Your email list is the key to nurturing casual social followers into loyal, paying customers. Here's how:
I HATE to say I told you so! But every Instagram outage or Twitter glitch is proof of what I've been saying all along - you can't leave your customer base in the hands of Big Tech. When those social platforms go out, do you have a way of communicating to your audience? Did you even know who your audience is?!
This is why email lists are so important. They're not dependent on other people's platforms - they're YOURS.
Also, a person who subscribes to your email list is WAY more likely to actually buy something from you down the line than someone who just follows you on Instagram. If you have 30,000 Instagram followers but not one of those people will pay $1 for a song or $5 for an album or $10 for a show ticket, then what do you really have? Nothing you can make a living on, that's for sure. Vanity metrics are meaningless if they don't translate into a loyal, invested community of humans who care.
So how do you find out which followers care the most? How do you nurture your audience from just being casually aware of you to actually showing up and buying stuff? The answer is your drip campaign. You'll offer them incentives for subscribing. You'll share behind-the-scenes stories so they feel connected. You'll ask them questions to get them involved. You'll offer discounts on merch and tickets. You'll invite them to members-only livestreams. You'll share exclusive photos and videos not shared anywhere else. Or some combination of the above. And once you've GIVEN plenty of value, time and time again, THEN you'll ask them "to open thy hearts and thy wallets", as Bandcamp says. But no one wants to say subscribed to something that only asks them for money. They have to get something out of it. So think about what YOU have to offer, and set up your series to run automatically in the background.
Shoot me an email and let's work together to turn your followers into customers!
Have you used email marketing before? What's worked or not worked for you? Let me know in the comments, and let's compare notes! Thanks, talk soon -M