The other day I had a great email exchange with a friend and former colleague of mine, Thomas Grogan of Grogan Social Scene. Then I added a bunch of posts to the Topspin Green Room about WordPress for artist websites.
So I thought this week’s post could cover some basic tools that you may want to get a hold of. These are nice and FREE! tools as well.
Start with WordPress. It’s free and it does make a nice way to create a way to manage content on your site without having to go into the HTML all the time. A WordPress powered site doesn’t need to be a blog. Check out my latest project:
http://www.subswara.com
to see what I mean. I’ll dive into some WordPress tutorials in the future…RSS the blog to hear about it or demand it in the comments! Or request another post if tools for building websites bores the hell out of you!!
OK! So to have WordPress, you also need a server (and a domain name of course). Bluehost, Mediatemple and GoDaddy offer various hosting, domain registering packages as well as “one click” wordpress install.
Once you have a website ready for wordpress, you’ll need a theme. Or you may want to build your own theme from the ground up. I recommend starting with a simple theme that uses the Grid 960 CSS framework.
Quick diversion: What is HTML and CSS?
HTML is like the inside of your house. CSS is like the dressing on the outside. Not really…but if you don’t know what these two things are that’s a good place to start.
Sites are built out of blocks — eithter divs or tables, along with smaller components like headers, paragraphs and so on. Each one can have it’s own “style.” For example, on this website – the subject line of each blog post has the same style. They are all the same font, color height etc.
It would be a waste of time to have to put in the code to define that each and every time. That’s where CSS comes in. The HTML says “This is the headline of the Blog Post” then the CSS fills in – ok make it this tall, this color this font etc.
If I want to have other places use the same type of headline, I just create a headline “class.” For example, the titles of Pages or sections can all have the same style. I’ll just use the same class and assign it in the CSS.
If this is starting to make sense…then I highly recommend using the tool I use most.
The Best FREE Tool EVER!
Type “How do I _______” into google. Where the blank is “Use CSS” or “Make a static page my home page for WordPress” or … or….
Bring out the GIMP!
Another FREE Tool you will want for building your website is GIMP. If you already own or “own” Photoshop then you’re all set. But if not then GIMP is an open source version that will let you make GIFs and PNGs with transparent backgrounds. KEY for making nice looking logos and graphics and getting some things into Fonts that are non web readable.
I’ve just found the open source version of Illustrator as well…it’s called Inkscape. If you are on a Mac, you’ll need an extra piece of free software called X-11. This let’s you save the hassle of booting into Windows to use these apps.
One word of caution though…the version I’m on of X-11, you use the PC CTRL key where you’d normally use the Mac Apple/Command key. Like CTL + C for Copy instead of Command + C.
The other tool that you’ll want that’s free is Google Analytics. Make sure you install that and get down with all the fresh data there.
So there you go. Do some digging on CSS and Floating Divs (trust me just search how do I float a DIV) and you’ll learn fast. Then check out http://960.gs…you can then stop worrying about floating divs…just make your divs add to 12 or 16 (depending on your big container). It’s still good to know what DIVS are and how to float them though!
WordPress How-to’s
And for WordPress magick…the codex is pretty amazing as is. Want to just pull up a custom field to place a buy button on your site?
Check out WP Recipes.
Want to create surveys, polls or even auto respond with a link to download your free song (if you’re not running Topspin) I like this plugin: MM-Forms.
Ok ! That’s the basic tools set. Go get em. Google search how to use em and have fun! Or tune in again as I will do some screen casts or similar with some how-to’s specific to Topspin and or artist sites.
Things got busy…hence the less than organized post. Thanks for reading/ understanding!
Social Signal Gives Away the Farm…go get some!
This post is probably more for the social media marketers out there but….who isn’t a Social Media marketer these days?
Kudos to Social Signal for opening up their process to the world. As a four year “veteran” in the space, it is a big step for them to share their strategy for helping clients create and deploy social media strategies and marketing campaigns.
If you’re not new to social media marketing, their first planning doc that I’ve linked to may seem a little corporate or made for those who are pretty clueless about the space. However that’s not a bad reminder that many people are still not really familiar with the difference between a browser’s book mark and a social bookmarking site for example.
