7 Ways to Make Your Email Newsletter Rock

28-May-2015 By Guest Blogger

Ask a room full of marketers if they think that email newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with fans—dollars to donuts nearly all of them do; ask a room full of music fans if they enjoy reading newsletters—you tell me how they’d respond.

How’s your Zen? Creating an email newsletter that people enjoy reading and that will serve you as a musician will involve a few counter-intuitive choices. As illustrated above, a good email newsletter is both a really powerful marketing tool and really hard to pull off.

You’ve got a challenge ahead of you, but once you’ve created a newsletter that people actually enjoy reading, you’ll pull your head way above the rest of the inbox-blockage. With that said, what are the top priorities?

1. Keep a 90 to 10 Ratio of Information to Promotion in Your Emails

I told you to get Zenned up. This tip comes from the marketing geniuses at Hubspot—the truth is, when you try really hard at something, quite often it will push back and the harder you try, the harder it will push back. The same is true for promotion: an email newsletter that’s mostly promotion will end up mostly in the trash. Because, honestly, who wants to read promotion?

Your priority is to give your readers enjoyment and build a relationship with them, very few people relate to purely promotional material. You need to market yourself, of course, but let this promotion consist of a few well-placed sections that fit with the theme of the email, rather than dominating it.

2. Calls to Action: Fewer is More

For readers who aren’t marketers (here’s why you may be both) a call to action (CTA) is the point in your email where you identify what you want your customer to read/buy/visit and give them a link to do so. So if your newsletter for a given week promotes a gig, the part where you link them to the box office is the CTA.

So, how many should you have per email? As many as possible? If you ask people to see your gig, check out your YouTube, follow you on Facebook and Twitter and check out your new Bandcamp page they’ll probably do nothing, if they ever make it to the end of the sentence.

The science is in on this one: according to Ubounce, when companies give people loads of choices, customers are actually less likely to buy than when given fewer choices. Ideally, you should have one main CTA to which you’re channeling readers and a couple of secondary ones—the fewer there are, the more they’ll stand out.

3. Write in Your Own Voice

Writing a newsletter that reads like a commercial is another way to send it straight to the trash; thanks to Go Forth Music for reminding us of this. Music fans are already bombarded with marketing copy—on their way to work, on television, on the internet—reading your email newsletter written in your normal voice will be a breath of fresh air by comparison.

It must be, of course, in snappy, standard conversational English, spellchecked and well-formatted, while keeping as much of your personal voice in there as possible. People signed up to your newsletter to keep in touch with you.

4. Nail those Subject Lines

These first three tips only really matter once your fans are actually reading your email, and the top way to get them to read it is a subject line that they can’t resist. Let me guess, you don’t want to to be sitting for 10 minutes picking at a subject trying to make it sound cool. This is why doing so will get your newsletter read, because it stands out against all the boring subject lines in your fan’s inbox sent by people who couldn’t be bothered to write good subject lines.

Venture Harbour observes how people love secrets, tips and other exclusive stuff. This is part of the reason why they subscribed, to learn more about you. So, in the headline, outline briefly what information your readers can access that isn’t available elsewhere, which of your secrets are you going to reveal? Beyond that, make those subjects short, descriptive, and start with the most important word.

5. Include Video

You should always use the tools and media that best suit your craft, and video is almost the perfect medium for music because of its ability to capture the impact of a performance. You can combine tip 4 with this one, too:

Take a high-quality video of your show or rehearsal and upload it to YouTube, but adjust the privacy settings so that it’s accessible only to people who have the link. Now your email newsletter can include an exclusive video, available only to people on your mailing list. Meanwhile, if your fans use Gmail, they’ll see a video embed when they read an email in which you include a YouTube link, so they can watch, listen and read all in one place.

Don’t worry, according to Brafton, 60% of people were using Gmail in 2012, and if your fans can’t see the embedded video, they can still follow the link.

6. Keep Your Audience in Mind

Know your audience and you will know how to make the best email newsletter for them—this will involve thinking like a marketer again, but don’t worry. Who listens to your music? If your audience is primarily teenagers who are always on their smartphones, try a stripped down format that lends itself to the small screen.

