The Guitar Player's Resource
While there are multiple reasons why most artists don't get the response
they want, some dealing with the e-mail text or the timing of their
e-mails, one major reason is that they are e-mailing the wrong people! One
of the biggest problems I have found is that artists don't collect some
of the most important information when having people sign up on their
mailing list. Here's what you need and why.
Their Name - Obvious, but you need to personalize their e-mails and it
also helps against spam accusations.
E-mail Address - Review what they wrote down carefully. Make sure you can
read all the letters and numbers. Review what they wrote with them. If
they have a Hotmail, Yahoo of other free e-mail address, expect your
e-mails not to get through! Free services offer "limited box size" which
spammers fill quickly and these companies have been accused of "dumping"
e-mails before they are delivered. (That means erasing e-mail messages
before they go through their servers. Some companies have already been
fined for this.) If they give you a free service e-mail address, ask for
another.
City and State - While you know where they signed up, you need to mark it
down in your database. Simply because when your list expands to
thousands of people, you won't remember everyone on it. Besides it
doesn't do much good to e-mail fans about a show that is hundreds of
miles away from them!
Zip Code - One of the most important if not the most important. Most
cities are huge. For example, Los Angeles is considered to be 90 miles
in size. Simply listing someone as living in LA doesn't do any good. As
you know, fans only drive a few miles when it comes to drinking and
driving. The safe distance they feel they can get home before the cops
will catch them. Research what are the closest zip codes around the
venue and only invite those fans to the shows. After all, even if you
were invited to a show that didn't serve alcohol, would you drive 20
plus miles each way?
Venue and Date - Something you should put in a separate field when
entering in their e-mail information into your database. Always make a
note of what venue they came to see you at because they will most likely
come to that one again. Noting the date is important to see when they
came to see your show last.
These are a few of the items that your e-mail database should have per
person. There are a number of others that I teach at my workshops, more informaiton can be found at www.MusicStrategies.com.
Looking for more free advice or to greatly increase the amount of people
coming to your next show? Check
out our website at www.tsamusic.com.
Author Tim Sweeney is head of Tim Sweeney & Associates, who are entering their 18th year of being, "the only true artist development company in the world."
Tim is one of the music industry's most sought after experts and consultants, and has written several influential books including "Tim Sweeney's Guide To Releasing Independent Records".