Their approach also looks to be geared towards engaging a whole department or team rather than just a few key decision makers…but kind of fun nonetheless to imagine these guys giving chocolate pieces to their clients who participate in the “jam session.”
I look forward to watching this story evolve however as they go from the overview and high level concepts into the specifics of execution (if they do indeed go there).
In the meantime, I encourage you to check it out. I’m sharing the link to a potential “competitor,” because like Social Signal, I believe that the more information there is available about Social Media, the more of a field will be created. The bigger the field, the more business there is to be done as well as the more best practices that will evolve that help us do our jobs better.
In addition, a senior colleague at Landor Associates (my first professional gig) once said that Landor would be hired and would maintain its customers with the quality of the execution of their ideas and the quality of their relationships with their clients. It was not necessarily the ideas themselves that held the key to winning and keeping a client.
My favorite source of social media inspiration has been Copyblogger. I highly recommend them as well. And of course should you decide that you want to dial your social media strategy in, buy you don’t have the time to fully DIY – I’d be happy to help.
The other day I was telling one of my clients how excited I get by tracking email. I was like oh man I LOOOOVE email tracking. He laughed a laugh that said, “man this guy is a total nerd.” But then he said…”I’m starting to love it too.”
You know why? Because tracking response to email is a sure fire way to make more money.
Aside from that, it’s also a way to test how creative you can be in writing your copy, placing links, figuring out what to put in the email and what to put on the page that the link goes to.
Bring on the basics
To go on the email tracking expedition, you’ll need to:
Set up Google Analytics on your site. If you haven’t done this, do it NOW!
Have an HTML email program – it’s part of the Topspin software but you can also use Mail Chimp, Constant Contact or Fanbridge just to name a few.
A little extra creativity!
The basics of what we are about to do is called “split testing.” Most HTML email programs – including Topspin’s will give you information like how many people opened the email, how many people clicked on links.
When you look at your Google Analytics, you see totals for how many visitors came to your site, how many pages they viewed and if you are using Topspin and you have Ecommerce Tracking enabled in your Google Analytics, you can also see what percentage of visitors purchased something and on average how much per purchase are you making.
So far so good! So let’s say you send an email out to your fans and there is a link to yoursite.com. When you check google analytics, you’ll probably see a spike in traffic on the day of and day after your email went out. So the spike is from people who got your email and then clicked the link.
But you won’t be able to track those people as separate from people who just went to your site. To Google Analytics, a person who clicks on a link you sent in an email looks just like a person who just typed your website address and went there directly.
This is why Google also offers the ability to create what I called “tagged links.” If you create a tagged link, then Google Analytics is able to separate those people from the general traffic to your site.
This means that now, you can see more exactly how much of that traffic spike was from your email AND you can see how much revenue can be attributed to the people you emailed.
Here is how to set it up:
Tag it!
Go to this URL where Google offers a simple tool to build a tagged link – but you may want to keep these instructions open as I’m going to walk you through what is going on when you are setting up your Tagged link.
So we’re out to track people who are clicking on links we put into our email. Let’s say the email is promoting our new album.
So We are the source of the promotion, and we’re promoting our album and we’re sending out our promotion via email.
Google requires at least these three bits of information: the Source the Medium and the Campaign.
We’re the Source, Email is the medium and the Campaign is the album promotion.
So in the tool, put “us” or your band name in the field labeled “Source” put “Email” into the field for Medium and put the name of your album into the “Campaign” field.
Now generate URL. You should get something like this:
White belt: You just put the same link in every email. Like hey our new record is out you can listen here. Where the word “Here” is linked like http://mysite.com/?utm_source=us&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=albumname
Brown Belt: If you have more than one link in your email, you give them separate tags. For example you hyper link an Image in your email in addition to the word “here.” What we’re doing is introducing another Variable — the source, medium and campaign are the same but now we want to know what happens to Image clickers vs. Text clickers.
Go to the URL tool and now generate two URLs – for the text, put the word text into the Content field. In the other put Image.