If your audience is older, chances are they’ll read your newsletter on their lunch break from the office. In this case, why not make it long form and send it off timed to give them something to read when they clock off.

Your artist page on Facebook can help you to access a lot of this information, such as age and location. With such a globalized market, it’s not unlikely for musicians to pick up fans around the world. Many EDM acts, for example, have plenty fans in Mexico City—why not write to them specifically, in their own language?

Your newsletter can even be a way, in itself, to learn about your audience. The popular and free email campaign tool Mail Chimp, for example, lets you see how many people opened your email and clicked on a link. This way, you can learn what works and what doesn’t and improve your craft with every issue.

7. Keep It above Board, Make It Easy to Subscribe and Easy to Unsubscribe

If you want to succeed, you have to get your newsletter out there: collect email addresses in return for free merch at shows, allow to people to sign up through your site, and so on. At the same time, make sure you don’t get yourself in trouble: though it may be tempting, don’t add people to your list if they haven’t explicitly signed up. Remember that really cool unsolicited newsletter you got last week? Yeah, me neither.

As Music Think Tank reminds us, you are legally required to have permission to add people to your mailing list and give them the option to unsubscribe. Make it easy to unsubscribe, too.

This may sound like a strange priority, but, put it this way: if someone’s tired of your newsletter and you let them unsubscribe easily (without searching the email for the right button or having to login to a website to update one of those retched ‘communication settings’ pages) you’ll part ways on good terms and they may even re-subscribe later on. You don’t want to annoy people or make them stay subscribed but just mentally black-hole your emails, which would be much worse.

This is how it’s done. Keep it Zen, genuine, above board and original, and you can add email to your armory of tools for building and maintaining your fan base.

Post by Oliver Cox.
Oliver Cox is a contributing writer for SplashFlood, a music promotion app. He writes freelance for a number of sites and brands, specializing in music. Coming from a musical family, Oliver loves to combine is interest in music with writing, to explore how the modern musician can find success.

youbloom HEADROOM: Featured Artists from the Dublin 2015 Music Festival #3

26-May-2015 By Shannon Duvall

Artists and band members from the upcoming youbloom Dublin 2015 Music Festival let us come back and poke some more around their musical skull cases, and share a little of what makes them do what they do with us. As ever, we’re proud to have over 50 incredible, unsigned acts playing over five stages this June 12/13/14, and it seems only right that they give in to our meddling. Here’s what I wanted to know:

Tell us about the first band you were ever in. Was it good? Cringingly bad? Is this the first one!?!?! Gahhh!! How exciting!!!

“Picture this: 1990. Newbridge, County Kildare. My mate Graham Coffey gets a drum kit for Christmas. He calls everybody in our gang at school and asks who has an instrument. My “Flock of Seagulls” brother had a Yamaha DX27 synth. So I was on keys. I could play the riff from “Live and Let Die” and that was all… but it was enough! We played (that song) over and over and over, and Metrical Faucherie were born. Some things shouldn’t be born, though; WE WERE AWFUL! But straight away I was hooked on being in a band and have been ever since.”

– Rob McDonnell, guitars, Able Archer

I love the bass. Furthermore, I love a great bass sound, coming through in the mix of a song like a runaway bus through a field of daisies. Able Archer respect the bass. I love this about them, along with their sound: insistent, pounding, turned up to eleven. Set to be a show of raucous proportions, be sure to catch them on Sweeney’s Basement stage on Friday, 12/6, at 11pm.

“My first band was a punk band called Utter Confusion. I played guitar and sang, but that was because nobody else did. We made a few waves playing at a school talent show. Our first gig (was) back when I was 16. We had a song inspired by that style of UK punk called Oi. We played a song that had “Oi Oi Oi!” in the chorus, and we offended a few folks because they thought that we were racist or anti-semitic. Lots of newspapers became involved; I think we were in the New York Times, and we even got into Rolling Stone over it! It was a little story that was big for a couple of days, but we weren’t racists or anything like that so it died after shortly thereafter. But I tell you, I certainly learned that music is an art that can sometimes bring about the strangest reactions in people.”

