I cannot recall signing up to a mailing list ever! Not for my favorite products, or favorite authors, or favorite bands. That’s because I’m anal and I want my inbox free from unnecessary marketing e-mails as much as possible. Whenever I need a specific service or product, I’d much rather Google it when I need it than get regular e-mails from a lot of companies about their offers. And whenever I get random e-mails from god-knows-what company or person, I automatically report it as spam. I do not care if they’re giving me a car or $1 M or whatever ‘convincing’ offers they have because I know it’s just a (lame) strategy to reel me in. One time I didn’t check my e-mail for a week and bam! My inbox was swamped. I instantly got a headache.
So how should a band or artist convince someone like me to sign-up for a mailing list?
Here’s the secret of the best marketers – Give the consumers something they cannot resist. Make them think they’re going to lose a great opportunity if they ignore your offer but be realistic and be honest. Make sure you can give justice to your claims. As the popular saying goes: “the customer is not a moron- she’s your wife.” So please don’t use the free car or $1M like I mentioned above or else they’d just ignore you. The regular person is so exposed to all of these online marketing activities day-in and day-out that we start to develop aversion towards it. You have to be different in your strategy, establish trust, and avoid being annoying.
There are 3 ways to reel in and convince e-mail marketing haters like me. One is by throwing a contest, two is by giving freebies, and three is by offering discounts. So the bottom line is give,give,give. Give them a big discount, or a freebie, or your pair of boots-anything that’s worth the hassle of actually signing up for a mailing list. That way, even the reluctant ones like me would consider and give it a try.
Contests. If you are a band and you want a lot people to sign-up to your mailing list, you can come up with a contest where they need to sign-up to your mailing list before they can win an iPad, a dinner date, or perhaps your underwear. Make sure the prize is something a regular fan cannot resist. Make sure your copy is good so that when we see the details of the contest, we’d automatically sign-up for your mailing list- yes, without hesitation. And make sure that the contest is so awesome that we tell our friends or post on our Facebook wall right away. There’s no other way to do it but offer something really special. Don’t throw a contest where the prize is just a CD or a shirt. That’s simply not enticing enough for fans like me. Remember, you’re throwing a contest and not giving away freebies.
Okay, talking about freebies. It’s another inviting strategy especially if the freebie is something really quirky and unique. It could be your hats (if you’re known for wearing hats). You’re not giving away one to every fan who signs-up though unless you can afford to. Just give it to random people and give the others something cheaper. Some bands give their songs online in exchange for e-mails. Think. There are plenty of creative ways to do this. Utilize your social media to have a more viral effect.
50% discount on our ticket if you sign-up. Now that’s hitting two birds with one stone.They’ll sign-up to your mailing list and they’ll possibly go to your concert. This is just an example of using discounts to convince your fans. You can also give discounts to your albums, to your merch, and many others. But you should be reminded that this is the least effective of the 3 since people want instant gratification. They want to get their free items the moment they perform what they’re required to do. But it’s still effective, nonetheless.
There’s no surefire way to convince your fans. You have to study their personality, behaviors, possibly their buying patterns, etc, etc, etc before offering something. But even that would not assure you of anything. Just try and assess which works best. Innovate, mix and match, and be sensitive to their wants. Best of all, you should not be too hard on yourself. Just enjoy the process and learn a lot from it. You’ll eventually push the right buttons;-)
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