In Google Analytics you can compare data from the two. More on that below….
Black Belt: Carve your email list into two or three lists. Now write different emails to each list.
Maybe one email is long, the other is short. Maybe one is all text the other is just a huge graphic. Try lots of different things. Use the content parameter to let yourself know that someone has clicked on email A versus email B. You’re tracking not just how many clicks, but you’re really looking for what people do once they get on your site.
Your long email could have every link to your site like this:
Ninja: Take that information and DO SOMETHING with it! If email A got more clicks than email B, but the people who clicked from email A didn’t buy as much. Then you need to come up with a theory as to why that is. Once you have a hypothesis of why it is, you create an experiment. Change something about the email, or the page you send a person to when the click. Use the tracking links to discover if your hypothesis was right. Did your change increase the behavior you are looking for?
Here is the making money part: If the behavior you are after is more revenue per visitor, then that is what you are testing for.
*note* In addition to installing Google Aanlytics you also need to enable E-Commerce tracking in your Analytics account. Just below the Google Logo, you’ll see a link for “Analytics Settings.” Click that, then click “Edit” on the next screen – it will be all the way on the right, middle of the screen in the column labeled “actions.”
Once you’ve done that, you go to the Traffic area in your analytics:
Click on Traffic Sources and from the sub-menu under Traffic Sources click “Campaigns”.
Now see that you have a little drop down just above where all your campaigns are listed that lets you drill down into things like Medium, and Content:
Then you can select for Campaign, or Medium or Content and see the traffic.
Now click onto the ECommerce tab:
Be sure you’re not just looking for volume (ie number of sales). Your volume could very well depend on timing. More people will click through and be excited the day you announce your record vs. a few days later. You want to look for ratios.
OF the people who click What Percentage do this or that? The percentage shows you how efficient you are. There of course is a whole lot more to get into, but those will be other blog posts… the feedburner subscription at the top right is a good option so you don’t miss out.
If you are becoming more and more efficient then the next time you have volume you’ll be able to get more out of it. That is where the more dollars comes from.
I skipped to the bottom, can you just wrap this up in a few words?
Yes! Install Google Analytics. When you send out email messages (or any online promotion) that has links back to your site – tag the links with the URL Tool (google search URL TOOL).
Establish some kind of baseline. How responsive are people to your emails? To your other links?
Create tests to improve your baseline. Test them using the links. Iterate. Improve more. Have fun, be creative. Try stuff that seems crazy…then check your analytics to see if you are crazy like a fox, or just crazy.
Happy hunting!
Learn why email rules
In research that can be found in reputable sources such as the Marketing Profs and Marketing Sherpa sites, email has proven to be the channel that is the most effective in driving conversions. More clicks per view and furthermore more action after the click.
I have a theory of why I think this is. It’s based off of my own personal experience and so I’m not claiming any data here- but here goes:
Basically it comes down to that I feel more protective of my inbox than I do of my Facebook/Twitter / etc. I also check my email box more frequently than I check my Twitter stream. (although I do have a “Junk” email box that I sometimes use when I don’t really want to give my email).
Furthermore, I also think that the private nature of email has an influence. If I sign up to someone’s email list, it is not necessarily public knowledge. It’s between me, and what I subscribed to.
Twitter, Facebook and other social media are built to publicize / update the world at large that I’m “following” or participating.
I believe this creates a different or additional motive for tweeting, following, or becoming a fan of something on facebook. In other words, my motive to become a “fan” of something on facebook is more to show the public my affiliation to something cultural rather than my desire to use facebook as a channel to receive information.
Last, I think I’m more habituated to actually reading my emails – so the message has a better chance to seep in, and therefore offers the marketer a better chance to get my click. Emails can also carry a better mix of images and text than a facebook update or tweet can carry. Also, email has the power of the subject to hook my attention, then the content of the email to win me over to clicking.
So to recap:
1. since email is personal and private it takes more of a reason to make me want to subscribe to something via email
2. email can be more rich in terms of how it can deliver information and it’s more likely to be read vs. missed like a tweet or other communication channel
get more out of twitter in less time
One piece of technology and one tip to save you time on twitter so you can focus on writing, rehearsing, kitesurfing, or doing whatever it is that you’d rather be doing right now instead of trying to interact with your fan base.
