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8:04 pm
October 27, 2011
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QuoteHere's a case study on selling a Rough Track at ‘name your price’ option. It's nothing to brag about, but I wanted to be totally honest about my results. I would love feedback and ideas.
Sent to 112 people with a 65% open rate and 26% click through rate.
Link to email:
http://archive.aweber.com/1_hh.....kwater.htm
Thoughts:
1. I think that the open rate was good at 65% so the headline must have been effective.
2. The click through rate at 26% is ok but could be better.
3. Only 2 people actually bought the track at $1 each. One person downloaded it for free. 13 people listened to it all the way through. Two people wrote to us in detail about how much they liked it and why, but didn’t download it. (I only have 112 people on my list, so my expectations weren’t too high but I think I could have done a lot better.)
4. Things I would do differently for next time:
- Not use bandcamp. I would create my own web page so that I can control the way the text and images appear on the page. I’m not crazy about how bandcamp sets things up for a good listening experience but not great for leading the customer to actually buy..
- It needs a “because”. I didn’t spell out why they should buy the track. I would tell them that they are contributing to our next full length CD, something like that or something else. Any “because” is better than no “because”.
- I’m not sure putting the link in the middle of the email was a great idea. The sentence about ‘name your price’ could have been skipped over and seems like an afterthought.
- I do like the idea of ‘name your price’ for a rough track. It seems to make sense to me. Although it’s an optional buy or just listen, I do want to encourage people to actually buy it so need to work on the copy.
10:17 pm
June 7, 2011
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Hey Annie,
Thanks for sharing this. I love case studies.
While I totally get that $2 is hardly what you're hoping for, your results are actually better than you think.
In marketing circles outside of music people consider a 1% conversion rate to be about average. 2% is solid and you should feel good about it but things can still be improved. You are at about 2%, 3% technically because the free track was still a conversion. But lets not count that.
Now most marketers only count the unique visitors. I don't. I run my conversion rates against list size. But against that formula you actually converted at 8%, which is extremely good.
The best sales conversion rate I have ever had on anything was 14% and that only happened once. From talking to folks in the IC who seem to have this stuff reasonably dialed in, it seems about 4 - 5% is the successful average. So you're not far off.
The other thing is that you just sent out a single email. You need to always send out a final notice email of some kind on an LTO. Often I see more sales on the final notice than I do the initial email. So if it's not too late, definitely do that and you might just double your sales which would put you right where you want to be.
As for your open rate and click through rates. Those are actually all very good. Quite good actually.
The other thing to mention is that your list size is still a bit small to come to many conclusions. To my mind, I would say that the fact that it converted at all seems encouraging.
The end game will need to involve a lot more traffic, but I'm sure you know that and I'm sure you'll get there.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
5:37 am
March 13, 2012
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Thanks for posting this Annie,
I'm currently experimenting with a similar thing: We're releasing a track a month on Bandcamp & people can name their price.
So far we've released 2 tracks. The mails were sent to 130 people. 40 Opened the mail & 16 clicked on the link.
We haven't sold any songs and there have been 12 downloads for free.
Not a great rate at all! I'm rethinking the wording & taking into account some of your tips.
Real music for real kids, with love from Africa
12:40 am
June 7, 2011
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Graeme Sacks said:
Thanks for posting this Annie,
I'm currently experimenting with a similar thing: We're releasing a track a month on Bandcamp & people can name their price.
So far we've released 2 tracks. The mails were sent to 130 people. 40 Opened the mail & 16 clicked on the link.
We haven't sold any songs and there have been 12 downloads for free.
Not a great rate at all! I'm rethinking the wording & taking into account some of your tips.
That is discouraging. My guess is that a change in the wording could really help. Mind posting a link to the offer? On teh one hand the fact that you got 12 out of 16 people to download is exceptional. But the fact that none of them paid surprises me a bit. It's a friggen' dollar for crying out loud 🙂
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
8:35 pm
June 9, 2011
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It's a weird thing to consider, but I think the whole naming your price thing might actually work against you. Even if it's a rough track.
This name your price thing worked well for Radiohead a few years back, but they are also a group that needs no radio play to sell platinum. They can do it, get away with it and still make a buck at the end of the day.
However I think as an independent you may actually be shooting yourself in the foot with the approach because with the power of web anonymity people can easily turn "name your price" in to free without remorse.
