Hey Jean,

1. I haven't a/b tested them actually. I should. I have gotten good results with both. I'll add that to my list of split tests to do 🙂

2. I think you just need to put yourself in the subscribers shoes and make decisions accordingly. You don't want to build initial interest around one thing and then alienate them later in the funnel when they really get exposed to your music, but on the other hand, if your squeeze page reflects a brand that is inconsistent with the first music they hear then you will likely lose them.

My advice would be to try and create one over arching theme/brand that makes room for the different nuances of what you do. While I can see that the first track you are giving away has some rhythmic qualities that the other tracks don't have, I don't think they are worlds apart. The consistent qualities that I heard was that everything had a laid back, smooth rock quality with your voice tieing it all together sonically. Some tracks were more rhythmic, others had more Americana. But nothing seemed overly disconnected for me.

As for what it sounded like... That was a bit tough... But I sort of felt like it was a cross between a band like Steely Dan and the wave of modern singer songwriters like James Blunt, Ed Sheeran, etc. James Blunt and Ed Sheeran are not quite it, but I'm at a loss for someone that is closer. Maybe just a modern, poppier Steely Dan, with less blues/funk/groove qualities. Noyt that that helps you all that much.

Perhaps someone can offer some better suggestions. 

Hi Jean,

Steve here.  This is a bit tough for me because admittedly, I'm not the biggest consumer of music.  So especially in terms of modern artists, I have a tough time coming up with artists that you sound like.

That said, in some songs I agree that there is some Goo Goo Dolls, at least the stuff that made them popular on the radio, if not their earlier punk-ish stuff.

I think I hear a bit of Pete Yorn in your stuff too, although I'm not overly familiar with his whole catalogue.  Some faint resemblance to Snow Patrol...  A smoother Dashboard Confessional...

As I got into some of the upcoming release, there's a track in there that reminded me a bit of Young The Giant, both in feel and overall song similarity (not a bad thing at all).

Overall, I think you have a clear advantage over many artists, simply because the vocals are consistently great in my opinion.  That might not help you from the standpoint of audience targeting, but it should be a focus of your branding.  I think it gives your stuff a bit of a unique push, comparatively.

As I listened to the singing, my mind kept saying, "This reminds me of something", however I'm still drawing a blank on who I think it sounded like.

I wish I could be more helpful here.

Hey Jean,

Sorry for the slow follow up, I've been offline for the weekend.

I think the biggest issue for us is that you are sharing a bit too much for us to hone in on things. 

To really sit down and listen to all of that music and think it through would take an hour or more.

Why don't you start with what you think the best song is and what you feel would likely earn you the most interest from fans and perhaps we can offer some imagery there. Because ultimately that is what is going to be most important... That you make a connection between those new subscribers and the music that they are initially becoming acquainted with. Just make sure that whatever song you choose is representative (enough) of you as an artist. In other words, I wouldn't choose your most odd ball track, even if you really love it. 

Ultimately selling a collection of music that is varied is not that hard. But selling people on a brand that is all over the place is difficult. So we need to lock into one element first.

Paste that song below and perhaps that will help us offer more precise ideas.

I'd also ask you, what is it that makes you want to make music? What artists and sounds inspired you to start writing and singing?

Awesome. Focusing on one song like that, and those influences and driving factors you mentioned really helps. A lot more is coming into focus (at least for me).

When I listen to the track in the video it really reminds me of a Modern "Spirit In The Sky" by Norman Greenbaum.

When I first started listing I kept thinking about bands like Blind Melon for the fluid, soleful vocal quality, and jingle jangley alternative sound. It's that "jingle jangley" thing that also reminds me of Spirit in the Sky. Your grooves and rhythms are more fluid then boxy.  By boxy I mean a band like Blink 182, or even Nirvana. Makes sense to my brain anyway.

I kept thinking about someone like Mathew Sweet because your chorus has this loud poppy thing, but the fluid rhythms kept pulling me away from that reference. It's not quite as poppy as he is. But that kept resurfacing in my mind.

Then, after listening to the second song, I came to feel like I was hearing a lot of Sound Garden like melodies, but in a very different context. 

That was sort of where I settled after hearing your influences and the angst that you expressed in your mission statement of sorts. I feel like you are a neo grunge band with a much less aggressive sound. I also hear the Jeff Buckley in there.

The challenge for my mind is the fact that I think your vocals and story (from what I sense you intend to blog about) would appeal to a grunge, Queens of the Stone Age crowd, but your production sound will likely create a disconnect for some of those audiences.

Assuming you want to stick with that sound (which I am in now way saying is bad), all I can think to do is to run a fleet of small ad sets (using traffic as the objective because of the low budget - but you are still going after conversions) targeting the fans of different artists along the lines of what I, and yourself, have mentioned and see what sticks. Then grab onto those that work and refine from there.

