Squeeze Pages and Marketing Music Online

Squeeze Page Music Marketing image

Johnny Dwinell

Squeeze pages are an absolute necessity if you plan to sell any of your music online.  Wait, they are a necessity if you plan MAKE A LIVING selling your music online.

At 30,000 feet, here’s the breakdown.  A squeeze page is a one page web address where you and the consumer get “tit for tat”.  They give you their information IN RETURN for something, you give them something in return for their email address and name.  For instance, the most common use of this in the music industry is where a consumer is driven to the squeeze page and they enter their name and email address in return for a free download of the artist’s music track.  Check out some of the Daredevil Production artist’s squeeze pages below, and feel free to get your free tracks if you want.  J

Squeeze Pages

 

Haggardfan.com Artist: Craig GerdesSqueeze Pages Gerdes image

Unclerowdy.com Artist: J.C. Bridwell

Awomanscorned.ca Artist: Tanya Marie Harris

As you can see these are not the artist’s website, they are squeeze pages with one purpose; to gather contact information so the artists can market to the consumers directly.  When a consumer converts on the site, they immediately get their free download and automatically jump right to the respective artist’s website (or at least they should).  So the idea here is that you will use all the exposure/marketing tools you have (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube, Indie Radio, Magazine Interviews, Live Shows, Press Releases, etc.) to DRIVE traffic to the squeeze page.  They input the contact data and now you are building a customer list.

 

SIMPLE PREDICTABLE MATH EQUATIONS

  • Exposure = traffic.
  • Traffic + squeeze page (aka lead capture) = Potential customers (aka “prospects” aka “prospect conversions” as they converted through the squeeze page)
  • Potential Customers (Prospect conversions) + effective sales funneling = SALES$$$$.

That’s the broad strokes at 30,000 feet.

John Oszajca has an incredibly comprehensive course on this.  It costs money but it’s quite effective and for an artist who hates computer bullshit like me, the videos walked me through every step of music marketing process…he actually shows you how to do everything.  I bring it up not because I am trying to push it on you or sell it to you, but because I am going to quote a predictable math equation directly from this course that will blow your mind and I want to give credit where credit is due; John Oszajca.  I will leave a link below if you are interested in exploring it further.

Let’s say you make $40,000 a year at your crappy job that you work to pay the bills until you make it with your music career.  If you could make $40,000 per year with your music it would be much easier to leave that job, yes?

So watch me turn the above equation into real $$$.

Once you have your customer list, the goal is to get your average-revenue-per-email-address up as high as you can.  My previous business experience has shown me that with an effective sales funnel, these numbers are pretty solid, and once again, mathematically predictable in any business, in any industry.

Let’s say you have 1,000 email addresses from your squeeze page (we will talk about how to accomplish that in a bit).  Essentially these 1,000 email addresses are potential customers or “prospects” as we call them in the business world; you could also call them “sales leads” (if it doesn’t make you want to throw up in your mouth a little bit LOL) because that’s exactly what they are.  Talk to any 100 successful sales professionals in any business and they will tell you that sales leads usually convert around an average of 5% (give or take depending on the salesman).  So, out of these 1,000 email addresses, only 50 will probably purchase your CD for $10; that’s gross revenue of $500 or an average-revenue-per-email-address of .50 cents.

  • 1,000 (email addys) x .05 (5%) = 50 (buyers) (no longer prospects)
  • 50 x $10 = $500 (gross revenue)
  • $500 (gross revenue) ÷ 1,000 (email addresses) = .50 cents (average-revenue-per-email-address)

Are you with me so far?

Now, out of the 50 buyers, any savvy sales associate will tell you that 30% of the buyers are willing to be up-sold for a better deal, a package of some sort (like merch, or an old CD, some demo recordings, or autographs, access to you at live shows, private performances, or whatever you can dream up.)  So, that means that 15 of the 50 buyers are predictably inclined to spend more money for a better deal.  So if you create a package that includes the $10 CD plus another $40 worth of stuff, you have 15 people spending an extra $40 dollars right?

