From Scratch – Adventures in Independent Music Making

Posts Tagged ‘Newsletters’

Week 8 in the Music Success in Nine Weeks Blog Challenge

My new business cards ordered through Vistaprint

Week/Chapter 8 is one of my favourites from Ariel Hyatt‘s book: Music Success in Nine Weeks. Though I was a VERY shy kid, I became a bit of a social butterfly when I moved away from home to attend university. The excitement of the adventure (and knowing absolutely nobody at my school … or anyone within a 20 hour drive from where the school was) really brought that out of me. Traveling Europe on my own also made an impression in this manner.

In a strange way, I think it’s easier to open up and reach out when we take a chance on being alone. There is a beautiful poem/you tube video by Tanya Davis called “How to be alone” that speaks to this. I saw it for the first time this weekend, so I’m glad that not finishing this blog on time meant I could include it in the post. A similar thing happened with my newsletter. No matter how many times I sat down to finish it and send it out, something  would get in the way. Then, this weekend I found out about the sudden and unexpected death of one of my friends (Cristina Taborda. You may remember her from my ‘perfect pitch’ video during Week 2 of Wave 2) and attended her funeral/memorial. Again, I am grateful for the delay, because it enabled me to sift through my old video footage and put together a piece to honour her life and, in my little way, keep her memory and music alive by sharing it with others. Here is the link to that video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpwJR6nt7jU Please pass it on :)

Coincidentally, I met Cristina in a “real live networking” situation: At the Music Industries Association of Canada (MIAC) 2010 tradeshow. I was introduced to her and her brother through a mutual friend who was representing me as a booking agent. I didn’t have any of Ariel’s networking strategies under my belt at that time, but we did set up a gig together after stumbling upon them in the lobby, so it worked out well in that regard.

More currently, after re-reading chapter 8 and keying in to Ariel’s advice on stepping outside of the music scene for networking, I decided to give my gumption a workout and went to the International Game Developers Association social meet up. In Toronto these gatherings happen on the first Thursday of every month at Elephant and Castle, but they have chapters all over the world. So, if you’re interested in  meeting people that might be interested in placing your songs in games or having you compose music/record sound bites for them, you should check it out.

I found out about the meet up through a faceook event page: I was invited by the guys at DARC productions (who brought me in to be on their charity compilation CD and recorded “This Song” for us). Unfortunately, they weren’t able to make it out, but the group was very welcoming of this outsider and when I went up to the first person I saw and asked if they were there for the IGDA meet up they invited me to join their table . From there I met a bunch of really cool people including the CEO of Frozen North Productions, Julian Spillane (very humourous guy. The gamers out there may recognize him and his company from articles in Nintendo World magazine). I had a really fun time and am looking forward to the next one (which I believe is in February due to holidays, etc.) … this time I’ll bring friends who I feel will benefit from the experience.

This month’s newsletter, as previously mentioned, has gone over well. As many of you may have noticed in the forum discussions on Ariel’s Cyber PR site, Ethan Waldman and I did a “list exchange” this month. That doesn’t mean we gave away the confidential email addresses of our loyal followers (that would be VERY bad). It means we introduced each other to our respective fanbases by writing about each other in our own newsletters. I sent mine out about 30 hours ago and the read rate is at 34%. It will probably creep up a few more percentage points over the next week (not everyone checks their email everyday, nor do they prioritize newsletters), as it usually does find it’s way closer to 40% now that I’ve started doing my “choose your own adventure” style of newsletter.

To incorporate Ethan into the story, I reinvented him as a Koopa Paratroopa who saves you (the reader) from being eaten by a Piranha Plant. I found it funny :) and Ethan’s response to the newsletter leads me to believe that he quite enjoyed it too. The attempt at creating a more intriguing subject line (as discussed during week 6 of wave 3) didn’t seem to make a difference. The open rates are still around the same (with more members, however, so maybe the effect is masked by the increase in subscribers?).

Now… I’m supposed to be writing about week 9 this week, but my week 9 activities (mainly buttons) has been keeping me SUPER busy, so I will be firing that one out later this week. It’s going to be nice to wrap up this second wave with so many exciting developments to reflect on.

Thanks for reading!

Meghan Morrison

www.meghanmorrison.com
@megsmorrison

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It’s Week 7 in the Music Success in Nine Weeks Blog ChallengeMyspace Friend “Kiwi” and I after a gig in Amherst, NS

Oooooh “The Claaaaw”… no wait, that’s Toy Story. But oooooh, new blooog theme. I’m very excited. Finally, a design that has everything I wanted:

1. Colour scheme that is consistent with my website
2. Black on white text for ease of reading
3. My translator widget on every page, not just the main page
4. And the ability to make multiple pages, not just posts.  You may notice the recently added “Webcast Archive & Artist Reviews” at the top. This was made to create a more visually interesting archive of all our webcast shows AND provide brief performance reviews for each artist so they can snag a quote for grant applications, their reverbnation site, press kit, etc. (For an example, check out Mip’s webcast artist page)

What does my blog theme have to do with builing one’s mailing list? Well, I got this theme (and 249 others) for free from this guy … whose site I was introduced to through Kavit Haria‘s newsletter. I haven’t asked Kavit himself, but I’m guessing this is an example of what Ariel Hyatt refers to as “List Sharing” in her book Music Success in Nine Weeks. Meaning, Kavit sent out a message to his subscribers promoting the opportunity the other guy was offering … and the other guy will likely return the favour in a similar way with his own list of subscribers.

