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5:23 pm
June 10, 2011
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QuoteThis topic was spawned from the 'Most Pressing Need: Membership Site' topic about how to build a multi-level forum.
I've seen a number of band with free forums on their sites and even the free ones seem to want for members. Unless ones band is huge enough to have a legion of super fans that want to talk about you all day, I guess I don't understand what the draw would be.
Anybody have any examples of ways to make a membership site (forum? or?) a must have for fans?
5:41 pm
June 9, 2011
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I'm not an expert on membership models by any measure, but I would imagine that you would be marketing the membership to people who have already purchased something from you.
The theory being that someone who has already spent money with you is much more inclined to spend more at some point, than someone who has not.
So after you get someone to opt-in to your follow up (squeeze page), you'll want to hit them with a one-time offer for your cd or something like that.
If they say "no thanks", don't worry just follow up as usual until they buy your cd.
If they say "Yes", the next thing you'll want to do is offer them the membership since they are in a buying mood.
If they say no, engineer your follow- up to have them re-visit the membership offer at a later date.
Once people are in a buying mood, they've already got the credit card in hand, don't be afraid to ask for another sale. You may be pleasantly surprised at how many people take you up on it.
-Steve
5:44 pm
June 7, 2011
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Daniel Crandall said:
This topic was spawned from the 'Most Pressing Need: Membership Site' topic about how to build a multi-level forum.
I've seen a number of band with free forums on their sites and even the free ones seem to want for members. Unless ones band is huge enough to have a legion of super fans that want to talk about you all day, I guess I don't understand what the draw would be.
Anybody have any examples of ways to make a membership site (forum? or?) a must have for fans?
I think you're right about the forum. Unless you're huge it's hard to get people active in a musicians forum, and honestly, it looks bad to have a ghost town of a forum. I plan to launch my own music membership site as the upsell to the release of my next album (later this year/early next), and I will probably skip the forum.
To my mind it's all about the content. You might start thinking about products from the stand point of the sales letter. In other words, list out everything that you think would be actual reasons people would want to pay to be part of your membership site and then just make sure to include everything in your program.
This may change but I plan to try an annual payment plan instead of a monthly one. Maybe $37 a year or something. I think the fatigue of the monthly payment will cause a drop off when the content is not constantly updating like it does in an educational membership program like this one.
I'll probably do something like include all of the music I've ever released, tons of B-sides and unreleased tracks, music videos, interviews, pics, and I'll probably do something like give free tickets to my online concerts as well as an annual video chat session... or something along those lines.
You want to be able to put a virtual price tag on everything that sounds HUGE and then cut it to a fraction... and also make it sound cool.
As far as driving traffic, the process is pretty much the same as it is with anything else. But you'll likely find that the membership site will never be an impulse purchase. It will be something that people pick up as an upsell or because they are already fans. That's what I would expect at least.
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6:12 pm
June 10, 2011
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Awesome. I definitely get the 'catch them in buying mood' idea. You see that all the time, and it works. I consider myself a fairly skeptical customer and even I've bought the up-sell from time to time.
John: I like your membership ideas. I think the yearly fee is a superb idea. You're plan reminded me of an effective membership site that I really dig. Jack White's Third Man Records has a membership product where quarterly they send you a box of stuff that includes several cuts on vinyl, and random merch stuff. Tons of value, and I get the impression it's doing pretty well.
Seems like the more creative one could get in the creation of value the better. A variation on the third man thing might be to use something like UStream to do a quarterly live gig just for members where maybe you take calls or otherwise engage the members in some cool way, and then provide the members with a video download of the show.
6:16 pm
June 7, 2011
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Exactly. Jack White always seems to be way ahead of the curve with this stuff. he's been doing up-sells for a while now.
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.
7:13 pm
June 9, 2011
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Another thing to consider with the annual membership is that it allows you to get paid today, rather than next month.
8:56 pm
June 10, 2011
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Aaaand you could build in scarcity by only opening enrollment for the membership a couple times a year - which would in turn let you know when you need to ramp up value right before the subscriptions expire in order to discourage ship jumpers.
9:04 pm
June 9, 2011
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Totally. Another thought is that you could incentivize your "street team" to drive traffic to your offers by paying them a percentage comission.
If a band would pay me a residual check on membership dues, I'd send traffic all day 🙂
9:20 pm
June 10, 2011
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That's a great idea... and I'll remember you said that!
I'm really into the idea of the virtual street team. We're half a days drive from any major population centers, so one of the things I need to focus on is targeting geographically so we can at least get a some people to show up after we've driven for hours. ...But that's another thread.
10:43 pm
June 9, 2011
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Not sure which auto responder you're using... I'm using getresponse and when people opt-in it tells you the geo location and allows you send email to the segment by geo. That should keep things neat for you. You could send special offers to that segment only. Offer something of value if they drive a certain distance to come see you. Just a thought anyway...
12:35 am
June 10, 2011
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I'm using Aweber. I haven't tried it yet (because I don't have any subscribers yet having just set it up this week), but it looks like I can find subsets of subscribers by region and city, which it collects using subscriber IP addresses. This will be key for us.
Riffing on your idea... I thought about offering something to people who pay cover/buy tickets in advance, which of course assumes I can venues willing to work with me on that. And I like the idea of 'free t-shirt to whomever drove the furthest.'
Great stuff. Thanks for brainstorming with me man!
6:16 am
June 7, 2011
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I use an older version of Aweber so I'm not 100%, but I believe that Aweber does have the same ability to segment by location.