  • 50 (buyers) x .30 (30%) = 15
  • 15 x $40 = $600 (additional revenue)
  • $600 (up-sell pkg revenue) + $500 (CD sales revenue) = $1,100 (gross revenue)
  • $1,100 (gross revenue) ÷ 1,000 (email addys) = $1.10 (average-revenue-per-email-address)

Hang in there…this is where it gets FUN!

Any experience sales person in any business will also agree that roughly 5% of the buyers are willing to REALLY be up-sold.  This equates to roughly 2.5 people out of the 50 buyers who will buy a BIG package.  For example, the $10 CD, plus the $40 package, PLUS….I don’t know, let’s say you offer a 1 hr acoustic private performance in their living room (or at a frat party, or a BBQ or whatever) for $400 discounted down from the normal $800 you get when purchased by itself…you pickin up what I’m putting down??  This would mean that 2.5 people would be willing to spend an additional $400 to get the best package you have to offer.

  • 50 (buyers) x .05 (5%) = 2.5
  • 2.5 x $400 = $1,000 (additional best pkg. revenue)
  • $1,000 (additional best pkg. revenue) + $1,100 (up-sell pkg. revenue) + $500 (CD revenue) = $2,100 (GROSS REVENUE)
  • $2,100 (Gross Revenue) ÷ 1,000 (email addys) = $2.10 (average-revenue-per-email-address)

In other words, you can build your business to $2,100 per 1,000 email addresses.

Remember our original goal was to replace the $40,000 per year you are making at your crappy job, right?  Well, the question now is how many email addresses do I need to make $40,000 this way??  I’m gonna say that again…now the question is how many email addresses do I need to make $40,000 per year.  Awesome!

  • $40,000 ÷ $2,100 = 19.05 ($2,100 goes into $40,000 19.05 times)
  • 19.05 x 1,000 (email addys) = 19,047 (email addys)
  • You would need around 19,047 email addresses per year to make $40,000 per year.

19,047 (email addys) ÷ 365 days per year = 52.1 (email addys) that you would need per day.  WOW!!!  That looks a lot easier, huh?

Squeeze Page Traffic

Now, the next question is how much traffic do you have to drive to your squeeze page per year to generate 19,047 conversions???  Well, if you set up your squeeze page correctly, you should be able to generate around a 25% conversion rate, I have seen higher conversion rates with some really hot products in the past but I believe that 25% is TOTALLY doable.  To be transparent, I have also seen lower conversion rates as well.  I have seen them on my own squeeze pages!!  This just means your squeeze page requires tweaking, but it can always be improved.

So here’s the equation:

  • 19,047 ÷ .25 (25%) = 76,188 visitors to the squeeze page.
  • 76,188 visitors ÷ 365 days = 208 people per day.

Get it?  208 people per day to a squeeze page is EASY.

208 visitors per day with a 25% conversion rate = 52 email addresses per day.  With a $2.10 average-revenue-per-email-address = $40,000 per year!!!

416 visitors per day with a 25% conversion rate = 104 email addresses per day.  With $1.05 average-revenue-per-email-address = $40,000 per year!!!

THESE NUMBERS DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR TICKET REVENUE.  Squeeze Pages Concert Tix image

THESE NUMBERS DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR CD REVENUE AT THE SHOW

THESE NUMBERS DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR MERCH REVENUE AT THE SHOW.

You can make a living doing what you love to do, but you have to be a bit of a business person.

If you would like step by step instructions from John Osazjaca’s Music Marketing Manifesto on how to set all this up and seriously make a living with your own music online, you can check it out HERE

Listen get it don’t get it, I don’t give a shit.  The business model is sound.  I just wanna help more of y’all make money so I can produce your next record!

Stay tuned next week for some tips on driving traffic to your squeeze page and general online marketing.

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