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9:22 am
June 10, 2011
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QuoteI have been experimenting with my mass mailings to my mailing list for the past several months, and I thought I would share my results so far.
In the subject line of my emails, I have often used "Greg Parke Newsletter". I figured that if my fans saw my name in the subject line, they would probably open it. My opens have been running from a low of 71% to as high as 83% when I just use "Greg Parke Newsletter".
Then I tried personalizing the subject line…."Greg Parke news for Joe"….and my opens jumped to 95.6%
I also tried different subject lines:
"A new song for you from Greg Parke" got 100% opens
"Greg Parke News for December" got 88.5%
"Greg Parke News for January" got 89.7%
Now things really get interesting!
"A new video from Greg Parke" got 119.3%
"Thank You to our Soldiers and Veterans from Greg Parke" got 143.5%!
(This email included a free offer of a song I wrote dedicated to our Soldiers and Vets, and was sent out close to Veterans day, and 56.5 % actually clicked on the download offer, so I am assuming they downloaded the song.)
My emails have always been about my music….how my new cd is coming, please visit my new webpage, new video, free track etc. etc. Today I tried something different.
My wife and I have spent the past few months researching a more natural, healthy, low fat way of eating, and we are seeing some very remarkable results. I'm not terribly overweight, but the pounds have been creeping up. With some simple changes in our diet, I have lost 10 pounds so far. My wife is a formaly trained chef, so we know what really good food can taste like, and are not willing to give that up! So, we have been doing a lot of research on healthy, but still very satisfying recipes. An unexpected bonus was that our monthly food costs have actually decreased by about 50%!
Since I have taken a much more personal approach with my fans and my website, I figured "Hey, why not share this with my fans? I sent out a mass email to my list and explained what my wife and I were doing, how well it was working, and that I was going to add a "recipe of the month" feature to my emails, and keep everyone posted of my results. I then went on to list my gigs for the rest of the month, and dropped a hint about a "special announcement coming soon". My fans know I am getting very close on my new CD, and I have already mentioned that I will be offering pre-release copies with some extra perks to everyone on my list as soon as it is finished.
Within a few hours of sending out this email, I have already received several emails back saying they love the idea, and can't wait to see the next recipe! I am guessing that this new feature is going to really help my open rate. I might even continue the recipe of the month idea to my blog on my website.
BTW, The first Recipe of the Month is for a very healthy low fat, low calorie, and very tasty Mushroom and Spinach Lasagna. Anybody want the recipe?!
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!
right on Greg! Just a quick though...
Instead of copying and pasting the recipes in the email body, You might consider linking to the recipes on a blogpost and make sure theyre SEO/keyword rich. That way you can not only keep your fans informed of your recipes but also possible snag some new fans from recipe-seeking folks who stumble onto your blogpost via organic traffic. Just make sure you've got something in the sidebar that lets them know that the recipe writer is also a rockstar.
DRESSED HIS WIFE UP LIKE A HORSE FOR HIS NEW ALBUM COVER
http://www.deanfields.net
8:18 pm
June 10, 2011
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Damn...why didn't I think of that??!!?! Great idea Dean. This is the kind of stuff that makes this forum so worthwhile!
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!
Great idea Greg and Dean. Just shows how true it is that people are not just looking for a download, they are looking for an experience and to be part of a tribe. By making it personal like that you stand to do MUCH better in my experience. And yeah, I'd create a recipe category on your blog and have a specific call to action in each recipe (maybe the bottom, top, or both - without being overkill) and publish the recipes there like Dean said. By having the word "recipe" in your category tag you will add more SEO relevance.
There is actually a lot of traffic out there for recipe related stuff. if you find that it converts into fans you might have a gold mine of traffic there.
Funny enough, the very first sale I ever had online (aside form music) was a cookbook. It's what started this whole thing. Almost 2 million dollars in sales later I ain't complaining 🙂
In fact, I tell you what... I have a very small list of 628 people that signed up for recipes back in the day. They are pretty cold seeing as I haven't sent an email to the list in ages, but you get a recipe or two up on your site and I'll happily send out an email for you and tell everyone they should sign up for your music. I'm sure you'd pick up a few at least.
One other thing I wanted to point out for anyone new hear... Open rates like that are NOT normal at all. A good open rate is more like 40%. Many bug companies get open rates that are less than 10%. I suspect you may be generating a lot of those leads from shows. The personal interaction might account for the high open rate. I just don't want you to be disappointed if that goes down some as your list grows, and i don't want anyone reading this to be surprised if their open rates are lower. What you are describing is exceptional and almost unheard of for a list of any size that has been around for a while. But well done. And keep up the personal headlines.
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.
3:39 pm
June 10, 2011
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Hey John
Thanks for the reply, and to be honest, I am pretty surprized by the open stats as well, especially the ones that exceeded 100%. My guess is that they opened more than once because they wanted to watch the video again or listen to the song again, and that was just the easiest way for them to find it.
At this time, I would guess that maybe 1/3 of my current list has been generated from my live shows, as I haven't been real aggressive in getting internet leads lately. I have been putting most of my time and efforts into finishing my new CD, and once that is finished I will focus again on list building. My current list is about a year old, so it is still pretty fresh and active. I suspect that as my list grows, my open rates will likely drop, but hopefully the methods I am using now will still keep my open rates as high as possible. I have no doubt that taking a very personal approach with my fans, instead of the "elusive rock star" style, has made a huge difference!
Would you suggest a separate page on my website for the recipe thing, or maybe an entirely separate website, with links back to my music website and/or squeeze page? I keep a fairly active blog on my music site landing page, and my thoughts are that the recipes would just get buried if I put them there. But maybe that would be a good thing, because visitors would have to do some searching? So many options......!
And thanks for your offer about sending that email to your old list! I will definitely take you up on that as soon as I get this all set up on a website.
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!
I would start by putting the recipes in a dedicated category on your blog. then you can just have a link to the category page somewhere on your side bar. if it really took off and you saw that it was drawing in new fans and more income you could then look into starting a new site. For now, keep it simple and see what happens.
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.
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