I would definitely try doing something like offering tickets at a big discount if they buy in advance. Contests are great as well. If you have a little money to play with you might try some geo targeted Facebook ads leading up to an event. Advertising only in areas along your tour circuit is a great way to go because your live events essentially become your back end. If you had a big enough list in each town you shouldn't have too hard of a time filling the venues up and eventually getting some pretty decent guarantees.
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.
7:43 am
June 10, 2011
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I had thought of a 'forum' in a slightly different way. Not sure this dovetails with what has been said or not, but my thinking is that if you can create a video that people dig, upload it to YouTube, you'll start seeing people talking. At that point, you might invite them over to a membership site or forum to talk some more, create a virtual community.
I'm always amazed at the fights people get into on YouTube…might as well have `em fighting over my video. Also, the video would link to the sales funnel…another point of entry. My video is taking a bit of time to produce, but I do feel it's a great way to get potential viral buzz happening. And if you can get people chiming in on the YouTube page, why not let them know there's more great stuff to argue about on your website...
All this to avoid the 'cricket' sound on a website or forum. 🙂
Michael
Preview the New Video Single, 'Beautiful One', Now!
http://www.m-overdrive.com/video
7:46 am
June 7, 2011
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Michael Pickett said:
I had thought of a 'forum' in a slightly different way. Not sure this dovetails with what has been said or not, but my thinking is that if you can create a video that people dig, upload it to YouTube, you'll start seeing people talking. At that point, you might invite them over to a membership site or forum to talk some more, create a virtual community.
I'm always amazed at the fights people get into on YouTube…might as well have `em fighting over my video. Also, the video would link to the sales funnel…another point of entry. My video is taking a bit of time to produce, but I do feel it's a great way to get potential viral buzz happening. And if you can get people chiming in on the YouTube page, why not let them know there's more great stuff to argue about on your website…
All this to avoid the 'cricket' sound on a website or forum. 🙂
Michael
Using videos to drive traffic is certainly a great way to go…. and those youtube fights are crazy aren't they? Who has that kind of 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.
8:04 am
June 10, 2011
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I do!...about twice a year maybe if someone posts that Kanye West is more talented than Rush. 🙂
But yeah, maybe I'll start a thread on videos. I think they have the potential to be a great traffic generator...and they don't have to be Spielberg quality to do so...
Michael
Preview the New Video Single, 'Beautiful One', Now!
http://www.m-overdrive.com/video
8:06 am
June 7, 2011
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That would be great. I know a lot of folks have questions about Youtube and video promotion.
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.
Steve Rodgers said:
I'm not an expert on membership models by any measure, but I would imagine that you would be marketing the membership to people who have already purchased something from you.
The theory being that someone who has already spent money with you is much more inclined to spend more at some point, than someone who has not.
So after you get someone to opt-in to your follow up (squeeze page), you'll want to hit them with a one-time offer for your cd or something like that.
If they say "no thanks", don't worry just follow up as usual until they buy your cd.
If they say "Yes", the next thing you'll want to do is offer them the membership since they are in a buying mood.
If they say no, engineer your follow- up to have them re-visit the membership offer at a later date.
Once people are in a buying mood, they've already got the credit card in hand, don't be afraid to ask for another sale. You may be pleasantly surprised at how many people take you up on it.
-Steve
I have one Indie Artist who Offers And new Email List Subscribers One free new song A month for 12 months for $20 the great thing About this model I think Is that Each NEW subscriber doesn't know they Are really getting the same 12 songs As Every Other new subscriber so I have the Indie worker smarter not harder record the tracks Once And store them As MP3'S And Add A new One Each Month to her Autoresponder.
5:22 pm
June 10, 2011
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Michael Pickett said:
But yeah, maybe I'll start a thread on videos. I think they have the potential to be a great traffic generator...and they don't have to be Spielberg quality to do so...
Totally. I'm really interested in learning about driving traffic with videos. I've got some great ideas for fun (and cheap) vids that I haven't had a chance to try out yet. I'd love to hear about what's working for people.
5:56 pm
June 9, 2011
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I've had some pretty nice result getting traffic with videos. One in particular has been sending me a steady stream of traffic for over a year now.
But the real expert is my 18 year old cousin Dominic. He makes short movies and animated videos that receive major awards as well as a ton of traffic and subscribers to his channel.
I'm talking millions of video views! In fact his vidz are considered "legendary" by people 13- 23 years old. He is his own sub culture in a sense.
About a year ago he surpassed Oprah Winfrey when it comes to channel subscribers on youtube. I'll see if I can get him to do an interview for us all. I'll just have to find a way to tie it into music marketing. But the kid definitely knows video, traffic and subscribers.
-Steve
6:00 pm
June 7, 2011
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Steve Rodgers said:
I've had some pretty nice result getting traffic with videos. One in particular has been sending me a steady stream of traffic for over a year now.
But the real expert is my 18 year old cousin Dominic. He makes short movies and animated videos that receive major awards as well as a ton of traffic and subscribers to his channel.
I'm talking millions of video views! In fact his vidz are considered "legendary" by people 13- 23 years old. He is his own sub culture in a sense.
About a year ago he surpassed Oprah Winfrey when it comes to channel subscribers on youtube. I'll see if I can get him to do an interview for us all. I'll just have to find a way to tie it into music marketing. But the kid definitely knows video, traffic and subscribers.
-Steve
That would be awesome Steve. Hook it up. I know a few guys in the video marketing world as well and was going to be setting ups some interviews at some point. But your cousin sounds like he knows his shit.
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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