Tech tip:
Use twitalyzer to find out which of your followers has the most followers. Those are the people you should thank / retweet / respond to first. The olllllld 80/20 rule here.
Quick diversion- the 80/20 rule was discovered a long, long time ago in a Germany far far away where a botanist (or other scientist guy) realized that 20% of his pea plants were delivering 80% of his peas.
This guy then goes on to discover that it’s not just peas but most things in business and in life. 80% of results come from 20% of the effort.
Not saying that you should diss or ignore everyone else- just saying that if time is limited (and you should try and limit time spent social media-ing) then be sure that you at least start off that time scratching the backs of / stoking the egos of the people that can actually drive traffic.
I also like that Twitalyzer has some extra scoring. It’s not just followers that count. I could have way more followers by now if I didn’t clear out the spam robot accounts!
Idea:
Here is an idea you can use to still respond to all the other people who @reply to you, DM you or in otherways try to start a 1:1 conversation with you.
Create a humorous auto reply.
I’m not aware of a technology that will auto post the reply, but at least you can just bang through a bunch of DM’s with the same message:
Hey- thanks for the DM/@reply/etc. I’m super neck deep in ____________ (insert album recording, rehearsing, touring). To share the love- ____ (insert bit.ly/shortened URL here). Thanks – ______ robot. (blank is you/ your band name etc).
The key is to let folks know it’s a “robot” because it is likely going to sound a little canned. I think that some reply is better than no reply as long as you are honest and hopefully a little humorous that you are using an canned response.
Take it one step further by creating a series of these and cycle through different ones for different people. Who knows, maybe you’ll get more requests for 1:1 interaction just so people can see if there are other funny messages they can get.
Add some data by using different bit.ly links- track which style of message has which link and test which style of message is getting better click through (if any).
Y’all know about Google Analytics right? If not…I’ll make that a future blog post.
What to do when free music loses value
Wait! Since when does free ever have any value?! That question/statement of disbelief is a blog topic in of itself. In fact here’s a good blog post on tech dirt.
Here are two creative ways to deliver free and get that value instead of just training your fans to expect something for nothing.
Example 1 is fully explored in an excellent article on the Tune Core blog. Here is the run down.
This band Fanfarlo solved the “get people to my music” problem with well connected management that hooked up a mention in an email blast to the fans of Sigur Ros. Here is how they solved the “free” music vs. value problem:
They did it by offering free streams, then a full album download that was *almost* free. $1 for the whole record is pretty close to free.
But the real value add was that they told everyone that it would only be free for a limited time. The value is that by being an early adopter a fan can save five bucks.
This has also has the effect of creating urgency. A fan is thinking…”do I really want to spend a few minutes to dig out my credit card for a dollar?” But then they listen to some songs and the song are good (IMO) and so they’re now thinking…”If I don’t do it now, I’ll probably end up doing it later. The record is good…so what the hell $1.”
Here is another idea that involves actual free music as in no dollars paid.
A quick diversion- there really is no “free” anything. That’s why we “spend time” and “pay attention.” Right?
So when you go and give away a “no dollar download” (see not free just not for cash) – ask your visitors to “pay” you by tweeting, posting the link to facebook and generally telling their friends.
Now you’re trading something of value (your music) with something else that has value (marketing/audience building).
The most simple version of the above is just offering a song (or songs) in exchange for the visitor’s email address. The value is your ability to market back to that fan. But why not also encourage some sharing in exchange?
Once you hit critical mass, you could even offer the option. Pay for this song/album/etc with a few dollars, or pay nothing but spread the word after you get the goods.
Some people will of course download and not share but don’t worry about those folks. Some just honestly wanted to try out your music and they decide your sound is not for them. Others are just lame but if you do it right, you still have their email. You can still work on getting those people to pay for a ticket to a show.
Here is the link to Fanfarlo. The $1 record is long gone, but you can still enjoy a free stream.