In other markets you'll hear people talk about the perceived value of a product. If you took $1,000 worth of stuff and said name your price, my gut feeling is that some people might pay $10 and others might just take it and run.
I think this is why I much prefer the LTO approach of discount before the product jumps back up to the real price. It subconsciously communicates value, while naming your price basically says, you're okay with them just taking it.
Just my two sense, if it helps.
5:41 pm
June 10, 2011
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I agree with Steve. Radiohead was leveraging an already existing fan base that
was already emotionally invested in them and what they stood for. So, people
were probably giving as much money as they felt emotionally connected to the band.
I think it was also a publicity stunt for them because I haven't noticed them doing it
again.
Steven King tried this way before them by releasing a new chapter of a new story of his.
If the current chapter raised enough money by "pay what you want" he would write and
release the next chapter. It ended up that the really big fans were paying way more than
their share to keep the story coming, while the majority were contributing very little or
nothing but still getting the story. If I remember correctly, after he surmised this, he stopped
his experiment.
Personally, I try to only give anything away if I am getting something in return for it, whether it be
publicity, ink, promotion etc. This way, it's still "free" but I'm not losing in the exchange.
However, thank you for posting about your test so that we can all learn from your experience. 
5:49 pm
October 27, 2011
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Hi Steve and Tim,
I do think that name your price is problematic and agree with both of what you say.
The reason I'm still considering it, is that singles really aren't worth more than a dollar. It really doesn't make sense to discount. Also - I'm only doing this for rough tracks that I wouldn't put on an album. So 'name your price' seems like a way to actually give value to something that wouldn't necessarily have much value at all.
I'm going to experiment with copy and web design, probably try it again and see how it goes in a while when I build up my list a bit more.
11:58 pm
June 10, 2011
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This thread brings up another question.....how do your fans respond to rough tracks that you wouldn't put on an album?
I may be wrong, but my gut feeling is that they wouldn't want to pay for these anyway, and would rather have the finished product. Maybe I am missing out on something, but I'm not comfortable releasing something that doesn't represent the best I can do, because I would be worried that a future fan might hear it and get the wrong impression, or worse, a fan might be offended that I am trying to sell them something that is sub-standard. Just a thought?
If what you mean by "rough track" is really just a different version of a song that you are putting on an album, but still a finished and polished track, I see no problem with that.
What would a jam session with Gordon Lightfoot, Collective Soul, and Damien Rice sound like?
Check out Greg Parke and you’ll have a pretty good idea!
1:16 am
June 7, 2011
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I know of another artist who wasn't a household name who did really well with the name your price approach. I believe she said that she made about the same amount as she would have if she sold it with some taking it for free, others paying as much as $100. But she did have a very large and loyal following. So that "frenzy" might be the key. It might also just require a bigger sampling. I suspect it's those big spenders that average out the others. And you may just need more than one or two hundred subs to find those couple of big spenders. But who knows... So far, this looks like a no go.
One thing you might consider is packaging the single with some other content. An interview, a video, and live acoustic song via web cam... whatever you can add to make it really cool and justify something more like $10, and then cut it in half to $5 for a limited time.
You can then leave the $10 pack up on your site for the long haul as a special product and I'd bet that you pull in some sales from time to time. Sell to the connoisseur instead of the masses... if that makes sense. It's just going to be really tough making money $1 at a time.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
1:54 am
October 27, 2011
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Hi Greg,
I think the rough track idea only works if there is something special about it. Since our music has improvisational moments, I think if we capture something cool, it's worth putting out there. Even though the recording quality isn't perfect, the actual version is unique. The ones that don't sound that great or special aren't worth putting out there - if that makes sense. I do think I want to try it again because we did get a pretty good a response as far as opens and listens. I think that having something short, unique and time sensitive to offer has its benefits. There are certain people who really like bands that improvise and have different versions to offer. I do think that I need to communicate the idea and reasons to buy much better. And I need a bigger list.
2:17 am
June 10, 2011
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Hi Annie,
I think I see what you mean....kind of a "live session" approach. I like that!
Since I live fairly remote, and away from most of my musician friends, I do almost all of my recording in my studio in my barn, multi tracking all the parts myself. As a result, I don't usually get those inspirational interactions caught on tape, and my rough recordings are just that....rough! One of the prices I pay for living out in the boonies I guess!
What would a jam session with Gordon Lightfoot, Collective Soul, and Damien Rice sound like?
Check out Greg Parke and you’ll have a pretty good idea!
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