– JM Burr, Reverend JM’s Panic Worship

One of the best things about music in Dublin is that since the city is so small, bands from wildly differing genres often find themselves drawing influence from all the other unexpected sounds around them. Reverend JM’s Panic Worship is one of the best examples of this uniquely Irish “genre-less” sound. Dark, playful melodies wind out of an assembly of unexpected instruments, played with intimate know-how. A second-to-none act, they play the Mercantile Stage on Friday, 12/6, at 9.30pm.

“Imagine four people who can barely play any instruments coming together to play a gig the next day. Best fun I’ve ever had. Stall The Digger for life!”

– Sean Wynne, lead vox and banjo, The Quakers

Yes. Just yes. If you’re not hooked from the count-in; blasted into the Quakers universe like a pistol shot in a gunfight over an insult to your Pa, and buoyed along by the gospel-meets-football-hooligan dynamism, then you, my friend have no ears. Possibly also no soul. Seriously good music. These boys are riled up and fit for fightin’, and they’re not leaving without you. Get shanghaied at the Busking Stage on Saturday, 13/6 at 5pm, and again at Sweeney’s Upstairs stage at 10pm.

“The first band I was ever in was with two of my friends from secondary school. Well, we thought we were a band! We called ourselves Halo. We rehearsed about 4 times – in total! And we had a collection of ONE song, which I can still remember writing. I was the singer, one of the girls rapped, and the other one just busted a whole lot of dodgy moves! We were shite.”

– Elaine Doyle, vocals, The Riot Tapes

Synth melodies surge around a sturdy, attractive rhythm section, giving vocalist Elaine a heady platform from which to sermonise; all significant viva voce and ‘sweet-but-not-that-damn-sweet’ songcraft sass. One of Ireland’s most notable new acts, they play Sweeney’s Basement stage on Saturday, 13/6, at 8.45pm.

youbloom HEADROOM: Featured Artists from the Dublin 2015 Music Festival #2

24-May-2015 By Shannon Duvall

Artists and band members from the upcoming youbloom Dublin 2015 Music Festival let us poke around inside the creaky corners of their musical minds and share a little of what makes them do what they do. We’re proud to have over 50 incredible, unsigned acts on this year’s bill, so it seems only proper to get to know as many as we can before getting our blessed cotton socks rocked off for three days. So I must probingly request:

“I remember hearing alternative rock bands like Nirvana , Smashing Pumpkins and the Pixies to name a few. I was hooked straight away.”
– Owen Geaney, Silent Noise Parade

“My first experience with music was going to see local bands in my hometown when I was very young. I remember being amazed at how good they were and that they could write their own material.”

– Joe Geaney, synths, Silent Noise Parade

“The one that stands out for me is the time my neighbour showed me his drum kit at his house. I was 8 years old. He was probably 16, and it was clear from the posters in his room that grunge & metal was his thing. He sat into the kit and immediately started playing along to some Metallica song, stopping and explaining each part to me as he went. I didn’t understand any of it. But I understood that this instrument was definitely the coolest thing I had heard in my life. He handed the sticks to me after a while, and told me to try it out for a few minutes while he went downstairs. Roughly 4 hours later, he politely asked me to get out of his house as they couldn’t take the noise anymore. That was fine. I had my fun and that’s all that matters.”

– Liam Hayes, drums, Silent Noise Parade

“My neighbour showed me Guns ’n’ Roses and (I was) completely blown away.”

– Gary Sherlock, vocals, Silent Noise Parade

Calling forth the moodiest, most thought-provoking pop music concepts of the late 80’s and early 90’s, soaking them in enchanting new wave atmospheres (Depeche Mode would be proud), and bringing it all home with that undeniably fathomless Irish intonation, Silent Noise Parade’s unique formula blows the dust out of your cobwebbed corners. Be moved at Sweeney’s Basement stage on Friday, 12/6, at 11.45pm.

