Grow through consistency.
Struggling to grow your fanbase? It’s more about relationships than it is about numbers, and Suz shows you things you can do every day to strengthen those relationships & attract more people to your email list.
You’re listening to Episode 7 of the Music-Preneur Mindset Podcast.
Hello and welcome! Thanks for joining me for another episode of The Music-Preneur Mindset Podcast. I’m your host, Suz, and I am so excited your here with me as this is a brand new podcast and I’m really grateful that
you’ve decided to give it a chance and spend some time learning what it takes to think like a music-preneur!
If this is your first time listening, welcome! This is episode 7, and you can catch the last 6 episodes using your favorite podcast platform or by going to www.therockstaradvocate.com/podcast.
As this podcast is all about getting into the right mindset to grow a sustainable career in the music industry, I’ve created a freebie for each episode so that you can download it and apply what you’ve learned in an episode right away in order to work the muscles of a new skill set or habit.
You’ll find these freebies in the show notes of each episode so be sure to check them out!
Now that I’ve walked you through what to expect, let’s dive in!
In this episode I want to discuss list building, or growing your email list. This is an important piece of the fan building puzzle and one that is all-too-often overlooked by music-preneurs.
Please know list building and email marketing is an INCREDIBLY dense topic and while there’s a lot I’ve learned over the years, I don’t want to stray too far from what we’re here to focus on – healthy habits & sustainable structures for success.
So I’ll mention the basics and in the show notes of this episode, as well as in future episodes, I’ll provide additional Rocksources where you can dive deeper into these areas, should you feel ready to do so.
ALWAYS remember that if you’re focused on a certain path or working on a particular project don’t abandon it to take on an entire new skill set. Take in the information and then save it somewhere you can access in the future
when you’re ready to give it your full attention.
I also want to be clear that this information is useful for musicians as well as services providers within the industry – managers, booking agents, PR consultants, etc. Music-preneur as an all-encompassing term in this podcast :-D!
I’m sure most of you are constantly hearing how important your list is and that emails are gold, yada yada yada…. right?
Most of us understand why collecting emails is important – we don’t own the social media channels we build our followings on and should one or many disappear {much like Myspace did back in the day} we don’t want to
lose our ability to contact our followers directly.
That, we get. But yet so many music-preneurs still fail to put time & energy into building their lists. I believe it’s because the steps involved are not clear, or feel overwhelming, so they avoid it. There’s also the matter of knowing what to say each week or month to their audience.
Sound familiar?
There are courses, blogs, and YouTube videos out there that can provide wonderful tips on things you can do to increase subscribers on your email list. Personally, I enjoy Nathalie Lussier’s 30 Day List Building Challenge
and Amy Porterfield’s List Builder’s Lab.
And while those recommendations are great for attracting more fans or potential clients onto your list, there are things you need to know that are crucial for understanding the basics of list building as well as the daily behaviors and mindset needed to see results.
I’m going to walk you through some important vocabulary so that you’re not in the dark when seeking out support in this area. After all, if you don’t know what certain pieces of the puzzle are called, how will you know what to search for when looking for resources?
Once you understand the terms you’ll also be able to see more clearly how all the parts fit together, bringing down any overwhelm you may have.
I’ll then break down common daily tasks you can do to build consistency in your list building efforts, as well as the mindset necessary to maintain momentum.
Let’s first start with a few basics when it comes to terms used in most list building course & tutorials. These are not terms often heard within the music industry, so it’s important to familiarize yourself with these terms, as they are common in the entrepreneurial world – and after all, we’re all here to learn how to be better entrepreneurs, are we not?
#1 is Opt-in or Lead Magnet or Lead Generating File.
This is a giveaway you provide in exchange for someone’s email – they “opt into your list” in order to gain access to the free gift or resource.
Most of the time musicians use a free song as their opt-in. As we move further into the realm of streaming music, I suggest you take some time to get more creative with what you use as your opt-in.
In Episode 6, The Art of Being a Music-Preneur, I introduced my Fan Funnel Checklist as the free download for that episode in order to help you get your feet wet with this process in determining what a valuable opt-in would be for your audience.
Don’t be afraid to get creative and don’t hesitate to ask your audience what they would prefer. Just be sure to give them 2-3 options to choose from or vote on, rather than asking them open-ended-ly what they would like.
Naturally, then an Opt-In Page or Form refers to where you send people to enter in their email info in order to receive the free offer. This can also be referred to as a Sales Page or Lead Capture Page or Squeeze Page.
When someone refers to the Double-Opt-In method, which is the preferred method, they are referring to the subscriber having to enter their email and then click on an additional link to confirm said subscription, delivered to them via a confirmation email.
