Tag Archive for: Contact Lists

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I love artists, especially indie artists like you. I live every day to help them. Sometimes I’m motivational, inspirational, educational, and sometimes I’m all three. Today is educational and it’s all about contact lists.

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Creating a life for yourself as an artist is going to require more than your amazing talent. It’s going to require a little business savvy. The business savvy ensures that, somehow, you get compensated for your creativity.

 

Sounds fair, right?

 

Contact List Crawl

 

You have to start small.

 

Crawl before you can walk.

 

 

 

Walk before you can run.

 

 

contact-lists-run-like-you-stole-something

Then run like you STOLE SOMETHING!

 

 

 

First get compensated in some way.

 

Then work towards a method to get compensated more often for your creativity. You got paid once, figure out how to do it again.

 

Now, you’re just a few tweaks away from actually making a living.

 

 

contact-lists-landmines-meme

 

 

 

There is a TON of mental landmines you’ll have to navigate (we ALL do, don’t fool yourself), but there are some common sense tactics that will point you in the right direction.

 

Step one to monetizing your fan base (or creating cash flow) is creating contact lists.

 

 

 

Most of you suck at contact lists so it’s no wonder you’re so frustrated.

 

You see, marketing at its most basic level requires REACH and FREQUENCY.

 

contact-lists-radio

 

This is EXACTLY how radio used to work for all the old souls out there reading this.

 

Contact lists allow you to reproduce the effectiveness of radio in a very DIY manner. It is slower but extremely effective.

 

Every radio station provided a certain amount of REACH within their market, and the rotational format of radio provided the FREQUENCY.

 

Radio promo required a “radio tour” visiting MANY different stations for the purposes of creating relationships that would result in spins at each station to maximize your REACH.

 

contact-lists-radio-tour

 

FREQUENCY costs money on the radio. Lots of money.

 

FREQUENCY costs money on TV too. That’s called ad space.

 

 

The power of frequency in radio to break an artist was so great that it was always going to cost money; the juice was worth the squeeze to the labels.

 

Think about frequency for a second. Today most stations are only spinning about 25-40 (ish) different songs per week.

 

Here’s the math: 12 songs per hour, times 24 hours, times 7 days = 2,016 spins per week.

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That’s a LOT of frequency for 25-40 songs.

 

That’s NOT many artists, though.

 

Also, not as many people are listening to radio these days.

 

Get it?

 

 

Now radio isn’t as powerful. At least not in the same way.

 

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You’re not going to break on radio.

 

Now consumers aren’t forced to endure the frequency because they have choices today that they didn’t have even 5 years ago.

 

 

Smartphones provide these choices.

 

 

As a consumer, you’ll find exactly what you’re lcontact-lists-radio-logo-choices-memeooking for with anyone of the 1,000 choices you have and you’re not looking to discover new music, are you?

 

No, you want to play your jam.

 

 

We all do.

 

All you indies need to be aware of that.

 

 

 

Here’s a really cool big picture SECRET: If you have contact lists, the FREQUENCY is free.

 

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I know, I know, I KNOW exactly what the naysayers are vomiting up right at this moment!

 

“Email is dead therefore contact lists are worthless. Only .1% response rate.”

 

 

This makes it very easy for you, the one who is currently ignorant about the power of contact lists, to avoid learning that marketing skill.

 

These horrible response numbers are probably true: for email spammers.

 

Buy 100,000 random email addresses and you have 100,000 contacts but you DON’T have permission from an of these contacts.

 

contact-list-telemarketer-no-permission

You know, like a telemarketer has your number but not your permission. There’s a difference.

 

 

What’s the difference you ask?

 

 

Well, if you’re providing content that is relevant and personal to your contact lists, you can experience consistent email open rates that are as high as even 75%, or higher.

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The proof is in the pudding. Here is a real image of the email chain open rates that comes out from my free Twitter Book squeeze page.

 

Here is an image of a bunch of Bailey James email open rates from her contact lists.

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This is the difference between permission and spamming.

