Email Marketing: How music artists can build their email list.

Most music artists focus their attention solely on building their social media profiles to promote music. Social media is a great place to grow a music audience, but it still doesn't match the effectiveness of email marketing for musicians.

Email is important because it gives you direct ownership and control of your contact list. With email, no algorithm or platform change can affect your ability to communicate with your fans. Email is personal and direct, while also allowing you to communicate with thousands of contacts at once.

The most significant upside to using email is that you know that an engaged email list is genuinely interested in your brand. Social media warps people's behavior through the vanity metrics of trying to gain more followers. You never really know how many of your followers are true fans, and how many followed you to get the follow back. With email, that problem doesn't exist. If you regularly engage with your email list, you can expect many of your contacts to convert into regularly paying customers and loyal fans.

It is crucial always to be building your email list because it is a very valuable marketing channel. And one of the best ways to build your list is by offering a free gift on your website in exchange for a visitor's email address. This is known as a lead magnet or a lead generator and is an effective way of building your list. Artists often ask me what they should offer as a gift in exchange for their website visitor's email, and so here are five creative ideas for building your email list with a lead generator:

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A free video series

Create a series of videos that are sent to your subscribers over several days and explore a topic uniquely interesting to your fanbase. This could be a fashion series that explores your style or a video series on how to freestyle rap. It could be a series that explores your creative process, how you work in the studio, or it could even be a comedy mini-series.

A free package of music

In general, I don't advise using music as your free gift. Because we're so used to having millions of songs at our disposal for free that many people won't attribute enough value to a free mp3, and hence won't be inspired to sign up. However, if you offer a larger package of music such as a mixtape, or an EP, then it could be worth doing.

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A free downloadable guide/e-book

Depending on your audience, you can make this entertaining, informative, quirky, or educational. Maybe you write a guide on how to recreate your signature bass sound in the studio. It could be a guide to your local music scene or even a guide on how to style your signature hairstyle. Remember, the key is to be creative, think outside the box.

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Exclusive access

A great way to attract new subscribers is to offer exclusive access or content in exchange for your fan's email address. For example, subscribers could get a free live-stream concert once a month, or access to live Q&A sessions with you or access to a private members-only Facebook Group.

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Discounts

Another great way to incentivize your audience to sign up is to offer them discounts. Us humans love discounts and are highly motivated to engage with them because of the FOMO factor. Use this to your advantage by offering discount codes to your online store or special prices for your live shows.

Now that you have a few creative ideas for how to generate sign-ups to your email list, it's time to get to work creating your lead generator. If you create something truly unique that your target audience will love, you should be able to build a very decent sized email list that will serve as a rock-solid foundation for your business.

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