Got a problem that needs solving? Suggest a topic for a blog post by leaving a comment. Or ask me on twitter by including @jasonkadlec in your tweet.
Get fans by turning a snowball into an avalanche
Make a big snowball
Do you think the artist Metaform should spend about $4k on PR ?
Here is where Metaform is at:
“In the last 1.5 years I have sold 2700 units of my first album, using a traditional pr/radio campaign. That same album has been downloaded more than 60,000 times via P2P and torrent sites. I currently have distribution setup in the US, UK, and Japan.”
However given that strong start, there are currently few hits to the Metaform site and fewer purchases of music from Metaform’s self set up store page.
While there was traction on the last album, it hasn’t resulted in much demand to connect with Metaform’s website. Facebook fans are at 154 though the fans that are there as well as the fans on Metaform’s Last.fm artist page are supportive and positive.
The past sales and the small but positive feedback from fans on Facebook and Last.fm are all good signs indicating an above average connection of music to people.
Another PR spend could be done to try and sell this next record but will that result in more fans? Or, do you think it will likely result in a spike of a week or two of sales, and then a slump back to current levels? If the later happens, then it will be tough for Metaform to increase sales on each record.
To really get more repeat visitors and fans who will want to purchase direct from the Metaform site, he is going to need to build and sustain some momentum online to grow the fan base so that there will be record sales for this record, and the next one as well.
MOMENTUM
Here are two kinds of momentum online:
The flash in the pan type where it gets huge fast then gets forgotten about just as quickly.
The steady building momentum that just keeps spreading. The people who tell people keep telling people not just once or twice, or for just a week or two, but they keep telling people for a month or more.
PR can definitely generate momentum. It depends a lot on what the angle of the story is but by design a short PR campaign like the one Metaform is contemplating is best deployed to create a lot of “impressions” in a short period of time (one month). The gamble is that out of the quick flash in the pan momentum, a small subset can be cultivated to create that ongoing building momentum.
But what if Metaform was able to build a growing and sustained momentum, and then amplified that momentum with PR?
That would be like first packing a small snowball, then rolling it around so you’ve got a decent sized snow ball, then rolling that thing down a hill. Building your momentum first gives you something more substantial to roll.
So if PR is the hill, and if your ball o snow is big enough, it’ll roll and get big fast – it might even set off your avalanche.
Hiring on the PR first might get you a good sled ride, but to get a big snow ball out of it you’re going to have to do the same work of packing up that first snowball and getting it big enough to roll down the hill – before the snow melts and the opportunity is gone.
Better yet, you’ll be able to get your first supporters to help you build it up. If you get enough help, you may not need to pay for the hill.
Check back on Thursday for some ideas on how to get that first snowball started. If we’re all lucky I’ll stop using this snowball analogy….I just saw the picture and liked it ok?
Are you wasting your money on PR? – You won't believe these stats pt. 2
from www.marketingsherpa.com
This is the second part in a series of posts that will convince you that the world is moving its marketing not just online, but into online social media.
Read Part 1 here
The data in this post was pulled from a report by an excellent resource for marketing insight – Marketing Sherpa. Thanks to all their hard work it is possible for me to share this data with you as well as tell you what it means for you and the music biz. Marketing Sherpa, please don’t crucify me for sharing two charts!
This first chart here is saying that 80% of companies and marketing firms surveyed believe that Social Media is changing the way they communicate.
That right there should blow your mind because at the end of the day, you’re in the marketing game just like these people surveyed and if they change the marketing game, your marketing game is getting changed as well, like it or not.
If you were in charge of marketing for one of these companies and this was your belief, wouldn’t you do something about where you put your marketing, PR and ad dollars?
Yep, and that is exactly what is happening. Check this out:
from marketingsherpa.com
The big money in advertising is cutting back spending on traditional sources and increasing their spend on online ads and Social Media marketing. Look at the hit Radio and TV ads is taking!! 83% cut?! and a 60% cut on print. Only 4% of the companies and marketing pros that were surveyed are going to increase their spend on print ads. I’m not sure if that includes PR that focuses on print but one can infer.