“When I was 16, I sneaked into Éamonn Doran’s bar (now the Crown Alley) in Temple Bar. Back in the 90s it was the hub for unsigned musicians. Going down to the basement to hear Irish bands was amazing – it just made me want it even more! The smell of sweat wasn’t that cool, but the vibe, the energy, the coolness of the bands… just amazed me .” – Rachael McCormac, singer/songwriter

The Dublin powerhouse that is Rachael McCormac wields her talent like a barely tamed wild beast, chomping at the bit to give you all of what she’s got. Every shred the entertainer, with serious guitar chops and a voice that, no, will not sit down or shut up, she’s a whirlwind. She’s first on the Busking stage on Saturday, 13/5, at 4pm.

“When I was a baby my mother had a little tape recorder that she had won in a competition, and when she wasn’t taping everything that moved, she’d be playing a variety of her music cassettes, like Gilbert O’Sullivan, Perry Como, and The Beatles. I think I’ve been listening to The Beatles as a fan ever since, but whenever I hear Perry Como it can be a real nostalgia trigger for me.”

– Jerome McCormick, Imploded View

Imploded View is a one-man electronic alchemist and connoisseur of all things catchy. From the ethereal to the downright funky, his set’ll have your hips a-shakin’ before you can say “another mojito sounds great, there, mate.” His appropriately late-night set kicks off on Sweeney’s Basement stage on Friday, 12/6, at 12.30pm.

youbloom HEADROOM: Featured Artists from the Dublin 2015 Music Festival #1

22-May-2015 By Shannon Duvall

Artists and band members from the upcoming youbloom Dublin 2015 Music Festival let us poke around inside the creaky corners of their musical minds and share a little of what makes them do what they do. We’re proud to have over 50 incredible, unsigned acts on this year’s bill, so it seems only proper to get to know as many as we can before getting our blessed cotton socks rocked off for three days. So I must probingly request:

Tell us the story of the first experience you can remember having with music:

“The earliest experience I can remember is learning to play the recorder at school, around age 7 or 8. It was a squeaky, slow journey, but one that led directly on to picking up a saxophone for the first time & falling in love.” – Edwin Pope, saxophone, Mutant Vinyl

Mesmerizing, kinetic one-man electronic act Mutant Vinyl will be playing Sweeney’s Basement stage on Friday 12/6, at 1.30am. Hotly-tipped and irresistible, the live shows have attracted tons of praise – even from Sir Paul McCartney himself! Don’t miss this one.

“…I was about 3 years old, I walked into my parents sitting room…they just got a new VCR and some video tapes, (and) one of the video tapes was Now That’s What I Call Music. The first video on the tape was Kylie Minogue, “I Should Be So Lucky”. (It was) the only one I wanted to watch. My parents ended up losing the tape (read: throwing it in a skip) because they heard it so many times and went mad. (They) ended up getting me a Walkman.” – Ahren-B

Sligo-reared and soulful, Ahren-B pushes boundaries both topical and musical with his unique Irish hip-hop. His is a masterful sound, deftly navigating the choppy waters of hip-hop crossover with lyrical clarity and carefully considered – never too pushy – rock layers. He plays Sweeney’s Upstairs stage on Friday 12/6, at 9pm.

“When I was a kid, I was in a choir but I got fired. Then when I was in the school band I was moved from xlyephone (sic) to triangle; can’t believe I still can’t spell it (xylophone, I mean; not triangle!) Once I broke into my brother Jimmy’s room to mess with his drums. But still, in spite of all the Led Zeppelin posters, my first record was “Long Haired Lover From Liverpool” (by Jimmy Osmond). Then, one Christmas I remember asking my dad for “Never Mind The Bollocks” by the Sex Pistols, but I couldn’t bring myself to say “bollocks” to him. Somehow it arrived on Christmas morning, though, and my life was complete… for a while.” – Clodagh Rooney, Reverend JM’s Panic Worship

“The answer to that could be very rude, and I’m sorry that I don’t have a very juicy answer. My mother had a record that her boyfriend had given her. It was a bunch of Franciscan monks singing in a choir, recorded in a big cathedral or something like that. She used to put it on when I was going to sleep at night and I could hear it from the record player in the living room. It was a truly beautiful thing to listen to when you were finishing your day, even as a little kid. When I got older I replaced it with Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue”. Not the same, but similar.” – JM Burr, Reverend JM’s Panic Worship

