bulk text messaging typically costs 4.5 – 5.5 cents per text depending on your plan and volume. So I don’t usually recommend it for musicians, labels, music venues and promoters on tight budgets.
How good is your email list, really?
Before spending money on text messaging, work harder to get all that you can out of your email list.
- Make it easy for fans to sign up online and at a show.
- Offer incentives to sign up like free downloads or merch table discount.
- Promote email sign ups on your social channels.
- Make every email worth opening using strong subject lines, contests, discounts, first access to tickets, and more. Use your imagination.
- Use data to measure your results and improve.
I do recommend collecting phone numbers now alongside email addresses so you have them if costs come down – which some believe they will – or your budget increases. Most email and fan capture systems like Bandsintown and your email provider offer the option to ask for phone numbers alongside email addresses.
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, a Berklee College Of Music professor and founder of the Skyline Artists Agency