This may or may not be on target, but I'd probably experiment with a headline (in quotes so it looked like a media quote without actually being one) that said something like "If Jeff Buckley used Queens of the Stone Age as his Back Up Band You'd get Something that Sounds a Lot like Cardboard Skies", and then create ad sets for each audience. I am in no way saying that would be a home run. It's just something I would throw into the mix and try, if you even agree with that.

Keep in mind I am totally just spit balling here after a relatively brief listen, and I'm only one guy with a rather old school set of listening preferences. But it's food for thought at least. Stick to your own instincts as you know your music and fans best.

Jean Morrison said
Hi John/Steve

Hope you guys are well.

So after attempting the "If Jeff Buckley used Queens Of The Stone Age as his back up band" approach, I've been doing a lot of thinking. 

Its still early days for me to draw any conclusions that this audience did or did not work. From spending $53 I only gained 23 subscribers as my primary squeeze page converted at 5% (jeanmorrisonmusic.com/free-music) and my secondary squeeze page converted at 3.5% (jeanmorrison.net) targeting in their own separate ad set Jeff Buckley and QOTSA. I used the same squeeze page for both audiences. According to Steve, my CTR have been good. I've been brainstorming a new squeeze page headline for the JB and QOTSA fans. This is what I have so far. Can I get your feedback? Which ones stand out to you?

"A silky voice that can turn itself from gentle ballads to aggressive rock floating timelessly above a nostalgic alt-rock band sound that will revive the very reason you fell in love with music in the first place"

"Alt-rock so pure you can taste it in your mouth like a shot of raw nostalgia"

"A nostalgic voice that makes you feel like the only person in the room floating timelessly above an alt-rock sound meant for a stadium. Simply put, music that’ll force you to listen with your mouth open."

"A nostalgic voice that speaks to only you floating timelessly above a classic alt-rock sound meant for a stadium. Music that’ll force you to listen with your mouth open."

Hey Jean, I'm kind of amazed that you were able to get subscribers that cheap with a conversion rate like that. I don't know what your CTR was but it must have been good with costs at just a little over $2 (which isn't so terrible) on a squeeze page that converts at 5% or worse (which is very very low).

Only testing will tell you if those headlines will convert well, but I'm not personally crazy about any of them. The emphasis is on floating above a stadium with your mouth open. For those to work there needs to be an existing group of people consciously craving that experience. I'm not sure that is the case. At least on any universal level.

It seems like there is something very compelling about your ad, but whatever the reason they are clicking, the landing page itself is turning them off.

Looking at your page, I don't personally see any huge issues. You might recall when we spoke about design many months ago, we talked a bit about how dark and slick doesn't always convert well. That stands out as a possibility. But there could be something else going on as well. What are you using for the ad? Can you post a screen shot?

While the QOTSA FB ads performed well, I'm a bit concerned about a possible disconnect there with my EP causing a big percentage of new subscribers to unsubscribe early on. How do you suggest I resolve this? I was thinking about introducing a page sampling my upcoming album early on in the funnel to show the subscribers what's to come so the QOTSA fans don't get turned off by the more folky acoustic EP sales page (LTO) and then unsubscribe, you can listen to samples here: http://www.jeanmorrisonmusic.com/ep. That sales page is here: http://www.jeanmorrisonmusic.c.....m/discount. But I just don't know how to place that in context within the email follow ups. 

I have had 3 people unsubscribe from that 23 so far. I'm not sure if that unsubscribe rate is good or bad and it's possibly just too early to come to conclusions. It might be too early to tell if the blogs are working or not but two of the three people that have unsubscribed so far have done so after receiving the second blog piece, http://www.jeanmorrisonmusic.c.....rom-prison. The first blog piece is http://www.jeanmorrisonmusic.c.....-add-music. Would you mind taking a quick peek? 

To cover initial FB advertising costs by possibly getting more sales of the EP upfront, I have been thinking about targeting 'Young The Giant' fans. Their sound sits comfortably in between my EP and my upcoming album although their general sound is a bit more indie-pop. My free track "Cardboard Skies" is eerily similar to one of their biggest singles "My body". All coincidental of course.

I'm not sure if a "one size fits all" squeeze page with slight modifications can work for targeting JB, QOTSA and YTG fans and other bands for that matter. They all seem to have very distinct qualities set apart from one another. It just feels like I need to wear a different mask for every audience I'm targeting. Its rather tiring. 

If you can steer me in the right direction, that would be awesome. Thanks guys.

Jean  

The 20% unsubcribe rate you mention in your second thread is another indicator that something is turning them off and they are not getting what they expected. That is a high unsubscribe rate this early in. What are your open rates and click through rates like on the emails?