Ok, so that may answer the question posed by this article, but not so fast. I bet that if you have tried social media marketing or you are about to try it out….it’s no silver bullet skip to the header “I’m convinced” below.
If you’re saying, but wait? If big marketing companies change the marketing game, how does that affect my marketing?
Convince me more:
If you are not convinced that you might want to reconsider spending your efforts on print and radio read this first:
If you are still spending money on full page ads in mags, in the hopes of getting a magazine review…you should survey your audience and make sure they are still reading that mag. Are you now getting that fix online?
Have you started listening to music on Pandora? If you are hoping for college or mainstream radio to have an impact on sales you should survey your audience to see if people are still listening to that station or if they’re all now just playing whatever they want on demand via their iPhone’s You Tube software. Or listening to Pandora, or blip.fm or last.fm or..or ….or
Even if you or your audience is still listening to the radio and reading mags, what do you think about this idea?
The fun follows the money. If advertisers want to spend money somewhere, then creative people can produce content for that somewhere making it more fun to be at that somewhere meaning that somewhere is where the people go. Sorry for the abstraction – but to put it plain and simple:
When advertisers stop spending money on radio and print, those companies lay off their writers, animators and the people who made TV, Radio and Print cool. Those people then get jobs working projects that now will live on the internet and will be part of social media sites like facebook, blogs etc.
More garbage will flow to the internet sure, but also more of the quality ideas and content that used to draw people to watching the TV or reading a mag is now going to be found online. Like the video or hate it, I saw Dick in the Box on Youtube, not on TV. What about you?
College radio is not ad supported, but the format of radio in general will take a hit as more people go online and discover they like other options better than any radio, college or mainstream.
I’m convinced so now what?
Before you become the next “social media is all that matters” regurgitator spouting off this data, here is a reality check:
If more people are spending more time online, that means they are also spending more time on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, email, Google and so forth. See Part 1 for that data. If they are online, your cost of reaching them can be far less than paying for a full page ad in Urb because you can just friend them, @reply to them, let the stream your album instantly online and even close the sale.
Of course you have to put in the time to make this happen, but time is usually easier to come by than hard dollars to spend.
To be sure, it would be faster to put an ad up and get 5 thousand actual impressions (meaning people actually read your ad, not just glanced over it). But that could cost you $5,000 bucks or more if the magazine has good circulation. I pull that number slightly out of the air, as I remember several years ago that was the going rate for a one-off ad in Urb magazine.
To put that in perspective and to also show you social media is good, but no magic bullet, consider this:
Let’s say that you have 500 followers on Twitter — not bad for most people but pretty small for a successful band. But these are Awesome fans that you got one at a time so 100 retweet.
500 impressions to start off with.
Let’s say that of the 100 re-tweeters 20 of their followers actually see the retweet, so you get 2,000 more impressions – now your total is 2,500 views – but at least 100 of them were really good views as they shared your content.
Ok, so of the 2,000 people 5% or 100 people decide they’ll retweet it too: 100 more people see it – now we’ve got 2,600 total views.
Now it’s getting old, so maybe only 5 or 10 more people retweet and so on until nobody retweets anymore.
Long story short you could get a couple of thousand impressions done for no hard cost BUT I think getting even 1/3 or 1/5 the amount of impressions online are better than offline. Because online people can act on the impulse to share, to listen, or to buy.
Off line, they have to put down the mag and then fire up the computer or get to the store (probably just fire up the compu though).
The catch-22:
Reaching people online is going to be harder because people are also on Facebook, Twitter, email, blogs and so on. We’ve all got shorter attention spans these days. Maybe you can share a chart for this one, but intuitively we all know that in many cases you’ll only spend a few minutes on a website then “channel surf” your browser to something else.
So you can’t just have more money and get the awareness. You have to be better at engaging your fans than the next band in your scene. You also have to be better at engaging your fans than their other friend’s updates. You have to be better than catnipped out cats batting their paws at the TV videos on Youtube.
The Upside:
But that’s the upside. Talent matters more than money. Develop the talent of engaging your fans online and your band can make money from your fans. Or hire on a friend, or a PR company (or me shameless plug) to do it for you or to coach you (better option) so you are self sufficient.