Many will tell you, myself included, this is the preferred method as it ensures the person meant to subscribe and avoids spam bots and other ill-advised email practices.
In Mailchimp you would personalize a confirmation email, and then either send them a separate Welcome Email or send them directly from the Confirmation Email to a Thank You Page in order for them to access their Lead
Magnet aka free gift. Which brings us to the next term…
#2 is Incentive Email.
If you use Mailchimp you may refer to this as a Welcome Email. If you use something like ConvertKit, they combine the Confirmation Email & Welcome Email into one Incentive Email that allows the subscriber to click a link to confirm their subscription and ConvertKit automatically links your Lead Magnet to that link and the download begins
immediately. So it’s still a double-opt-in process without having to send two emails.
#3 is The Thank You Page.
It’s a landing page {which is another name for a webpage – somewhere where a user lands upon completing an action} that thanks them for subscribing. You can send them here after they confirm their email in the Confirmation Email, however subscribers are usually directed to the Thank You Page as soon as they submit their email in the
Opt-in Form on the Opt-in Page.
You may have seen this step as a pop-up window or separate page that thanks you for submitting your email and tells you to go check your inbox to verify your subscription in the Confirmation Email that’s on it’s way.
Although I may have introduced you to a few other names you hadn’t heard before, those terms and functions are probably ones you may already be familiar with if you’ve ever given away a free download for signing people up for your list.
These next few terms, I’m not going to dive too far into in this episode, as they require a separate episode all their own, but I do want you to understand the concepts so that you can eventually use the list building skills I’ll soon go over and scale them into a larger system that not only builds your list, but creates another stream of income for your business.
If you’ve followed me online the last few months you’ve most likely seen me post stuff about Email Funnels & Sequences. This is the next phrase I want you to be familiar with as a music-preneur.
Email Funnels simply refer to the journey you take a subscriber on with an intended purpose of getting them to take a larger action than simply subscribing, such as purchasing a service of product from you.
Whether it’s to join you on Patreon or join a group consulting program you’ve put together, or attend a VIP event, you don’t want to shove a service or product down a new fan/potential client’s throat.
You want to nurture that Know-Like-Trust Factor and send them a small series of emails that allow them to get to know you, relate to you, learn from you, etc. We call that an Email Sequence.
A Funnel could be made up of multiple Sequences, but I’ll leave that alone for now. In order to see results from these efforts you do not have to get crazy complicated. You simply need a well-thought-out pathway & destination for the people who sign up to your list. Which brings us to our next 2 terms:
#s 4 & 5 are Automations & Segmentations.
Automations are the rules you set up in your Email Service Provider {Mailchimp, ConvertKit, AWeber, etc.} to trigger certain emails in a Sequence to be sent once an action by a subscriber is taken {such as they click on a specific link in the last email} or a certain amount of time has passed and every 3-4 days they will get another email in the Sequence.
Segments, again I won’t dive too full into this, are pieces of your larger list that may represent subscribers who all share a certain trait {i.e. they live in the same region or they are all in a certain age bracket}. You may only wish to send a particular Email Sequence to a specific Segment of your list based on the opt-in they chose or when they joined your list.
Outside of Sequences, maybe you have an 18+ show in New Hampshire and you only wish to send that announcement to subscribers who live in the Northeast region of the US and who are 18 years or older. Just know if
there are certain subscriber demographics you wish to be able to track you’ll want to include those fields on your sign-up form.
Otherwise you can segment by subscriber activity, such as sending out an email only to those who opened your last 2 newsletters or purchased tickets to your last show. Speaking of purchasing…
#s 6 & 7 are Tripwire & Up-Sell.
These are terms you hear frequently in other industries, but not so often in music. We usually say “premium package” or “bundle & save” or “upgrade” but these terms aren’t much different.
Remember when I was describing the Email Funnel – this is where these terms fit in. Let’s say someone subscribes to download a free resource. You send them their Incentive Email to deliver the download link and then in a
follow-up email you discuss a related product that’s available for a very small investment {under $10}. If they buy that product, they’ve opted into your Tripwire. It’s a small way to get them started in investing in you.
An Up-Sell is pretty much how it sounds. After someone’s purchased a smaller item from you you’d send an email or two introducing them to another related product or service that requires a bit more of an investment. Maybe $50, maybe $250. You have to experiment and see what makes sense for your audience, as well as the value you’re able to deliver in exchange for that investment.
The key with Email Funnels is to make sure the items you’re promoting are all related to one another. Otherwise it’s not a funnel, just a hot mess of random emails. It should be noted not every subscriber will continue through the funnel and open every email. This bring us to our last term for today’s episode…
#8 is the term Conversion Rate.