Hey Jean, you posted a number of different thoughts. I'll chime in with my impressions in context. Keep in mind, these are just impressions from a person who is not in there working the campaigns with you. No matter what I say, it always boild down to "if something doesn't work, try something else." eventually something works better. Then build upon that with more tests to keep the needle moving in the right direction.

Jean Morrison said
Hi John

At the end of it all (about 6 days of running the ad), My QOTSA ad set CTR(Link click through rate) was 3.32% and the JB ad set was 3.12%. 

Those are good click through rates. Not insane, but good. 

These were the best performing ads within each ad set. Although two of the JB ads were pretty close. 

The images look good and I can see the ads being enticing to fans of Jeff Buckley. The biggest issue I see is that the copy just sort of makes half of a statement. You tell me to imagine if Jeff Buckley used QOTSA as his back up band. But then don't really offer any context. What may be happening is that people actually think this is a link to some unreleased JB or QOTSA track, only to be disappointed or feel like there was a bait and switch taking place which then turns them off. That could explain the strng CTR but the week conversion rate. But it's just a guess. By making it clear in the ad that this is linking to an artist that combines qualities of both (like your headline on the squeeze page does), you might do a better job of setting expectations appropriately, which will in turn help FB's algorithm. But again, just a guess.

Regarding the dark slick aspect, I thought that may be the case so I switched the landing page from jeanmorrisonmusic.com/free-music to jeanmorrison.net for the last 2 days of the campaign (from a designed background to a clean white background - I did also change the image, so difficult to judge what turned people off). But after changing to the white background squeeze page, conversions actually got worse. They went from 5% to 3.5% which really confused me. 

A couple things here... when you change the image, and even the font case from all caps to normal, you are comparing apples to oranges to an extent. You also can't just edit a url like that in the middle of a campaign. That almost always kills the campaign and drives results down. That said, I wouldn't be shocked to hear that the slicker page performs better. It's just one of the first places I would look when something is wrong. But you would need a cleaner test.

Two of the total five people that unsubscribed left feedback. One said "signed up because the propaganda said you sounded like Jeff Buckley with QOTSA back up band... the two free songs proved that was lying. Not interested in an artist that blatantly lies like that to expand your audience." and the other simply said "Too many emails"

It's typically a good idea to ignore comments like this unless you see the same thing pop up over and over again. The "too many emails" comment is very normal. The other one would be a good indicator of the expectations mismatch I referenced earlier, if you heard it repeatedly.

I'm not sure what percentage this is but 4 people clicked the link in the first blog post email. Another 4 people clicked the link in the second blog post email and no one has clicked on the email links within the three LTO email offers. Here is a screenshot of the email open rates.

   

How many people are on your list exactly? I need to know that in order to have an opinion. The open rates don't look that off. My apologies if you've already mentioned it. I don't recall.

Hi jean, if you can do me a favour and try and limit each thread to one primary question that would help a lot. It makes it easier to respond and easier for others to find the information they are looking for using the search feature. There are a lot of questions to tackle here. For this one however, I have answered in context below.

Jean Morrison said
Sorry about the formatting thing in the last thread. Not sure what happened.

By making it clear in the ad that this is linking to an artist that combines qualities of both (like your headline on the squeeze page does), you might do a better job of setting expectations appropriately, which will in turn help FB’s algorithm. But again, just a guess.

Just thought you should know my objective for this campaign was traffic so I had no way of telling which of the 2 audiences converted better.

I think you may be right there with setting expectations right out of the gate. I’ll do that going forward, thanks.

It's very important that you only select one audience per ad set no matter what the objective is. This is explained in MMM and here in the IC. Otherwise you have no ability to know what is helping or hurting results, and FB's algorithm cannot hone in on the ideal segment as easily.

“You also can’t just edit a url like that in the middle of a campaign.”

- I’ve only gone through MMM 4.0 and not MAW yet. I don’t recall you mentioning these rules in MMM 4.0. Perhaps you mention it in MAW. Do you suggest I first go through that course then before continuing running my ads?

I believe I do mention this in MMM but I don't recall for certain. It is definitely mentioned here in the IC. But I know there is a lot to go through.

It’s typically a good idea to ignore comments like this unless you see the same thing pop up over and over again. The “too many emails” comment is very normal. The other one would be a good indicator of the expectations mismatch I referenced earlier, if you heard it repeatedly.

