“It’s 2021; who still uses email marketing?” you’re probably saying to yourself. To many, email marketing is considered a dated practice, but people often don’t realize that it can be one of the most effective ways to engage with your audience and get them to take a call to action. Email marketing is an incredibly powerful tool if used properly. Often, we see all marketing emails as spam, but what we don’t realize is that we usually still respond positively to email marketing if we’re interested in what it has to say.
If you’re an artist, collecting an email list is one of the most valuable things you can do. When the moment strikes, reaching your audience and having them buy a ticket or item of merchandise becomes very easy. By collecting emails, you’re getting direct access to a communication channel often underused by artists, giving you a slight advantage. The key to successful email marketing is simple - less is more. This should be pretty self-explanatory - weekly emails get annoying fast and are a quick way to end up in the spam folder. Instead, focus on making high quality and informative emails with a lower frequency. Make sure only to send out emails that have important information; otherwise, you’ll start to annoy your audience quickly.
You may also think that collecting emails is hard. While it’s not the easiest thing in the world, it’s certainly something that can be done and is easier than you think. A great way to start your email list is to set up some free downloads with a download gate. For more info, you can check out our guide to download gates here. To make your emails pop, services like Mailchimp can help you make nice templates and manage your contact database. Spend some time creating a template that represents you, and that your audience can identify you with. The sky is the limit!Subject lines are a critical element you want to make sure you get right. The right subject line makes or breaks an email. The right balance between authentic communication and clickbait is a challenge to find, but with some research online and practice yourself, you’ll be able to figure it out.
If you’re going to get into email marketing, it’s also essential to learn all about the GDPR regulations and make sure you aren’t breaking any laws. It can get expensive if you’re not careful!As you experiment more and more, email marketing will become more intuitive for you. Setting up an email list and knowing how email marketing works is a massive plus for any artist and something that you can use to communicate with your audience on a much deeper level.
