5 Rules for Successful Artist Newsletters

With the advent of social media and the ease of managing relationships with fans provided therein, many artists these days see email communication with fans as a thing of the past. I, however, still find the monthly newsletter to be a relevant part of the overall marketing objectives of most artists. Probably the most difficult aspect of digital marketing for artists is the fact that in this day and age people interact with music and artists online in a plethora of ways and places. I think that it is important to respect fans decisions to interact with you when and where they choose to do so and to accommodate them accordingly. Email is still an important part of most people's everyday lives, and if fans choose to offer up their personal address to you it is your responsibility to give them what they want and deserve. In no particular order here are 5 rules for getting the most out of your email newsletters.

Rule #1: Limit Frequency
When considering how often to send out your newsletter it is important to keep your position in the recipient's life (and Ipod) in perspective; Do not assume that every single signup is a superfan who wants you to bombard their work email account every day of the week with what you ate for breakfast that morning. On the contrary, assume that the majority of signups are content to hear from you once in awhile and use your newsletters sparingly. My recommendation is once per month; definitely no more than twice. If you overwhelm your fans inboxes they will simply stop opening the message, rendering your newsletter ineffective. If you are facing a quiet point in your activity as an artist and you have nothing compelling to say in a newsletter, wait until you've got something exciting to send it out.

Rule #2: Provide Original and Compelling Content
You must give your fans a reason not only to sign up for your newsletter but to open it once it arrives in their inbox each and every time. Without at least some small tidbit of original content that does not exist elsewhere online, what is the incentive? Always include something that is exclusive to the newsletter; a personalized note from the artist; a sample of a new track in the works; exclusive photos. You can also use this content as an excuse to promote your newsletter via your web properties. Another idea is to offer giveaways such as free CDs to random signups; do this once per week if you are able and announce the winners in the newsletters to show that the giveaway is real.

Rule #3: Promote Effectively
Provide an easy way for your fans to sign up for your newsletter and feature it prominently on every web property available. The easiest way to do this is with an email collector widget-- the type offered by ReverbNation and other services. I also like to draw added attention to the newsletter by creating a custom banner that sits on top of the widget. The banner can invite fans to sign up and provide the incentive you've created for doing so. On Facebook, use the Gigya Mystuff Application to add your collector widget. Cross-promote the newsletter through mentions on Twitter once in awhile and remember to include your incentive for signups. If you are using myspace comments to communicate with fans, plug the widget and banner into your comment code and invite all new friends to sign up.

Rule #4: Limit Sales Pitches
A common artist mistake is to overwhelm web properties with sales pitches; ie. links to purchase on Itunes AND rhapsody AND CDbaby AND Amazon, etc. It's easy to take for granted the fact that your fans are knowledgeable about purchasing music whether digital or physical and will have no problem finding it should they decide to do so. Use your newsletter to announce new single and album releases; encourage fans to listen to and enjoy your music and make their own purchasing decision when the time comes. After your music is available steer clear of overwhelming pleas to purchase. Also relevant to this, be very careful not to overemphasize tour dates that are only relevant to a small percentage of those who signed up (ie, a newsletter to promote your big show in NYC when only 10 of your signups live there).

Rule #5: Format Effectively
Like all of your web properties your newsletter must be formatted perfectly; use color schemes and artwork that are in line with your other pages. Proofread all text to avoid errors in grammar and punctuation. Double check to make sure that all links are functional. Use fonts that are appropriately sized and easy to read. Format all pictures and text in a way that is clean and attractive. If it's within your budget, hire a graphic designer to create a custom newsletter template for you.

Gigya's My Stuff Application for Facebook

A lot of people who manage music pages on Facebook are probably already familiar with this but I thought I'd throw it out there nonetheless.

Gigya's 'My Stuff' application when added to a Facebook page will allow you to post any string of code that you wish that will appear in a box on your profile. This is perfect for.......you guessed it.........WIDGETS. Keep in mind before adding this however that many of your favorite widgets probably already have facebook applications designed for them.

This example shows how a children's artist used My Stuff to add their Gydget to their page.



The application doesn't slow down the page's load time as it would on myspace because a user has to click on the widget once before the flash begins to function.

My main tip is to make sure that you are adding the application and the code to your fan page and NOT to your personal profile-- a bug in Facebook's system often makes it difficult to tell if you are working on an application within one or the other.

Widgets 101

A survey of the myspace profiles of the top artists in the music business will reveal a widespread use of WIDGETS. In this blog I will occasionally be writing about the widgets I find, love and hate. In a previous lifetime I worked at a company whose primary purpose it was to market and promote widgets from a number of companies with venture capitalist funding. During this time I was in a position of having to 'sell' each and every widget, the good and the bad, to new media folks at major and indie record labels. It was a pretty awkward position to be in as some widgets certainly offer more than others, and even the better widgets aren't a fit for every single artist. Here I hope to shed some light on a number of widgets that you may or may not have heard about and let you decide for yourself whether or not it is worth the valuable 'real estate' on your myspace page.

But let's back up for a minute. So what exactly is a widget?

A widget is essentially a piece of code that, when plugged into the backend of an html page, shows up as an interactive badge or sticker on that page. Interactive is the operative word. You see, the code is hosted on a server that is different from the rest of the webpage and can therefore be changed or updated by multiple parties in different locations. In other words, one does not need access to the backend of the website (or your myspace profile) in order to change the widget that appears on the site. Widgets serve a variety of purposes but primarily are meant to share and collect information.

Here is an example of a common widget that I found on Jordin Sparks myspace page.


Create Your OwnRockYou.com.

The widget can be 'grabbed' (in other words, the code can be copied) and placed on any website or social network profile. Wherever the widget copies exist, changes made in the backend on RockYou.com are reflected.

I'll be discussing and reviewing some of my favorite (and least favorite) widgets here, but in the meantime, here are four basic items to consider before handing over real estate.

1) What does the widget do?
Does it collect information, such as email addresses or opinions? Does it share information, such as your photos, news, music or videos? Does it allow your fans to assist you in promoting your work? Whichever goal you have for the widget, does it achieve this goal in the best way possible?

2) How large is it?
Consider both bandwidth and size. How much loading time does it add to your page, and is it worth it? How much real estate does it consume? Does it stretch out your myspace page either vertically or horizontally in a way that compromises other page content?

3) Will your fans find it appealing and useful?
So you've determined it's worthy of your real estate, but is it worthy of your fans'? Is it something that your supporters will *want* to add to their own pages?

4) How much maintenance will the widget require?
Consider the time commitment the widget will require of you. How often will you have to log in to update the widget? How much time does each update take, and is it worth it?

Finally, a case for always testing your widgets before posting. The code obtained for the widget above came from clicking 'view all images' on Jordin's myspace widget and copying the code from the page that pops up. But hold on, these aren't the same images that appear on her myspace widget. So who are these people? No idea. The result of an error on RockYou's backend, no doubt. Always test your widgets in an html test bed to make sure they look right before posting.

More to come.