Now, what was not clear in this transaction was whether or not my email address (which I had to provide in order to receive the 250 free Word Press themes) was going to be added to his mailing list or not. If it is, this would be a big internet marketing ‘no no’ with regards to etiquette. No one wants to be spammed (it’s only slightly less annoying than being called by telemarketers) and, technically, when you haven’t asked someone if you can put them on your mailing list … you are spamming them when you send out mass emails.

Until joining this blog challenge, I had been making this very mistake myself by sending my newsletters to everyone on my contact list (which I had imported to my Bandzoogle account when I opened it back in March) without ever thinking to ask if it was okay. In my mind, I was just sending  a letter to update my friends… but now, with the transition from hobby artist to business artist, my mailing activities need to be treated more professionally. In short, I ended up sending apology letters (read more about this in my Wave 2 Blog for Week 7) and have heard back from many of them saying that they’re happy to be on my newsletter list (sigh of relief) and that I haven’t aggravated them.

As Ariel says, “If someone does not want to receive communications from you, that’s okay. Remove them from your list [...] and get on with bonding with the core fan base that really wants to hear from you” (p. 87). Now that my mailing list is happy and cleaned up, I would like to try one of these list trades myself. I sent Ethan Waldman a tweet to this effect and am eagerly awaiting his reply. I think it would be fun to introduce my fans to Ethan (and other independent artists like him) by incorporating him as a character in my next newsletter (written like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel) which will be sent out later this week… I haven’t created a plot yet … any requests?

[Insert after thought - > As I was going through emails after writing this post, I found the confirmation email for the Free 250 Word Press themes. It said that either I or someone else provided my email address to be signed up for their Free 250 Word Press mailing list and that if I click the link I'll be added and receive the themes... if I don't, then I won't be added. While it isn't true that I provided my email address for the purpose of joining their mailing list (I don't recall seeing any mention of it on the site. Mind you, I also didn't notice this part of the email the first time through, so I could be wrong), this is good because it means I have consented to being added to the list]

Other Strategies

More strategies Ariel teaches for building an artist’s mailing list online include:

1. Dedicating at least one hour per week to sitting down and building our lists
2. Creating a folder in our email programs to drop new contacts into and approach later (during that one hour of building time) to ask if they’d like to receive our newsletters
3. Sifting through old contacts and approaching those who are not on our mailing lists in a similar fashion (I also plan to do this with my contacts on all platforms: myspace, facebook, etc.)

I haven’t fully integrated this one hour of list building into my week yet, but have been successful with list building in person at gigs; mainly by interacting with people after my sets. People always come up to talk to me after a performance, so I take that as an indication that they liked the music and let them know that I give out a free download of my album to people who join my newsletter. Telling them that it’s written like a choose your own adventure story always grabs their attention too, as do the free cupcakes. Yes, anyone who is on my my list is also on the ‘cupcake list’. I try to make them for every show and, lately, I have started baking them during the webcast with the chat room deciding on the flavour (Last week they chose french vanilla).

After I have finished talking to the people who come say hi after the set, I take my clipboard and remaining cupcakes and I go around the venue to say hi to everyone else and offer them my cupcakes, free downloads, and entertaining newsletter. So that it is not a total surprise, I mention the cupcakes/download/newsletter toward the end of my set and also have small signs on tables, at the bar, and sometimes even in the bathroom. The latter was Kelly’s idea (she plays violin with me). This is what the table signs look like:

From Kjersti Hattrem‘s Facebook Photo Album

Creating Our Own Clubs

For me, it’s not about bribing people for their email addresses, but rather creating a really awesome club that people find meaningful and want to be a part of. That is how I see my website and artistic career in general too. It’s true that I am a ‘solo artist’, but my music and life in general is supported by a number of really awesome people who want to be a part of my crazy adventure, such as: Brad Gulka (drums), Kelly LeFaive (violin), Colin Davis (guitar), Adam Truax (guitar too … until my brother moves here and/or he leaves for Australia), Behrouz (a man of all instruments), my awesome parents who finally stopped begging me to get a ‘real job’ and are now becoming actively involved in the ‘really awesome career’ I’m building for myself, Matt Popowich (co-producing and directing the webcast), Leandra Zappacosta (booker and co-conspirator), Addie Sorrell (online promotions and media), Damien Osborne (superhuman fan and webcast theme song maker), Everyone who contributed to my button maker campaign, and of course everyone who comes to the shows, follows the blog, interacts on social media sites, and the list goes on. I can’t name you all  here right now, but I do want to say thank you and give you the credit you deserve. Especially the band, because when playing with a solo artist you don’t get the same kind of attention and recognition that ‘band’ bands get… but I’ve got some ideas brewing to help change that in this circumstance.

… that’s for another blog though ;) …

Drop your thoughts in the comment section below or join us for our Tuesday night shenanigans in the webcast chatroom!

-Meghan Morrison :)
@MegsMorrison
www.meghanmorrison.com

(For those of you who have been following for a while, you will be pleased to know that I’ve finally surpassed Matthew Morrison and the Snuggie Sutra girl in my “Meghan Morrison” Google Alert reports, woo hoo! 3 of the top 5 Blog links were actually related to me … finally! haha)

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After Party Photo by (and including) Tela Varner | “Claw” Image in Picture by MassyGo | CC-BY-AT 3.0