cludes print and broadcast ads, posters, flyers, direct mail, etc. The thing they all have in
common is that the business finds the prospect and interrupts them with a marketing mes-
sage the prospect probably doesn’t want to hear or see. So, they tune it out. It seems to
me that having a list of 500 prospects and influencers who have said they want to hear
from you is significantly better than a list of, say, 10,000 who will probably never see
your show, buy a tune or t-shirt.
Outbound marketing is a numbers game. More impressions equals more sales. An im-
pression is each time the audience sees or hears your message. It’s a shotgun approach
that’s bloated with waste. For example, average response rate for direct mail ranges from
around .5 percent to 2 percent. Getting a 2 percent response is considered to be pretty
darn good and has the advertiser doing the happy dance.
But, let’s flip that over for a minute. A 2 percent response rate means that 98 percent
was wasted. In effect, the marketer, or musician in this case, is throwing away an awful
lot of their hard-earned money, while thinking he or she is doing good. It simply doesn’t
add up or make any kind of fiscal sense. Well, it makes perfect sense to whoever is sell-
ing direct mail programs.
Alas, I digress. So, is email marketing dead? I don’t think so. It has, however,
changed its role. In the beginning, email marketing was an independent act. Now days, it
needs to be a team player. Email marketing and social media should be two elements of
an overall promotion plan and program for musicians. Each element within the program
should promote the other with a value-packed, consistent voice.
Want more hard truth? Here you go. Crafting your message with quality information
that’s authentically useful to your fans is paramount. Why? Because fans ultimately want