 

 

 

 

Too many of you immediately think of “sales” as “spam” or obnoxious. We ALL hate to be sold but we LOVE a good story and good information that can help us improve.

 

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You provide the improvement information and it’s not sales, you’re helping them and building trust.

 

 

 

 

So let’s look honestly at the gifts that are easily and inexpensively available to you today for marketing.

 

REACH

 

Social Media: Not only do you get worldwide reachcontact-lists-reach for free on multiple platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, etc. (that doesn’t require a radio tour or travel or even leaving your couch for crying out loud), but you get far better targeting than you would on radio or TV.

 

 

What do I mean by that?

 

 

 

Yes, think about it. Maybe you’re a country artist on country radio but some people like this artist or that artist, and some people like “old” country as opposed to “bro” country, etc.

 

 

 

By the way, this is true of ANY genre of music like jazz, rap, hip-hop, R & B, Rock, Metal, Pop, Ska, Reggae, etc. There are sub-genres. In the business world, they refer to these sub-genres as “Niche Markets”.

 

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Country radio doesn’t articulate between these sub-genres or niche markets. Nor does urban radio, rock radio, pop radio, etc.

 

Social Media does.

 

 

Social media can REALLY get surgical which is far more efficient.

 

contact-list-far-more-surgical-memeSocial media is so efficient that with a little knowledge, you’re only spending time building relationships with potential fans that YOU KNOW like your specific sub-genre of music.

 

Less time wasted.

 

You don’t want to waste time trying to sell awesome hamburgers to a vegan community.

 

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Touring is another excellent way to target an audience that you already know absolutely loves YOU.

 

 

 

Every freaking show, you should be collecting contact data. There is no better way for an artist to create a relationship with a fan than by blowing them away with the artist’s live show.

 

Bailey James has played 1 middle school show. We got 150 contacts from that one show.

Abbey Cone is an artist I used to work with. She did a show and implemented text capture. The result was over 400 contacts in 5 minutes!

 

 

 

Now, you’ve done that.

 

You say they love you.

 

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GET THEIR INFORMATION DUMMY!

 

 

 

 

 

Squeeze pages and text capture are amazing tools to do this with.

 

You need to be downright OCD and ANAL about this process.

 

 

So you have the REACH. What are you doing about the FREQUENCY?

 

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Bottom line, it’s a psychological FACT that the human brain needs to hear a song at least 8 times before subconscious brain begins to realize that it should even pay attention to a hit song, let alone love it, know it, and live it.

 

contact-list-8-times

 

8 knocks are required before anybody even thinks of opening up that door.

 

Make sense?

 

 

 

If your content, especially video content is valuable to THEM, you can always be playing your music in the background; creating FREQUENCY.

 

For the indie artists with a little promo budget flirting with the idea of radio, one or two spins isn’t going to get it done.

 

You’d better have a budget for a boatload of spins to even make a dent.

 

Btw, the dent you may or may not be making is a “dart in the dark”.

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There’s no way to monitor it, measure it, get real numbers as to how many heard it, and who exactly heard it.

 

How about who liked it and who didn’t after they heard it?

 

 

 

With social media there is analytics.

With your contact lists there are analytics.

 

If you take the time to learn about different contact capture tactics, you’ll begin to see results.

 

 

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What I mean by that is there are Squeeze page, text capture, and other kinds of technologies that will keep you in touch with these fans.

 

 

 

Once you master the REACH of a live show or social media and capture the people who respond, you now have an opportunity to create a relationship and implement FREQUENCY to deepen that relationship.

 

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Once you have a deep enough relationship, meaning once they trust that you, the artist, cares about them, they will spend their money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember this, communication is NOT your intention, it is what is being received by the potential fan.

 

 

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It doesn’t matter that you actually do care about them. I mean, it DOES matter, but if your language, communications, and exchanges are not relevant to THEM, or personal to THEM, it doesn’t matter that you really do care.

 

 

 

 

They won’t open the emails.

 

They’ll think you don’t care because you haven’t effectively communicated that you do care.

 

Telling them you care because you really do isn’t enough.