You may be familiar with this term if you’ve ever done Facebook Ads or something similar. While the goal is to
grow your list, it’s important you focus on growing your Conversion Rate. Open Rate, clearly, is the percentage of subscribers who click to open the email you’ve sent.
Conversion Rate is the percentage of THOSE subscribers who take the action you’ve asked them to take – such as clicking on a link to download something or RSVP to an event or purchase a service or product.
And while there is a LOT of data out there that claims to tell us what a “good” Conversion Rate is, you can normally expect the percentage in the single digits most times. So if you have 100 people on your list, and 30 open the email {which is a healthy Open Rate}, you can expect approximately 2-3 people taking the action you want them to take inside that email.
That’s why you want to be putting energy every day towards growing your email list so that 5% or so Conversion Rate of a larger number will result in a larger number of sales or downloads.
There’s a LOT you can do with Sequences, Segmentation, and Up-Sells to increase your Conversion Rate, but in order to see results you must put thought & care into crafting your emails and creating valuable content to
sell. For right now, let’s just be good with understanding what the terms mean and keep it simple for the time being.
Now that you’re familiar with the terms, let’s dig into how you can fold in certain list-building tasks & behaviors into your already jam-packed schedule. In short, it all comes down to organization & solid time management through batching and formatting your content.
First, create a Relationship Building Routine.
Commenting on posts in FB groups, joining Twitter chats/threads, sharing other people’s content, asking your fans questions and showing up daily with interest in what they’re doing. This all builds consistency, allowing your followers to learn that you’re not going anywhere and are worth the investment of their time and attention.
This doesn’t need to take up your entire day. On the contrary. You should set aside 10-15 minutes each day to check in with a few different accounts and leave an authentic comment/feedback {if you truly wish to make a connection and get people’s attention, please stay away from the “I see you!” or “Great profile!” comments}.
You can then set aside a more invested amount of time, like an hour, a few times a week or once a week or whatever you can handle, to get involved in more in-depth conversations and interactions online.
Set goals. Set parameters. Set a timer. Keep yourself accountable and don’t let a brief check-in become a never-ending rabbit hole of cat videos. Remind yourself why you’re online and what you came to do – build relationships and attract new fans.
My freebie for today’s episode is a worksheet you can use to flush out your routine for building a stronger connection with your fans. Feel free to print it out and keep it near your laptop or save it to your phone so it’s
easily accessible at any time. You can download it by going to www.therockstaradvocate.com/ep7.
I know the inclination is to set up a bot or get an app that follows and unfollows with some algorithm that will grow your follower numbers. Keep in mind #1 – this won’t get people engaged and taking action to join your list
and #2 – a large list of followers with a low percentage of engagement is useless.
Numbers don’t buy products – people do.
Having a consistent, simple routine each day will not only keep your energy focused on attracting new fans or potential clients, it will allow you build your connection with your current following, increasing your Know Like Trust Factor – something a bot can’t do for you.
As I said, don’t overthink it. Keep it doable. It’s not about numbers here, it’s about consistency.
Now that you have a RBR, let’s focus on utilizing that Routine to Get the Word Out without being spammy on one end, and overwhelmed on the other.
Let’s find that sweet spot, shall we?
In later episodes I’ll go over tips for creating a winning opt-in, complete with resources to help keep it simple. For now, make sure your opt-in is something that brings value to your audience – in THEIR eyes – and is easy to digest and/or something that provides immediate gratification.
Keep it simple with one Opt-In and one Opt-In Page/Form for collecting emails. You can have a separate Opt-In Page as well as a form embedded on the homepage of your website, or at the top/bottom of every blog post, or via a pop-up box that appears when people visit your site – there are many options available when it comes to where you capture people’s emails online.
There are plugins you can use to test out various pop-up boxes and embedded forms, but if you’re new to this I’d stick to the embed codes provided by your Email Service Provider such as Mailchimp. I’ll leave a link to such a plugin in the show notes, should you be at a point where you’re ready to test out new possibilities.
After you’ve got the structure in place, start to get the word out about your Opt-In and where/how people can get it!
When it comes to choosing the best Opt-In for your audience – as I said earlier – ASK YOUR AUDIENCE what is valuable to them. Post polls, give them a few choices, and see what resonates. Be sure to also do some research and see what other music-preneurs who have similar audiences are giving away.
It doesn’t mean you should copy them – maybe their freebie isn’t working for them. But maybe a few have some creative ideas or are catering to a specific need or solve a certain problem. Let those ideas inspire you to come up with your own value-driven freebie.
They say it takes people seeing something at least 7 times before they decide to buy or take action of any kind. So make sure you’re letting people know you have this awesome content available for nothing more than a simple email!
