Looking for a direct line of communication to your most dedicated fans? Text marketing is a great way to do just that. No matter what you want to share, you can share whatever your heart desires right to your audience’s phone. Not to mention, it’s easier than you think. Sound good? Here are all the benefits, plus the best services to make it as easy as possible. Let’s dive in…

SMS Text Marketing Services for Independent Musicians

Benefits of Text Marketing

Not only is text marketing a great way to directly communicate with your fans, it has the highest open rate of any marketing channel. It helps you nurture the relationship with your audience, promote new music, let them know about your latest merch drop, get feedback on your work, and even get data on who is engaging with you, where they are and more in-depth insights to help you in your other marketing efforts.

If you’ve got a show coming up, you can remind your fans to buy tickets before they sell out. You can even send personalized messages to thank them for their support. Your fans support you through your darkest and brightest moments. It doesn’t hurt to show your appreciation. And all the while, you get useful information to help you sell more tickets, merch, and keep everyone in the know.

As an independent artist, you’ve got a lot on your plate. Marketing is just another rung on the ladder of skills to master as a DIY creative. Luckily for you, there are services online built to make this process as easy and beneficial as possible.

Ready to try it out for yourself? Here are some of our favorites…

Best Services for Musicians

• EZ Texting
• Birdeye
• ActiveCampaign
• Texedly
• SlickText

While trying to decipher which tool is best for you, consider a couple things. Whatever you decide on, the most important features it should have are 1) the ability to give your audience the ability to opt-in or out and 2) the ability to track data and analytics like open rates and click-through rates for each campaign.

How To Grow Your Audience

Once you’ve chosen the right SMS marketing tool, it’s time to grow your audience. If you’ve built an email marketing list before, you already know how to do this. If not, here are a couple tips for getting your fans phone numbers.

• Collect phone numbers at your live shows.
• Offer free merch to fans who sign up to receive texts.
• Create a CTA (call-to-action) on your website where people can sign up.
• Offer a free link to exclusive song downloads for those who sign up.

To wrap it all up…

There are a couple rules of thumb to remember when it comes to text marketing. First, keep in mind what time you’re sending messages. Sticking to the 9-5 time frame is a safe bet. (Sending texts at 1am is creepy… Don’t be creepy.) In addition, always say who you are in every message. You never know who might’ve deleted the previous messages or who just signed up for the first time. Lastly, don’t use abbreviations like “ur” or “lol”… Just write in full sentences like your friends would normally text you. Trying too hard makes it seem like a bot is texting them rather than a real person.

✨ PRO TIP: If you’re stuck on what to write, sign up for texts from some of your favorite artists who offer it. This will give you a great starting point and get your own creative juices flowing. ✨

At the end of the day, text marketing is a great way to keep your fans up to date with everything you’ve got cooking. Not to mention get you more sales, engagement and so much more across platforms. What’s not to love?

Good luck!