I’ve been doing some soul searching lately on my music career and how I can get to the next level. A friend sent me an article about the benefits of having true fans who will support you emotionally, physically, and financially wherever you go and with whatever you do as an artist. The article confirmed some things I was already thinking and it was just what I needed to set things in motion to connect with my fans on a deeper level. As I brainstormed different ways I could reach out and make connections with fans, I thought of this one thing. It’s super easy to do and all it takes is you, a computer, and your personality.
I recently did a show at a wine tasting shop. It was very intimate. It was a rainy night and only 15 people were there. My sets are very engaging and with so few people there, I was able to get to know everyone in the room with stage banter and improv stuff. I had my merchandise table out, and people signed up to my mailing list. I normally send out a special welcome e-mail to new subscribers who joined the list after watching me perform at a show. But this time, I wanted to make it extra personal and special. So I video recorded a personal message to each one of them. Like I mentioned earlier, I had already paved the way to getting to know them at the show through my own special brand of stage banter, so recording a personal message and bringing up experiences during the show that each person would resonate with was a piece of cake. Each video took me 1 minute to record. I threw each video up on YouTube and fired an e-mail off along with the personalized video I made to each person.
See a Sample of the Video below:
The results were amazing. I got a 100% response rate. Normally only about 50% of the people actually respond. But this time everyone responded. They were touched and commented on how special it was to hear me call them out by name in a personal video message. One person even called me on the phone to talk. What’s really cool is that I was able to book a couple follow-up performances from these videos.
This simple video message approach is a winner. It doesn’t have to be just for people who have seen you perform recently. I took this approach because striking while the iron is hot yields better results, but you can send video messages to veteran fans on your mailing list as well. This can be a great way to heat up a fan relationship that may have gone cold.
You can make some of the recordings in the car on your way back home from a gig or while you’re waiting for dinner to finish. It’s so easy to do and it doesn’t take long to do at all. This extra effort will be appreciated by your fans whether they are new fans or older fans.
How do you connect with your fans? Share your ideas in the comments section below. If you have a question for me, pop over to the Indie Artists Better Together group on Facebook and we can all chime in.