 

You have to SHOW them you care.

 

 

 

When you start wondering how you can communicate that you care and what kind of content will be valuable to THEM, you’ll start asking the RIGHT questions.

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Once you figure out how to gain and keep permission, they’ll buy from you.

 

 

If you are OCD ANAL about building your list and (especially for touring artists) if you’re converting that list, you’ll become a successful artist who is making a nice living doing what they were born to do.

 

You have the seeds now. Just add execution and GROW YOUR BUSINESS.

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune

 

 

 

If you found value in this article, please SHARE it and COMMENT below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iceberg Feature Meme

Most of you are only scratching the surface.  You are only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to marketing your music.Iceberg Keyboard Meme

All the fans you’re ever going to need are right there, literally at your fingertips on the keyboard of your computer.

You can find them and target them.

You can connect with them.

You can create relationships with them.

You can deepen relationships with them.

You can monetize those relationships.

 

 

Iceberg TwitterTwitter is important but it’s not the only thing.

 

Instagram is important but it’s not the only thing.

 

YouTube is super important and most of you aren’t doing anything to really work that platform to its potential.

Iceberg YouTube Logo

 

Almost all of you haven’t set up your web stores. If you have, I guarantee they’re being ignored and need tweaking. There is probably ZERO bundles on these few websites that actually have web stores.

If you understand the difference between digital distribution and marketing then why on earth would you send people anywhere else but your own store on purpose?Iceberg Record Store Banner

 

30% is a TON of money!

 

Of course, you have to have a presence on all the digital distribution sites, but adding products and bundles to your web store that cannot be found anywhere else and purposefully sending people to the store will result in about 45%-55% of consumers purchasing directly from you.

 

Iceberg $1,393

 

Here’s how much: If you sold 1,000 records ($9.99 each) only on iTunes, your take would be $6,893.10.  If you set up your own web store and 55% of your fans purchased from iTunes, meaning 45% purchased directly from you (not including bundles!!) your take is $8,286.70. That’s a difference of $1,393.60.

 

 

Most of you aren’t collecting (or effectively collecting) contact data. This is akin to playing a signature lick almost correctly but with a few wrong notes. If you changed one note on The Rolling Stones “Satisfaction” lick is that ok?

CASE STUDY #1:  I want to share some real world examples and real data with you, as always.Iceberg Bailey James

We are currently working with a 12-year old artist named Bailey James. We started our working relationship with Bailey on January 2nd, 2015.

Since then we have gone from:

  • 0 – 14K targeted Twitter followers
  • 0 – 16K targeted Instagram followers
  • A few hundred to over 18k views on her YouTube Channel
  • 0 – 600+ subscribers on her YouTube Channel
  • 4 independent fan created Instagram accountsIceberg Bailey James Contact Capture
  • 1 independent fan created website
  • (in less than one month) over 160 cell phone numbers (via text capture, WATCH videos)
  • (1 month) over 800 email addresses

 

FYI, we are still in pre-production of her first EP which won’t be released at the earliest until late July early August.

 

 

Here is how important contact information is.

Iceberg Case Study 2

CASE STUDY #2:  We have run a series of autographed guitar giveaways on Facebook (designed to create massive interactivity) with several multi-platinum artists. Tell me what marketing numbers you would intelligently predict on the last artist.

 

 

 

  1. Collin Raye: 118k likes 12/5/2013 – received 100k comments in 1 hour.
  2. Jamie O’Neal: 13K likes 10/4/2014 – received 14k comments in 1 hour
  3. Andy Griggs: 43K likes 10/4/2014 – received 48k comments in 1 hour
  4. Ty Herndon: 67K likes 10/4/2014 – received 69k comments in 1 hour
  5. Tracy Lawrence: 1.1 MILLION LIKES 2/4/2015

 

How many comments would you expect?Iceberg Blind

 

We expected damn close to 1 million comments but received only 50K comments in 1 hour simply because Tracy’s Facebook fan base DIDN’T SEE THE POST. They didn’t see the post because Facebook changed the rules again. We were going to have to pay dearly to reach all those fans his team worked so hard to obtain.