When it comes to promoting a product or service, don’t go straight to social media, because that’s not where people buy {unless the channel is Pinterest, which is a whole other story}.
People are on social media to CONNECT, gain knowledge, and/or find immediate solutions to their problems. That’s why it’s a great place to list build – you’re offering FREE value to them rather than sell to them {which is what your eventual Email Sequence is for}.
Look into FB Ads and ways to shine a light on your freebie and/or the weekly content you deliver in a blog or newsletter. Again, I won’t get into the nuts & bolts of FB Ads here, but you can find some helpful Rocksources in the show notes.
It can get tiring always talking about your freebie and your email list, so don’t. Rather, batch a number of posts that tackle the topic from different perspectives or say the same thing in different ways using images, video, and engaging copy, and then set it and forget it!
Mix in posts highlighting this free content that’s available for download with other content like behind-the-scenes posts, shared content, funny memes, etc. Just make sure it gets out to your audience multiple times and in multiple ways.
Now that you have a few tasks to keep you focused daily on building your list, here are some tips for keeping a healthy mindset throughout the process.
#1 Ignore Unsubscribes.
If you’re getting email notifications from your provider when someone unsubscribes I want you to immediately sign into your account and disable those notifications. You want to focus on the people who DO subscribe and who ARE interested in the content you’re providing.
Getting notifications of unsubscribes will only chip away at your positive energy & focus. You rarely learn why they’ve left {and the reasons could be endless and often have nothing to do with the value of your content} and
in the end it doesn’t matter.
Look at unsubscribes as a form of weeding out followers who are not ideal and it can serve to increase your open rate as you’ll now have more people on your list who WANT to be there.
#2 Focus on Conversion Rate.
If people aren’t clicking on your link to visit your Opt-In page, or if they are but they aren’t entering their email, then
that indicates your choice of Opt-In or your copy on that page is simply off and needs some fine-tuning.
Either way, always go back to engaging your audience and asking for their feedback. Stay focused on why you want more people on your list, and what action(s) you eventually want them to take.
Keeping list building activities to a small part of your daily routine will increase your consistency as well as keep all of this in perspective.
Ultimately, you’re more than your list. This stuff doesn’t have to consume you. If you focus on your fans and how you can best serve them the rest will come.
With that being said, I invite you to download the Relationship Building Routine Worksheet and learn ways to avoid spamming your audience while creating a logical journey for them to follow while you increase your know-like-trust factor with them.
The goal is to bring them from interest to investment, but all too often people skip the crucial steps inside this journey and jump straight to the hard sell, which doesn’t work.
It doesn’t feel good doing it, and it doesn’t feel good hearing it as a fan. So let’s change that, shall we?
You can go to www.therockstaradvocate.com/ep7 and download the worksheet to ensure you’re taking purposeful action each day to engage & build your audience.
I thank you for listening to today’s lesson in thinking more like a music-preneur. I know this was an in-depth topic and I hope I’ve managed to keep your attention up to this point.
If there is any way that I can help you determine an effective Opt-In, learn better ways to engage with your fans, or get some clarity on what you’re going through, I’d be more than happy to!
Feel free to email me at any time: suz@therockstaradvocate.com.
Until next time, Rockstar! Have a wonderful week and I hope to see you back here next Wednesday so we can get grounded to get rising! Take care.
Key Highlights
- What NOT to do when learning something new [01:57]
- 2 of my favorite List Building resources [03:16]
- What is an Opt-In or Squeeze Page? [04:31]
- What’s meant by Double Opt-In? [05:31]
- What’s an Incentive Email? [06:15]
- Understanding Email Funnels & Sequences [07:37]
- Purposes of Automations & Segmentations [09:05]
- Using Tripwires & Up-Sells [10:24]
- Understanding Conversion Rates [11:48]
- Daily actions you can take to grow your list [13:11]
- Getting the word out [16:53]
- Keeping a healthy mindset [18:52]
Determine actions to take each day to grow your fanbase in an engaged & authentic way.
By downloading this freebie, you’ll be added to my weekly newsletter. You’re welcome to unsubscribe at anytime.
Links/Rocksources
- Theme music brought to you by DC-based Indie/Pop band Sub-Radio
- More episodes can be found here
- You can download a copy of the episode’s transcript here
- Take Nathalie Lussier’s 30 Day List Building Challenge here
- Amy Porterfield’s List Builder’s Lab 2.0 online course is here
- My Fan Funnel Checklist from Episode 6 can be found here
- Try ConvertKit {*this is an affiliate link}
- Try MailChimp
- PopUp Ally is the plugin I use for my Opt-In pop-ups & embeds
- Rick Mulready has great resources on FB Ads here
Thanks for listening!
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