A few months ago I reported about the General Data Protection Regulation and how that might affect musicians sending email newsletters to their fanbase. In that article, I mentioned that you need to have proof of permission before sending emails to anyone in order to comply with this new GDPR policy. I also shared some sample emails that you can send out to get permission from folks or to re-engage them.
I sent these emails out to my list of subscribers who I couldn’t prove I had permission to contact. Like most artists, I had a sign-up sheet on my merch table and when the paper was full and after I added them to my database, I trashed the sign-up sheet. I’m a minimalist, so I try to get rid of stuff.
Well, the results of that campaign were depressing. I ended up deleting about 1000 subscribers from my list because people either didn’t respond or unsubscribed themselves from my list. I realize that if these people don’t reside in any of the European Union countries, I’m likely safe. But I chose to do it anyway because I wanted to be above board. And hey, if I’m suggesting something to you, I better darn well do it myself.
I fired off my re-engagement campaign thinking I was doing something! But after a 24 hour episode of depression because I got very low results, I pulled it together. Bless all those people who didn’t respond or unsubscribed. I wish them the best. It turns out they weren’t a part of my tribe. They’re making room for people who are my tribe. I’m not mad at that. Here’s why…
Fake subscribers represent false numbers. People on my list who are not really engaged just end up showing you numbers that don’t really exist. There’s no way to really tell how many true fans I have, what my real open rate is, or what the percentage of engagement is if a lot of people on my list aren’t even engaged in the first place. Throughout this experience, I’ve learned a very important lesson about fostering expectation and engagement among my subscribers. They need to know who I am, remember me and expect to hear from me. The key word is ‘expectation.’
I’ll share more on that below.
Fake subscribers screw with analytics and your head. If I think I have 5000 subscribers and I see that only 500 people open my email, that’s a 10% open rate. However, if 2000 of those people aren’t really true fans, they just are on your list taking up space, then you really only have 3000 true subscribers, but your open rate is more like 18% (if 500 people are opening up your emails). It may not seem like much in terms of percentages, but that’s a big difference and it shows that you’re making a much bigger impact than you realize. Having people on your list taking up empty space misconstrues your true impact. Less or more, I’d much rather know what my real impact is so I can lead a career based in reality, rather than not. I’ll be honest, it was extremely humbling to see that so many people weren’t really engaged. But it made me that much more appreciative for the true subs I actually do have. Which leads me to my next point.
I can be more personable with a smaller list. Now that all those fake numbers are gone, my community and I have filtered out all the bystanders, and we’re down to the folks who are more engaged as fans and supporters. That’s led me to feel more comfortable sharing more personal details about my life and music. And that’s been a huge hit among the people who stayed. I’m getting more responses. I’m getting more heartfelt messages, and more opens. Having a smaller, more active list has given me more confidence to share my true feelings because I pretty much know that most people on my list are actual supporters and generally have the same values and overall belief systems as me. I’m really clear from jump (my welcome emails) that I will be reaching out to them at least twice a month. I’m also really clear that I have a faith walk and believe in God and I infuse that into my music. They know what they’re getting the moment they sign up to my list.
For each person who is on my list, I can point to the where, how, and why they joined my list in the first place. I remember having one-on-one conversations with these folks. That’s the beauty of being able to prove that you have permission – you can also use it as a way to remind you when or how each person signed up. I no longer have a sign-up sheet at my merch table. I have a guest book. They can not only leave me their email address and name, but they can write positive messages of encouragement and let me know what they thought of the show. My ‘sign-up’ sheet is no longer trash, but a written memory book of how I met each of my subscribers. Special thanks to GDPR for forcing me to do this!
Unsubscriber count has decreased significantly. Now that people are re-engaged and we filtered out non-engaged subscribers, I have significantly less unsubscribes. Everybody on the list wants to be there. They know who I am and look forward to hearing from me. Everytime I send out a mailer, I end up having long conversations with my subs about the topic of the email and about their lives more so now than before. I used to dread and fear sending mailers, now I look forward to it because I want to catch up with everybody. The response has been overwhelming in support.
I feel more comfortable sending more emails. I’m less nervous about sending additional emails. At first I was sending an email out once a month. But, now I’m sending them out twice a month with no complaints or spam reporting. It’s amazing how just this one difference in subscriber count can completely change my entire email campaign and my feelings about emailing my subscribers. I did not anticipate this turn of events when I first set out to comply with GDPR.
I’ve made more money. To put this into even more perspective, not only are my subscribers now more engaged, they also are more apt to spending their money with me. I’m working on a new album and folks from my email list are donating and pre-buying the album more so now than ever. It’s been a domino effect. I lost 1k subscribers. I gained confidence with a more engaged subscriber base. I started writing deeper content to my newly; more engaged group. I started sending more mailers. And voila! More engagement, and now more financial support.
I mentioned earlier that there’s a huge lesson I learned from this experience about fostering expectation and engagement among my subscribers. Since I lost those 1k subscribers, I’ve rewritten my welcome emails to include what they should expect from me. I come right out and say that they’ll likely be hearing from me twice a month and I give solid reasons why. I also mention a bit about my spiritual journey and beliefs, so there’s no surprise when I start mentioning that in my subsequent emails. The other thing I’ve learned is that, I need to make filtering my list a priority throughout the year. I’m thinking that at least twice a year, I need to reach out to people who haven’t opened my email in a few months and see if they’re still interested. Sometimes people change their preferences and they move on. They may have simply given me their email address to enter a giveaway at one of my shows but realized they actually didn’t like my music after all. Or maybe they decided to abandon the internet and live off-grid. Whatever the reason may be, I want to catch up and find out. If I need to drop them, I will in order to maintain list quality. Another interesting tidbit I observed is that when you see that someone is consistently not opening your email, they’re more like to unsubscribe. You can save yourself from the spam/junk complaint if you delete them yourself. Because if you get too many spam/junk complaints your email can be flagged and you won’t be able to send emails at all.
My list is everything. It’s the most important tool I have to market and promote my music directly without having to go through a third-party platform. I now see that I need to make my list a big priority and I’m making sure that I take care of the people on the list too. For example, I will be sending birthday wishes, little personal notes, written letters, gifts, and more. Therefore, the less false numbers I have, the less energy I have to put toward people who could care less. The more subscribers I have that are truly engaged means that my list is of higher quality all around. Stay tuned. In a few weeks I’m planning to share some tips and meaningful welcome email templates you can use to hook new subscribers and keep them coming back for more.
Did you do any re-engagement campaigns? What were the results? Did you encounter feelings of loss if people didn’t respond or unsubscribe? How did you cope? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.
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