“The gospel music I heard in church – at the time it was the only I music I listened to. When I was 7 years old, my older sister Melissa heard me singing off-key to one of the songs, so she took pity on me and decided to teach me how to sing. Through her training I eventually became the lead singer in the choir. It wasn’t until later that I branched out and was exposed to different genres of music. During a trip to Ocean Shores, Washington, my uncle gave me my first CD player. I was 11 years old and it was the first time I got to choose the music I listened to. I would go to the thrift store in downtown Seattle that had $1 used CDs and buy 20 random ones at a time and listen to one album after another. Some were amazing and some of them I didn’t like so much but that’s how I got exposed to artists like Joni Mitchell, Lauren Hill and Nick Drake. This has influenced my songwriting today.” – Shelita Burke, singer/songwriter

Seattle native Shelita Burke is something of a perplexity, raw of voice and precocious, charmingly facebook-shy; a warrior of the ideas kind. We can’t wait to welcome her to Ireland and be transfixed. She’ll take to Sweeney’s Upstairs stage on Sunday, 14/6, at 8.40pm.

How a music conference can help your music career

16-May-2015 By Shannon Duvall

So you heard a music conference is coming to town, did you?
If you’re into music at all, you’re probably curious, and considering bopping along to see what all the fuss is about. The words might seem familiar, but it might not be clear what really goes on at a conference for the music industry; who and what they’re for.

A music conference might sound like an intimidating experience; it’s chock full of big names, weighty topics, and technical talks. But it’s a forum which offers real insight into the world of music employment and all of the fascinating elements found within.

So who is it for?
Anyone with an involvement in, interest in, or healthy curiosity about how the music business works. The industry has changed dramatically over the years, never more so than in the last 10 years, yet music progresses on unimpeded; a truly unstoppable part of our human culture. With all of the different panels, talks, and masterful guests, the insights at any music conference stand to be outstandingly valuable.

What happens?
A guest usually books a ticket, allowing him access to the limited number of spots in whichever venue is hosting the conference.

The ticket allows a guest exclusive access to the speakers, members of the press, industry professionals, headhunters and scouts, and many more movers and shakers in the sphere of music.

The program will outline the times and topics for each slot, and the guest should then look for as many or as few of these as he or she is interested in attending. Refreshment breaks provide time to pause, and chat with other attendees. Hilarious interviews, insightful anecdotes, and group participation are all par for the music conference course.

Is it really boring?
What? No! If you’re interested in music, the day will fly by before you know it. There really is so much to learn, and when you get lots of music people together in one place, the buzz in the air is straight-up infectious! There’s no telling what could happen, really. Interviews with bands you like or artists who make you scratch your head in amazement; finding out what really happens behind the scenes; the chance to get hands-on and try out new technologies and advancements; rubbing elbows with the greats; it can all happen at a conference.

Do I have to know a lot to understand what’s going on?
Absolutely, categorically: no way. While knowing a little about the music industry might give you direction of interest, one of the coolest things about a conference is the wealth of unexpected and useful knowledge you’ll come away with. Since it’s an ever-evolving scene, there’s always something new to learn, wherever you are on the scale of knowledge, so sit back and enjoy.

What do I stand to gain from attending?
New experiences, new friends, new things to talk about at dinner, new ways to connect with just about anyone, new ideas and inspirations, new directions and informed career choices; it’s all up to you. The better question to ask yourself is what you stand to miss out on by neglecting the opportunity.

The next time one comes to your city, do yourself a favor and book in for the learning curve of a lifetime. And if you’re in and around Dublin on June 12-14 you should check out youbloom’s very own premier music fest. With over 60 bands and a full conference it’s an awesome opportunity you can’t miss! For more information click here and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

7 Ways to Make Your Email Newsletter Rock

youbloom HEADROOM: Featured Artists from the Dublin 2015 Music Festival #3

youbloom HEADROOM: Featured Artists from the Dublin 2015 Music Festival #2

youbloom HEADROOM: Featured Artists from the Dublin 2015 Music Festival #1

How a music conference can help your music career

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