 

 

Do you see how dreadfully important contact/customer lists are now? We can expect all social media platforms to behave the same way once they begin monetizing or once they go public.

 

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If we would’ve had contact information we could’ve DRASTICALLY manipulated this number.

Most of you haven’t really thought about your messaging, imaging, and content to determine if it makes sense as a whole.Iceberg Celine Dion

If your music sounds slick and super polished (Pop ish) with more universal pop like lyrics then your look should reflect that with a super polished look. It’s confusing to see a ragged looking artist with a slick sounding record…it doesn’t make sense. For example, Celine Dion wouldn’t work with torn jeans, tattoos, and a beat up biker jacket; nobody would believe her. Rather Celine needs to look glamorous. If you do leather with glamorous she can’t look like a drug addict.

Get it?

Iceberg Celine Dion Old

 

Btw, look at the early picture of Celine vs. the latter, can you see the transformation?

 

 

 

 

 

Conversely, a record loaded with rough edges, very personal edgy lyrics, a raw, more edgy sound, maybe even dark content, wouldn’t sell with a glamorous front-man. The image needs to fit the lyrics and the music.

I see far too many artists sending me songs where the lyrics don’t fit the music. Light music requires light lyrics and visa-versa.

This doesn’t mean you can’t cleverly switch it up but you have to be mindful of the chord changes, melody, and lyric content.Iceberg Breaking the Rules

It’s ok to break the rules as long as you know WHAT rules you’re breaking, HOW exactly you’re breaking them, and WHY you’re breaking them.

 

 

For instance, let’s study 2 songs with extremely dark lyric content: Shooting heroin.

 

Iceberg Mr. BrownstoneFirst look at Guns & Roses “Mr. Brownstone” from their debut record Appetite for Destruction. We all know and get the real gritty image of the band. Look at the lyrics and how literal and matter-of-fact they are. “I used to do a little, then a little wouldn’t do, so the little got more and more. I just keep trying to get a little better, said a little better than before”. Then at the end of the track W. Axl Rose says “Stuck it in the middle and I shot it in the middle and it, it drove me outta my mind, I wish I’d known better said I wish I never met her, said I’d leave it all behind.”

This is not a pop record. This is not slick. This is not glamorous.

 

Now let’s look at The La’s Lee Mavers’ pop masterpiece “There She Goes”. Despite politicking in the press, this is definitely an ode to heroin.  Iceberg the La'sNotice the song structure, the chords, and the melodies. Undoubtedly pure, saccharine, indie pop music.  These lyrics are NOT literal but quite metaphorical. It sounds like he’s talking about a girl so much that they get tons of placements on movie soundtracks sonically supporting the girl imagery, and a Christian band Six Pence None the Richer even covered and released it.

So the lyrics WORK with the chord changes and the melodies.

 

Are you picking up what I’m putting down?

 

Iceberg Sixpence

 

Side note: The La’s recorded 2 versions of this song. The first didn’t chart and the second barely broke the top 50. Six Pence None the Richer covered it and took it to #7. Look at the images. Coincidence?

 

 

 

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Now, as I type I can actually FEEL some of you rolling your eyes at this whole post. Some of you think this happens “organically” or “naturally” or you think “Everyone should just love the music, man, peace, love, and groovy-ness.”

 

 

Don’t be naïve.

Iceberg Naive Computer

This is the music BUSINESS.

 

The BUSINESS part of that phrase is about commerce, which requires sales.

 

 

Makes sense right? If you want to make a living at your dream, YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO SELL SOMETHING.Iceberg Commerce Shopping Cart

 

 

Sorry for the wounded artist souls on that one, but it’s a fact. Somebody, somewhere, somehow, has to pay money for something in order for you to make a living.

So making a living requires sales and sales requires marketing.

 

It goes deep, y’all, marketing goes REAL deep.  If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got!

 

Iceberg Titanic

 

Understand the whole iceberg and you won’t go down like the Titanic, people.

 

 

 

 

 

Stay

In

Tune

 

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