Hey, if things don’t work out 100% with your band but you master the art of connecting with people using email, tweets, Facebook pokes, blog posts and so forth you are going to be really valuable to some company out there who is struggling to learn how to right click.
The wrap up:
If you are spending a lot of money on hiring PR that only focuses on getting you written up in print, see “Convince me more” above. You’d better double check that spend dollar spent on traditional PR if you have limited means. If you don’t hell yes get onto college radio and get written up in mags. It will only help you. But if you’re on a tight budget you may want to consider focusing your strategy of directly engaging people online.
Call me out! Did I just insult you or your favorite PR firm? Let me know or make me eat my shoe. Leave a comment or re-tweet. Thanks!
You won't believe these stats on social media pt 1
You may not believe it, but you can definitely take advantage of it. Watch this video, then sign up for email updates or RSS this blog to get the next post in this series.
I believe Social Media Marketing and Direct to Fan sales are one and the same thing. Good news for those of you reading this blog who are endeavoring to set up your direct to fan sales and marketing strategy!
Does your band need better emails?
Email Success: Best Practices VS. Fail
The other week, I (finally) got an email from a band that I like these days- The Temper Trap.
The little chart on the left from Marketing Sherpa shows that back in 2001 you could pretty much send a crappy email out and it would work – meaning people would click on your links and buy stuff. That’s the red line. Crap emails are becoming less and less effective and every year the gap widens because sending a good email is still working.
Below is the email The Temper Trap sent out. Now is it me, or does it sound like this was either written by the marketing team, or that the band thinks it should sound like a marketing guy when they write it?
This email doesn’t fall into best practices – it’s not quite spam but to me it’s worse than not following best practices because it is pretending to be a best practice email when all it is doing is pushing the band’s needs over what’s in it for the fans.
Exhibit A – Email Fail:
Hey guys!
Wow what a couple of weeks! Just got back from Japan where we played the Summer Sonic festival. It was truly amazing. Thank you to all those who have been coming down to our shows and festivals this summer. Been one of the best summers of our lives!
So as some of you will have seen we released Conditions in the UK on Monday 10th August. It looks like alot of you have already brought it – thanks! We really appreciate your support. For those of who haven’t it would be really cool if you guys could check it out, then drop by our forum and tell us what you think.
We’re hitting the road in September on a pretty cool headline tour, so looking forward to seeing you all down there! Dates and ticket info is up on our site and our myspace.
Peas TTT
Here is what I think may have been going on in their marketing head(s).
1. Use plain text because if the email has graphics and stuff people will KNOW this didn’t come from the band.
2. We’ll say something cool at the beginning like “hey guys” and “wow.”
3. We’ll use a really passive voice to push the album “it would be really cool if you guys could check it out”
4. Peas ?
Please. Don’t let your band send an email like this and don’t do this to your band if you are their marketing team.
This email totally lacks a convincing voice. Throwing in a few words like wow, cool and totally does not make me feel like this came from the band or came from a band that actually cares about me or their fans.
Here is what I would do to make this email sing:
1. Get Multi-media – or at least give some juicy details in that first paragraph.
Why is there no video to that amazing show in Japan? How bout a link? How about some details? Did the bass player eat sushi for the first time? Did the audience sing along with a Japanese accent? I’m sure it was a cool for the band but saying it was cool doesn’t convince me at all.
Thank you for coming to the shows eh? Why because it is keeping you on the road? Good for you then. I’m working my ass off, you all are having fun on tour. Your life rules, and ours don’t.
But that’s totally not true! Your fans had a BLAST at your shows! I know because I went to one and it was one of the best shows I’ve seen this year at Spaceland in LA.
Here is where your Flickr account comes in handy. Why not invite everyone who had fun at your show to post a photo to your Flickr pool–and then tweet about it? Start the conversation by posting your own photos and put a link to the page/post on your site (your site does have wordpress right?) that has the Flickr gallery widget. That way fans can also leave comments or re-tweet the link.
2. Be honest and just push the album but think about WIIFM (What’s In It For Me, your audience)
“Then – as some of you will have seen”
??? My god band! If that’s not one of the world’s worst attempts at trying to sound like you are not pushing an album when you totally are pushing the album.
