The musician’s mailing list is his/her key to direct marketing to their fanbase. Without this valuable tool, musicians are missing out on having direct access to their fans. This means you’re having to rely on social media and other third-party platforms to reach your fans. Unfortunately, these platforms carry strict guidelines, algorithms, and actual censorship that can drastically affect your ability to reach your fans. Not so, with your mailing list. Having direct access to your fans gives you an advantage when you need to crowdfund, sell tickets, promote your release, and share private details about your music journey.
The issue is how do we add people to our mailing list?
The short answer is, you add them one at a time. It’s going to take time to build up your following. You can speed things along by providing friendly reminders on your website. In this article, we’ll discuss 5 ways you can convert your website visitors into actual newsletter subscribers.
Pop-Up Ads
Pop-up ads have gotten a bad rap because they can be invasive and serve as a distraction. However, they are used often because they work! Pop-up ads can increase your conversion rates by leaps and bounds. They work because they invite the visitor to do something by providing an enticing offer and a call to action. Perhaps, the visitor hasn’t seen your newsletter signup form yet or worse, does not know that one even exists. Your pop-up ad is a friendly reminder that you have a lot more to offer and it is an invitation for them to access even more value from you.
The trick is using a pop-up ad the right way. Try to work within some user-friendly guidelines to avoid annoying your visitors such as only showing a pop-up ad once per day for each user and displaying a pop-up after 30 seconds of their arrival, you know… after they’ve had time to browse around and get cozy.
Your pop-up ad should offer a nice incentive like a free album download or exclusive content along with a button that says subscribe or join or something along that fashion. If you’re looking for a good email platform to store and facilitate your email campaigns, MailerLite is my fave.
If you’re still not sure about using pop-up ads on your website, imagine it like this…
Let’s say you go to a retail clothing store and you’re browsing around. Then, a store associate approaches you and tells you about the sales event they have going on for their signature jean collection. You didn’t know that there was a sale going on, but you like jeans and you won’t pass up a chance to get a good pair of jeans on sale, so you head on over to the jeans table. You happen to find a pair you like and you end up going home with two pairs of jeans for the price of one. That sales associate is like a pop-up ad and the two pairs of jeans you just purchased is like your newsletter sign-up offer. If it had not have been for that sales associate, you wouldn’t have gotten those jeans. Likewise, if it weren’t for that friendly pop-up ad on your website, your newsletter wouldn’t be getting as much love!
Related Content:
Email Marketing for Musicians: How to Set Up Your Email Campaign
Email Marketing for Musicians: How to Grow and Monetize Your Mailing LIst
How I lost 1k Subscribers, and Why That’s OK
Write Email Newsletters for the Entire Year in 20 Minutes
Use Your Blog Posts
We talk a lot about how your blog can help achieve your business goals here at The Crafty Musician like here, here, and here. Another way your blog can achieve business goals is to actively add subscribers to your mailing list. This is a super easy thing to implement in all of your future posts. If you have a blog connected to your musician website, start adding a blurb at the bottom of each post describing your newsletter, why they should join, whatever incentive you might be offering at the time, and how to join.
This way, every time someone visits your blog, you’ll be promoting your newsletter signup offer. By reading your blog, they get a taste of what your newsletter might be like. Additionally, since they are already on your blog reading what you have to say, they more than likely would be interested in joining your newsletter. So this is a perfect way to suggest your mailing list in a way that feels natural.
Squeeze Page
The squeeze page is a landing page that everyone visits upon entering your site. This page is really simple and only contains your newsletter signup offer. This works because it’s highly suggestive and appears to be the only way they can enter your site. If the visitor is paying attention, there is a way to enter the site without joining your list, but most people usually just sign up.
In this sense, the squeeze page is incredibly effective.
Create a compelling offer, like an entire album download, an exclusive video, or something spectacular to give them a sense of exclusivity. Check out our post on squeeze pages here for more information.
+ Related: 20 Newsletter Content Ideas for Your Mailing List
Signup Form Placement
For some reason, the area at the bottom of the musician’s website is what usually contains the newsletter signup form. However, I recommend moving this to the very top of your website instead. Moving it to the top gives it more prominence. I would go as far as to suggest that you put it in your navigation menu. That way, the visitor is guaranteed to see the newsletter signup if they go to your navigation bar.
Giving your signup form more prominence on your website communicates your intention and that your newsletter is important.
Automatic Subscriptions
Every time someone completes a transaction on your website, you should be signing them up for your newsletter. Whether they’ve purchased a merchandise item or downloaded a free song, their information should be collected and added to your newsletter. Transactions like the following are prime opportunities to increase your newsletter subscriber count…
- Merchandise Sales
- Donations
- Ticket Purchases
- Survey Forms
- Contest Entries
- Blog Comments
- Freebie Downloads
Since they’ve already completed a transaction with you, they more than likely won’t mind being added to your mailing list. Be sure you mention that you’ll be adding them to your mailing when they are completing their transaction to follow SPAM regulations.
If you’re looking for ways to increase your newsletter subscriber count, look no further than your website first. Your website offers tons of ways to add people to your mailing list. Have you implemented any of these tips? Let us know in the comments section below, how it’s going for you!
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