One of the things that we put a lot of focus on behind the scenes at Ripple HQ is our email list. Believe it or not, email lists are a primary income driver for many labels, and it’s one of the things that bands ignore the most. I wanted to talk to you today about why they are important and how they can change the game for your band.
Email lists are important because they are a direct line to your fans. It’s how you get access in a big, meaningful way. Beyond that, they have a much higher conversion rate than any of your social media platforms. Finally – you can build a relationship with email in a way no other platform can. It’s truly amazing.
Emails As A Direct Line To Fans
This is one of the most exciting aspects of emails. They provide a direct line of access to your fans that none of your competition can claim. When you send an email to your list you’re not going to a complicated social media feed dictated by an algorithm. You’re going to their inbox, where things show up.
The best part is – very few other bands are actually taking advantage of their email lists. SO if you go in there and start emailing people in a friendly and casual way you are going to start building relationships. And that’s key by the way. People know you’re an unsigned band from Topeka. They aren’t looking for a press release, they’re looking for a nice guy to tell them if they should buy a record.
High Conversion Rates
Another thing people don’t realize about email is how high the conversion rates on these things tend to be. Seriously. I can easily get a 20-25% open rate on an email in comparison to maybe a 2-5% open rate on a social media post. That means on an email to my list, which costs me nothing, I am likely to get way more engagement than on a social post to an account with ten times more followers than I have emails.
Think about that. Think about that ability to break through to people and get them to learn your story and to engage with you. It’s actually insane. It’s incredible to watch when an email campaign goes well because you’re connecting in a meaningful way. A way that many of your peers don’t even bother with. It’s awesome.
Relationship Building
This is where emails are really awesome. Look, starting off you’re going to have a small list, probably only a few hundred names. So here’s the thing. You can email those people like they’re your friends. You can email them the same way you might post on social media. You can build a dialogue. And because it’s email they are a lot more likely to reply!
So here’s the thing. When they reply and they start engaging suddenly you are converting someone who was clearly already a fan (Because they’re on your list after all!) into a superfan. Suddenly they have an email relationship with you and this means that there is value as a fan, both in terms of what they will buy and the dramatically increased amount they will spread the word.
As you can see email lists are supremely valuable. They provide you a line to your fans that very few other people are exploiting. This means they convert at a much higher rate. Beyond that, it means that you are going to be able to build much more meaningful relationships, which any marketer can tell you is a very exciting prospect! So y'know – get one.
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