It would be so much better to just be honest:
We put our album out in August. We worked so hard on it – spent every penny of our life savings on it and even ate beans for three months. Because as artists that is what we do. We are humbled that people like it. That you signed up to get emails from us. It makes us want to make another album! We made one song free — if you are a fan then spread this link to your friends so they can get the free song too.
If you are a huge fan then buy the record. We have special surprises for the people that are supporting us. The more people that support us, the better the surprises will be as we’ll have more money to do fun things for you for free. Deal?
3. Bring on the community!
They try and sneak in a call to action/link to the forum is another blatant push with no WIIFM.
“then drop by our forum and tell us what you think.”
Why should I post in the forum and spend my time telling you what I think? Is there any one in there? Does posting in your forum just make you feel cool? A place for you to receive worship from us the fans?
Here is how you could have made that invitation exciting:
We opened a forum and it’s just getting started. If you are one of the brave people out there and post first we just might ask to camp out in your house when we come to town. Ok maybe not, but we really do care what you have to say if you want to say anything. The forum is the one place we promise to check all the time and be active in.
The myspace, facebook and twitter are geared up to keep everyone up to date with information, but the forum is sacred, moderated by us and we do talk to whoever wants to talk to us there. I bet you can also find a friend and maybe even a free ride to a show in the forums. We’ll see you there!
4. Now the dead horse is beaten. Push your tour with…WIIFM.
OK – last paragraph. The band is on tour and headlining. Cool? for the band yes. For us? Why is that cool for us? I think the band wants us to check out the tour dates so we can make sure their booking agent doesn’t lose her job when the band headlines in less than full venues.
Temper Trap!! You guys totally rule and I know I’m being overly harsh on your email here.
I am actually stoked to see you’ve made it this far and are going to the headlining spot. Here is my take on that last one:
You beautiful fans! Singing along with you, partying with you and a solid slog by the band has finally paid off! You can now show up a little later and get your disco nap on. We’re going to be headlining this time around- we could not have done it without you, and we promise to rock you even harder as we headline a tour for the first time. No flashpots and Stonehendge flying in from the ceiling (yet) but we promise a few new songs for you to hear and you know we’ll play all the ones we love to sing with you. We’ve also set up info on the tour dates page with venue info – ticket info and stuff to make your night awesome like parking secrets, good places to get your pre-show beer and so on.
When time permits we also TWEET UP and have exclusive SOUND CHECK sessions – you need to follow us on TWITTER to catch one though.
That would be a long email no?
I’ve hammed up my examples to illustrate the point. But adding in even toned down WIIFM would have made a longer email than what was sent. I’d say this email could have been two different emails, or even one email and a few blog posts to the Temper Trap’s site/forum/Facebook and Myspace.
OK? OK!
But honestly even a really long email from the band (or from the marketing team being honest that it is the marketing team writing) would be OK to me because I’m a fan.
What is not OK is an email like this that tries to pretend to care about me but totally does not communicate it. Instead this email is a thinly veiled attempt to push the record and tour dates.
The Temper Trap – you are a great band live and on record. Your marketing could be as good as your music if you took the time to care about your fans the way they care about you.
Sorry to be so blunt but my job is to help bands market better.
The other day I was telling one of my clients how excited I get by tracking email. I was like oh man I LOOOOVE email tracking. He laughed a laugh that said, “man this guy is a total nerd.” But then he said…”I’m starting to love it too.”
In research that can be found in reputable sources such as the Marketing Profs and Marketing Sherpa sites, email has proven to be the channel that is the most effective in driving conversions. More clicks per view and furthermore more action after the click.
One piece of technology and one tip to save you time on twitter so you can focus on writing, rehearsing, kitesurfing, or doing whatever it is that you’d rather be doing right now instead of trying to interact with your fan base.
Wait! Since when does free ever have any value?! That question/statement of disbelief is a blog topic in of itself. In fact here’s a good blog post on 
The other week, I (finally) got an email from a band that I like these days- The Temper Trap.