How to Manage a Band or Musician's Email List

Managing an e-mail list as a band or musician is a necessity if you want to maximize your exposure and profit. A large corporation will send out a 100,000 pieces of mail and only receive a 1 percent response rate. Why do they do it? Because that 1 percent response is profitable to them. The same holds true for your band's e-mail list, even if you only have a 100 people on it.

Things You'll Need

• A website and an email address for your act.

Instructions

1. Always provide an e-mail sign-up list for fans at shows and online. Every time someone visits your website or social networking page or comes to a gig, the first and last thing that person should see is a place to sign up for your e-mail list.

2. Send out one e-mail newsletter/update a month. If you send more than one e-mail a month, make sure it is important news you are imparting, i.e., a reminder about a CD release party or a TV/radio appearance. Your subscribers will feel like they are being spammed if their in-box gets cluttered with too many e-mails from you.

3. Provide an "unsubscribe" option in every e-mail. This is proper e-mail etiquette and allows members to opt out. This is most commonly done by informing the subscriber at the bottom of the e-mail that they can reply with the word "remove" in the subject line, or by giving them a special link.

4. Insert your list members' addresses into the Bcc field. Bcc stands for "blind carbon copy," which means that no one else can see who you are sending the e-mail to. It is also proper e-mail etiquette. If you insert the members of your address book in the "To" or "Cc" line, everyone else on your list will be able to see those addresses as well.

5. Segment your list and target subscribers accordingly. Don't send an e-mail about the Omaha, Neb., gig to your entire list, most of whom are located far rom Omaha. It's your responsibility to know where your fans live. When someone signs up for your list, make sure to provide a box where they can tell you where they live, or make notes of who signs up in each city you perform in.

6. Don't pay for an e-mail list newsletter service until you have enough fans to justify the cost. You should be able to manage a list of a few hundred yourself. If your e-mail list reaches 1,000 subscribers, that's when it's time to start thinking about signing up for an e-mail-list management service. There are many to choose from, ranging in cost from free to $30, or more, a month. A well-known and respected free option is Reverb Nation. A good paid service is Band Letter. See resources below.

Tips & Warnings

• Show respect for your fans' privacy and never give out your email list to anyone, not even your best friend/co-headliner.

Resources

• Reverb Nation
• Band Letter