How To Grow Your Email Subscriber List

If you think email marketing is out of style, think again! It can help you reach hundreds (and even thousands) of people with the click of a button. With it, you can stay connected, alert your fans about about upcoming shows, new releases, interviews, merch drops, and so much more. But how do you grow your list? It’ll take some time, but here’s how to do it…

How To Grow Your Email Subscriber List

Use an Email Marketing Platform

If you already have a sturdy fan base, you convert those fans into email subscribers with the help of email marketing platforms like MailChimp and many other options. With them you can gain, manage, and utilize a substantial amount of contacts all in one place.

Mailchimp is a leading email marketing service in the game. With the ability to connect a store, you’ll be able to sell more merch and music in no time. They take email marketing one step further by offering various ad campaigns, clear calls-to-action and stunning templates. Mailchimp’s advanced analytics will help you define and grow your audience in a clear and streamlined fashion. This service can get pricey depending on your goals, but the extensive options they offer are invaluable. ($0-$199/month)

Social Media

If you’re an artist online, I’m sure you already have links to everything you’ve got going in your social media bio. Why wouldn’t you include a link to subscribe to your email list? You can set this up with our partner, Feature.fm, super easily. They even created this video to show you how to do it. Check that out below…

Alternatively on Facebook, you can drive traffic to your site and your email list with a call-to-action button with a “sign up” option to grow your list. In addition, you can cross-promote with other artists and really take advantage of the power of social media!

Utilize Download Gates

Download gates are one of the easiest ways to convert listeners into email subscribers. If you offer your music for free download, make sure to use a download gate that has an option for collecting email addresses. Services such as Click.Dj and Tuneboost offer a variety of options for receiving contact information from fans.

Run Competitions

Competitions are one of the best ways to convert fans into followers! You can utilize platforms like Hive or Gleam to improve your social media followings, attain more visits on your website, and, of course, collect emails. You can also give away tickets to upcoming shows, merch items, free music and more.

Something that is important to note is that you should be promoting this email list just like you do any other product. Make sure you really drive home the value that subscribing to your email list provides. Remind them that not only can your fans get free stuff, they get access to valuable information that they just can’t get anywhere else!

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🧠 Learn more…

5 Email Marketing Metrics You Need To Know

Marketing Journey for the Music Industry Part 5: Social Media Marketing

How To Improve Your Holiday Marketing Emails

2 Email Automations To Get More People To Come To Your Next Event

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Collaborate with other Brands & Artists

Collaborating with brands and other artists or record labels can help you double your email subscribers! Reach out to labels, music brands and other artists to collab and make sure to share email subscribers when its time for promotion.

If there’s no collaboration in place, simply ask a similar artist to email their list with a prompt to sign up to yours, and vice versa in return.  It might be tricky finding collaborators at first, but the more you expand your network, the more opportunities you will receive.

Collect Emails on Your Website

If you’re a musician who is serious about excelling your career, then you should absolutely have a professional website that includes a place to promote your email service. On it, you need to set up a sign-up form for fans to fill out when visiting your site.

• MailChimp offers an option that allows you to create a form to embed on your website, but there are many different ways to do this. (Check out a list of services here.)

In-Person / At Gigs

You’ve probably got a merch table set up at your shows, why not promote your email list there? Put up a sign-up sheet at your booth to collect emails from people who already love you and want to see more of you. After the show, you can send out an email thanking them for signing up.

HOWEVER, just throwing up a list and hoping for the best can only get you so far. Be sure to offer an incentive to do so like a discount on merch, free stickers, or any other token of your appreciation for taking the effort to sign up.

In Conclusion…

If you thought email marketing was an outdated technique to connect with your fans, think again! It is alive and more than just well. Here at Symphonic, we use email to send out industry news, share some of our favorite blog posts, and so much more. As someone in the industry, I subscribe to emails from all over the industry to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s going on, right from my inbox. If you don’t have a strong email list now, it’s never too late to start working towards one! With these tips, you’re on the right track.

Good luck!