Email marketing is essential for converting fans and driving engagement. Leveraging channels where you directly own the fan data, like email, social media, and your website can result in higher sales and gross revenue.

To help, we put together some of our top direct-to-fan email tips to inspire you to create your best music marketing campaigns yet:

Make sure your emails are on-brand

You must be consistent across your content, from design to copy. If you're not, it can be unclear to fans. We also suggest that you stick to 2-3 fonts so your email isn’t distracting to read.

Segment your email list

Campaign Monitor found that segmented email campaigns resulted in as much as a 760% increase in revenue. Dividing fans into groups based on interests, behaviors, or demographics will help power up your email marketing. Generally, segmentation is demographic (gender, job title, preferences) or behavioral data (what they buy and click on). However, you can use any data related to a specific email address to create an influential segment.

For example, you can email your fans who have bought vinyl in the past to let them know that a new limited edition vinyl is releasing. Or, you can generate an email campaign combining merch and ticket data for your upcoming tour, hitting regional areas with special VIP tour packages that include exclusive tour merch.

Pro Tip: You can grow your email list with every stream you have on Volume.com. Target them with future livestreams and in-person opportunities as you de-anonymize them by having them join your Volume community.

Personalize, Personalize, Personalize

You’ve heard it before, but personalization equals higher conversions and engagement rates–studies have shown that personalized emails are six times more likely to drive conversion. Fueling these personalized direct-to-fan relationships with your owned data can help you demystify fans, allowing you to tailor messaging, create very cool experiences, and increase conversions. With your audience defined, you know what matters to them, so your messaging should be relevant.

And if you will email during the holidays, make a promotional plan for your artist that makes sense. It’s the spammiest time of the year, so make sure you’re reaching a segmented list that celebrates that holiday and would be interested in what you offer.

A/B test to see what resonates

A/B testing will be your BFF–Litmus found that when you A/B test your emails, you can see as much as a 28% higher return. We love it because it takes the guesswork out of email marketing and serves the best-engaged content to the rest of your audience. You should be A/B testing your content and timing, but the pro tip is to test only one element at a time, or your results will be inconclusive.

Optimize subject lines and pre-headers because it’s the first impression fans will get when they receive your email. Tease what your email is offering in the pre-header. If you’re providing something to fans, call it out in the subject line–but keep it short (30-50 characters, including spaces, so it’s not cut off).

Quality > Quantity

Figure out what frequency works with your audience. If you’re noticing a decrease in email opens or clicks, your fans might be experiencing email fatigue, so lay off the gas and slow down the emails.

Take a step back and look at what value you can provide. Some examples of emails that are worth sending that could result in sales and engagement are:

  • You’re playing in the city/area your targeted audience has previously attended
  • You have a new merch line of kid's items that parents in your audience would love
  • You’ve curated content into a newsletter that resonates with a specific segment
  • Your artist has a new album dropping, and you’re sending out a music promotion email

Don’t appear spammy

Here are some tips so you don’t automatically get pushed to the spam folder:

  • Don’t use noreply in your email. Many services will filter any email address with noreply straight to the spam inbox.
  • Make sure fans have opted in!
  • Make it easy for fans to unsubscribe from your emails if needed.
  • Proofread your emails before you hit SEND.
  • Follow anti-spam laws and regulations (if you use a professional email marketing tool, you don’t have to worry about all the legal stuff.)

Keep the main message and call-to-action (CTA) above the fold

When you look at an email, above the fold is everything visible to you before you scroll down. A study by Nielsen found that 57% of a viewer’s time is spent on above-the-fold content, while only 17% is spent on anything beneath the fold. That’s why keeping your most important call to action close to the top of your email is critical.

Also, limit the number of CTAs in your email to 3 max. Your audience should be tailored to the desired action you want them to take, so having too many CTAs is a good clue that the goal of your campaign is still unclear.

Pay attention to the metrics.

Open rates, click-to-open rates, and unsubscribes are just a few metrics you should pay attention to. They’ll tell you if there’s room for improvement and help optimize your email marketing strategy.

Here are some key email marketing metrics you may want to know:

  • Open rate: How many of your delivered emails were “opened” will help you gauge the effectiveness of your subject lines, email deliverability, and subscriber engagement. Here’s how it’s calculated: (the number of emails opened / by the number of emails delivered) x 100
  • Click-to-open rate (CTOR): How many of your opened emails were clicked on. This is different from click-through rates as it relies on opens. Here’s how it’s calculated: (number of emails clicked / number of emails opened) x 100
  • Conversion rate (CVR): How many people took the action you wanted them to from your email. Here’s how it’s calculated: (number of conversions/number of emails delivered) x 100
  • Bounce rate: How many of your sent emails bounced or weren’t delivered. Here’s how it’s calculated: (number of emails bounced / number of emails sent) x 100
  • Unsubscribe rate: Measures how many people opt out of your emails. Generally, you should aim for less than 1-2%. Here’s how it’s calculated: (number of unsubscribes/number of emails delivered) x 100

You can determine the metrics that matter by the purpose of your emails. For instance, if you want fans to buy tickets to a show, you’ll want to check click-to-open rates and your UTM links to see who converted from your email.

Keep your email list clean

People don’t tell you that it’s important to clean your list regularly. An outdated email list will cost you a lot of money, and too many bounces and invalid email addresses can cause your email campaigns to hit spam thresholds.

To reduce the chance of your recipients hitting the spam button, while also proactively ensuring you’re reaching engaged subscribers, consider adding a recency filter to all your email segmentations. This could be a result of opening an email in the past 90 days, buying a piece of merch in the past year, or taking some other action related to your CTA.

Be mobile-friendly

A study by Constant Contact and Chadwich Martin found that 75% of subscribers are highly likely to delete an email if they can’t read it on their smartphones. Design your emails with mobile in mind so they can adapt to any device. That means keeping them short and sweet while engaging. Think image, concise copy, and a clear CTA.

As of 2020, email generated over $7.5 billion for brands worldwide, and this number is only growing. If you incorporate these best practices and learn from your data, email marketing can take your revenue to the next level.

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