- As of this writing, 7 people have now unsubscribed from a total of 26 subscribers. I am concerned about the ‘propaganda’ comment because it was something I was concerned about right from the beginning of this thread over a year ago. The EP I am selling right out the gate as my LTO does not sound like Jeff Buckley using QOTSA as a back up band. However I think the free single does. Although no one has even clicked the LTO offer or the link in the first email that links to my EP sales page. So, on that note do you think it's safe to presume that the EP’s sound has little, if nothing to do with the extremely high unsubscribe rate? Is there a way to see detailed stats of everyone thats visited my sales page/blog posts with geographical data, time spent on page etc? That way it’ll be easier for me to diagnose what’s turning people off within the funnel. Because what I am selling right out of the gate is incongruent with these audiences, how do you suggest I set up the funnel in a way that they can still connect with me and the music. I mentioned placing an email in the funnel somewhere sampling the upcoming album, but you didn’t comment on that. Do you think that’s a good idea? However, the album is a way off from the pre-order stage so it won’t be a sales email.

26 people is just not enough to really come to use as a bases for any conclusions. Statistical significance doesn't start to really expose any reliable patterns until you are in the hundreds. Still, 7 out of 26 is a very high number and it's an indication that something is wrong. One unlikely possibility is that the addresses some people are adding are fake and Aweber is automatically unsubscribing them after they bounce more than once. You would need to call them to see if this is even how things are set up on there end. I'm not sure if they auto unsubscribe people when they bounce too many times or not. And this would only be possible if you had confirmed opt in off.

You can see time on site by installing something like Google Analytics or Clicky.

I agree that it would be unlikely that the other music would be causing the unsubscribe rate. It's more likely a general market to message mismatch, which boils down to targeting, and the mix of multiple audiences into one ad set might be contributing to the problem. For example, It's conceivable that JB fans like the music, but QOTSA fans don't. The two tribes have very different sensibilities.

By separating your audiences and monitoring stats you will get a better sense of how to set up an effective funnel.

I wouldn't personally confuse people with an email about an album that is not available. It's all about focusing the list and walking each prospect towards making an initial purchase now.

How many people are on your list exactly? I need to know that in order to have an opinion. The open rates don’t look that off.

- A total of 26 came through with 7 unsubscribes. So if 4 people clicked the link in the first and second blog post email that would be a 25% link open rate per blog post email. Thats pretty good right? However not a single subscriber has clicked an LTO link in the last 3 emails of the funnel. Does that mean that the blog posts weren’t captivating enough? By the way, did you get a second to quickly scan through my blog posts?

That's just not enough people to come to any conclusions. Especially if half of them have not even reached the LTO page.

Reading blog posts is very time consuming and is really only something I can do as part of consulting sessions. However I did scan them. They seem well written. The only negatives I can see is that they are a bit personal and one sided, in the sense that we need to assume that these people don't care about you yet. The purpose of the blog post is to make them care. To help with this it can be beneficial to start off in the middle of teh story with some more universal drama, then back up and tell the story, and conclude with some expression of transformation that will also appeal to your audience. There are a lot of "I"s in the post. If you think of yourself like a travel writer you can tell a personal story from a more universal place.

For example "The first time I heard Nirvana I felt..." could become... "Do you remember the first time Nirvana appeared on the MTV video line up? The sound was like nothing any of us had ever heard"... Or whatever. The sentiment is the same. But the second approach is more inviting and it doesn't feel like I am being asked to listen to the life story of someone I haven't yet invested in.

Other possible issues are that the light font on the dark background plays a bit of havoc on the eyes and you see the impression of the words even after you look away from the screen.

The links to the album are also almost impossible to see. I had to hover over it before I was even sure there was a link there.

Only testing will tell you if those headlines will convert well, but I’m not personally crazy about any of them. The emphasis is on floating above a stadium with your mouth open. For those to work there needs to be an existing group of people consciously craving that experience. I’m not sure that is the case. At least on any universal level.

The squeeze page seems to be my achilles heel. I spent an entire day coming up with those headlines researching articles written about JB and aligning myself with that, watching both squeeze page bootcamp videos in their entirety as well as your USP video. I really appreciate your blunt honesty and I’m not offended or anything, I just don’t know what else to do.

How do you suggest I move forward from here? Do I start a new campaign from fresh? If you can please let me know in detail what steps you think I should take. I'd really appreciate that.

I know I'm that annoying kid in the classroom that asks a million questions but it’s the only way I learn.

Thanks again John  

No problem. I know you're just trying to crack it. 

Lets break this down... 

Lets forget QOTSA for a moment because I think they may ultimately be too heavy to be your ideal audience. What is it that floors you about Jeff Buckley's music? Try to answer that in just a few sentences. Feel free to answer the question about a couple of your key influences. Maybe I can offer some feedback after hearing your answer in plain English.

As an aside... Has anyone ever mention Blind Melon as a possible targeting option? I just listened to Cardboard Skies again and that was the first thing I thought of. It's possible I already have and I'm just forgetting.

But the long and short of what to do is to come up with a 4 or 5 potential headlines, split test them all as ad copy with no regard for how they actually perform, using dynamic creative. Then take the best performing ad copy and use it as your squeeze page copy. That's how I start most campaigns.